As Bologna thrive, sister club CF Montreal have been left in the dust | MLS

When the then Montreal Impact was renamed Club de Foot Montréal in 2021, its supporters did not hesitate to show their disdain.

“This is the dismantling of a dream,” a statement from a group of supporters read in part. “We are becoming a bland club, just like many others have become.”

Fans took the protest to home games, where they vandalized a sign with the new logo – a sort of modern, minimalist hybrid of a snowflake and a sphincter. Co-designer Justin Kingsley defended the badge against slang connotations associating snowflakes with pushovers.

“Fine. Go ahead. Insult us,” Kingsley said. “Underestimate us, underestimate our team and our coach. I invite you to do so. Consider a snowflake a weak thing? Fine. …but when we come together, we form this impenetrable wall. Good luck to you in defeating our storm, our blizzard.”

That luck hasn’t been needed for a while, and teams didn’t even have to be hot to get three points against these supposed snowflakes. On Saturday, CF Montreal lost 2-1 to the Philadelphia Union, reigning Supporters Shield winner, who had not yet won this season.

Montreal has long lagged at the bottom of the MLS hierarchy, but five defeats in its first six games (including a 5-0 drubbing and two 3-0 defeats) have left the Quebec club in familiar, disastrous territory.

The hosts broke league customs and refused to make head coach Marco Donadel or any other staff or players available to the media, sounding the alarm instead of the literal cast iron 1,500 pounds in the supporters’ bank.

On Sunday, Montreal did what it does with unprecedented regularity in this league. They announced another coaching change; Donadel left, as did some of his assistants.

Donadel’s appointment was curious, following an interim period in which he collected just 34 points in 35 games in all competitions. That 0.97 points per game rate was the lowest among the 11 men who have led Montreal since their MLS debut in 2012, and it fell to 0.88 by the time he was shown the door after seven games this season.

None of these 11 coaches lasted even 95 games on the job. Only one (Mauro Biello) remained in office for two full calendar years. Their most successful appointment, Wilfried Nancy, leads the group with 1.4 points per game. But even that is not the case that GOOD; last season, 1.4 points per game would not have gotten the East into the playoffs.

During MLS’s 13 seasons, Montreal struggled to keep pace with MLS as the league evolved. The club has only reached the first round of the playoffs four times (the last time under Nancy in 2022), with two further trips to the play-off round. They never announced a record signing, a custom these days in MLS, although clubs keep the exact amount secret. Transfermarkt assumes that no signing has cost the team more than $4 million.

In 2025, their payroll ($12 million) was comfortably the lowest in the league. It wouldn’t be such a setback if their academy was humming, but their roster only has three local products with a total of 1,737 MLS minutes logged.

Of course, the team’s owner, Joey Saputo, has made a considerable investment since Montreal’s debut in MLS: Bologna FC, the Italian Serie A club of which he has been majority shareholder and president since October 2014. Two of his sons, Luca and Simone, now share responsibility at the top of the Montreal sports hierarchy. Another son, Jesse, transferred from Montreal’s academy to Bologna’s in 2023. No soccer group has clearer family ties, but the MLS branch clearly doesn’t benefit much from its association with its Serie A sibling, which played in the Champions League and won the Coppa Italia last season.

For a sports market that is only two decades removed from the painful move of baseball’s beloved Expos, CF Montreal has become a disturbing and neglected relic begging for restoration.

Timbers benefit from LAFC rotation

Los Angeles FC entered the weekend as the only MLS team without conceding a goal this season. The Portland Timbers entered Saturday’s game winless in five, with Phil Neville kicking a billboard after a recent draw. So, true to MLS custom, both trends ended in unison: Timbers 2-1 LAFC.

