CF Montréal will send off their home crowd in 2025 with a testy clash against Jacob Shaffelburg’s Nashville SC, and perhaps a shot at history.
The Bleu-blanc-noir come in on the crest of their biggest result of the season, last weekend’s stunning 4-1 romp in Charlotte. Dante Sealy bagged a brace, Fabian Herbers reached 20 career MLS goals, and Prince Owusu tied Nacho Piatti’s record for goals scored on the road in one season with his ninth in a Montréal shirt.
This weekend, Montréal chase a new milestone: their 100th MLS win at Stade Saputo.
Since their first MLS home fixture on June 16, 2012, CFMTL’s record stands at 99-65-36. Historically, though, the Bleu-blanc-noir have struggled against Nashville, with an overall record of 1-6-3 (6 goals for, 16 against) and just 1-2-1 at home (1 goal for, 2 against) hints at how steep the climb might be.
Interim head coach Marco Donadel is suspended for Saturday. David Sauvry will take charge and will have a shorter bench than he’d like. Samuel Piette and Dawid Bugaj are injured. Giacomo Vrioni, Hennadii Synchuk, and Efrain Morales are not available. Sunusi Ibrahim missed Wednesday and Thursday’s training sessions for personal reasons, but according to French reports will be available.
“All week, we always prepare everything together, that won’t change,” Sauvry said. “Marco told me, ‘be yourself, the group will follow you.’ It’s just me standing up instead of sitting, but at the end of the day, it’ll be the same thing.”
Nashville enters fresh from their landmark U.S. Open Cup triumph. On Wednesday, Shaffelburg’s Tennessee boys, edged Austin FC 2–1 in the final to lift the first trophy in franchise history.
“We prepare the same way for every single game,” said Nashville head coach B.J. Callaghan, who emphasized it was “an absolute team effort” to win their historic first trophy. “We stuck to the way we do it.”
With momentum behind them and a packed crowd expected, Saturday’s match could be a high-stakes finale to the season, one that sadly for Montréal’s playoff ambitions, was over months ago.
