Crushing loss to Inter Miami underlines deeper issues for CF Montreal

Saturday’s humbling 7-1 loss to Lionel Messi and Inter Miami in Florida was one of the most embarrassing showings by Montreal in club history, another humiliating blow to a side that has stumbled and bumbled its way through the 2026 MLS season.

Montreal lost six of its opening seven matches of the campaign, leading to former coach Marco Donadel paying the ultimate price when he was fired and replaced by interim boss Philippe Eullaffroy. The Frenchman won his first two games in charge, but Montreal soon reverted to its old ways — it has just two victories in its last 13 matches since May 2.

Eullaffroy’s side currently sits second-to-last in the Eastern Conference and third from bottom in the overall league standings. And while they’re only four points below the playoff line, it’s difficult to envision Montreal (averaging 0.95 points per game) leapfrogging five teams over the final 12 matches of the regular season to clinch the ninth and final post-season berth in the Eastern Conference.

Brayan Ceballos was acquired in a trade with the New England Revolution last month in the hope that he could help shore things up at the back. The Colombian centre back, who was New England’s defender of the year for 2025, has his work cut out to whip this defence into shape. Montreal has the fourth-worst defensive record in MLS with 46 goals conceded — 2.09 goals against per game.

Things haven’t been much better on the offensive side. With just 30 goals to its credit, Montreal has the third-worst attack in the East — 1.36 goals scored per match. German striker Prince Owusu’s 13 goals account for a whopping 43 per cent of the team’s output in 2026. Nobody else on the squad is even close to double digits in goals — Wikelman Carmona ranks second in scoring with four goals. Only two other teams in the league have a worse goal difference than Montreal’s (minus-16).

Montreal made headlines earlier this month when it signed free agent forward Alexis Sánchez to a designated player contract. Chile’s all-time top scorer arrived in MLS with an impressive resume, having scored 198 goals during an 18-year spell with a number of European clubs, including Arsenal and FC Barcelona.

But Sánchez is coming off three rather anonymous seasons in Europe in which he scored eight goals combined for Inter Milan, Udinese and Valencia. At 37, Sánchez has also looked every bit of his age in MLS — he’s been limited to just three substitute appearances totalling 69 minutes. The Chilean has recorded just a single shot (and it wasn’t even on target) and looked completely ineffective in helping Montreal during a 30-minute cameo against Miami.

Things are equally chaotic off the pitch for Montreal and have been for some time. Eullaffroy is Montreal’s 12th coach since it joined MLS in 2012. Mauro Biello is the only one who managed to stick around for two full calendar years. Only four coaches have lasted 50 games in MLS. The constant turnover has led to complete chaos for a team whose last playoff win came in 2022.

The coaching carousel has been only part of Montreal’s problems.