After largely piloting his starting XI through an unbeaten start to the championship and a continental campaign, Marc Dos Santos finally rotated: Son Heung-min, Hugo Lloris and Sergi Palencia were all healthy absentees from the matchday squad. In his MLS debut, 21-year-old local goalkeeper Cabral Carter impressed, making a triple save to prevent Portland from doubling its early lead. Another academy product, 17-year-old Jude Terry (also a Guardian Next Generation winner), scored his first MLS goal brilliantly with a curling equalizer.

Portland bravely fought back, eventually finding a winner in the final minute. Canadian winger Jacob Shaffelburg misread a cross with right-back Brandon Bye firing it back into the heart of the box where Kevin Kelsy provided the necessary push home. The Timbers faithful erupted as their team moved closer to the playoff positions it expects to hold every year.

Neville’s relief was evident after the final whistle. Even at their best in the mid-2010s, the Timbers could surely win in ugly fashion. Given LAFC’s roster turnover, this was a game Portland simply couldn’t afford to leave with dropped points. Mission accomplished.

Second season Bruce

Throughout his brilliant career, Bruce Arena has shown the talent to succeed in his second season. After leading DC United to a surprise MLS Cup in the league’s first year, his team was a legitimate juggernaut in winning the league’s first domestic double in 1997. His second full year with the LA Galaxy saw David Beckham win his first Supporters’ Shield, kicking off another dynasty. In his second year with the New England Revolution, they set a new single-season points record.

He’s only seven games into his second year with San Jose, but he’s already pulled off a trick that has proven difficult for his recent predecessors: He’s made the Quakes fun And always good. While the sample sizes are still too small for many general assessments, their place in the rankings and the underlying numbers support them: a difference of +9.4 xG, according to American Soccer Analysis, one of two teams (Vancouver, +13.6) with a margin greater than +5.0.

San Jose is one of two teams with 18 points in the young season, also tied for the fewest goals conceded (two) so far. The construction of the team follows a model that Arena (who also leads recruitment) has refined step by step: a core of largely domestic players supplemented by a few foreign stars. Brazilian goalkeeper Daniel has been in his best form under Arena, while Timo Werner and Ronaldo Vieira are among the best options at their position in the entire league.

The national contingent is also doing its part. Niko Tsakiris is realizing his great potential and is one of the most stable opportunity creators in the league. Beau Leroux has quickly become one of the best midfielders in the league, while forward Preston Judd is a reliable line leader with physicality and a knack for creating the space required in close combat to shape his shots. Saturday’s 3-1 victory at Kansas City was without Werner, with all three goals coming from the Nationals veterans: two from Jack Skahan, a 28-year-old winger who has been with the club since 2020, and a third from Dave Romney, a holdover from Arena’s Los Angeles and New England days.

Even though Kansas City isn’t a heavyweight, the Quakes’ early wins over last year’s Western Conference runners-up (Vancouver and San Diego) show they’re not to be taken lightly. This is exactly what Arena does.

Tips

• Inter Miami are now winless in their first two matches at Nu Stadium, after taking a 2-1 lead in the 77th minute against Red Bull New York on Saturday. Michael Bradley’s side still rely heavily on academy products, with standout midfield prospect Adri Mehmeti equalizing for his first MLS goal. Miami’s next home game is April 25, with New England looking to continue the spoiler streak.

• Colorado bounced back from last week’s wild loss in Toronto with another chaotic game. The Rapids outlasted Houston in a 6-2 game, with five goals starting in the 69th minute. Colorado’s 19 goals so far this year are the most in MLS, tied with Vancouver after their more modest 2-0 win over NYC FC.

• MLS teams join the US Open Cup field this week, with 16 teams competing in the third round of the tournament. MLS has had only partial participation since the cup resumed after Covid-19 led to the cancellation of two installments, with defending champion Nashville SC among the non-participants due to qualifying for the Concacaf Champions Cup. Four MLS teams will face a lower division opponent within their state: Orlando (away at Naples FC in the third division), NYC FC (at Westchester SC in the third division), Charlotte (hosting the Charlotte Independence in the third division) and Houston (hosting the El Paso Locomotive in the second division).