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<\/p>\n\u201cWell, if the best player in the world is not playing against you, I think it\u2019s a good thing,\u201d said interim Montreal head coach Philippe Eullaffroy.<\/p>\n
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The only downside, Eullaffroy added, is that Montreal (4-9-3) has little game tape of Miami (10-2-4) without Messi under new coach Guillermo Hoyos. Miami also signed Brazilian midfielder Casemiro this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t really know what type of team we\u2019re going to have in front of us. Still, Messi or no Messi, Casemiro or no Casemiro,\u201d Eullaffroy said. \u201cThey are a very good team, and they won (3-2 on Wednesday against Chicago Fire FC) without them, so they have good momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miami\u2019s visit comes at a challenging stretch in the schedule, with Montreal returning from a three-week World Cup break. Montreal was welcomed back with a two-legged Canadian Championship tie, a rivalry match against Toronto FC, and now three consecutive games against Eastern Conference heavyweights.<\/p>\n
Between fixture congestion and a glaring lack of offensive punch, an already thin squad is being pushed to its limit.<\/p>\n
Montreal lost 1-0 to Nashville SC on Wednesday, leaving the club with very little time to rest and prepare for Miami.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not easy to manage. It\u2019s also a nice thing to play a lot of games, but for a team like us, we don\u2019t have 30 players in our roster and then we need to prepare the games maybe more than the other teams because collectively we need to be very, very, very good,\u201d said Eullaffroy. \u201cWhen you\u2019re playing a lot of games like that, you don\u2019t really have time to prepare the games well. So, preparing for the Miami game is going to be one practice, and then that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now starting a three-game homestand, Montreal will have to lean on one of the most reliable elements since Eullaffroy became interim head coach: their home form. In the eight games at Stade Saputo, Eullaffroy\u2019s men have lost just once and won five times, scoring 16 goals across all competitions.<\/p>\n
Montreal sits only four points outside the Eastern Conference playoff picture despite its historically poor start to the season. The playoff race has historically been chaotic as teams often drop points when fixture congestion and fatigue set in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a lot of the players had had a collective idea of we want to make Saputo a fortress. We want to make it difficult for teams to come here and get points, even if that\u2019s one point,\u201d said defender Jalen Neal. \u201cObviously, we expect three points every time we\u2019re playing at Saputo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Between injuries and departures, Montreal\u2019s squad is dangerously thin heading into Saturday\u2019s game. The club has brought in midfielder Dani Pereira from Austin FC and defender Brayan Ceballos from the New England Revolution \u2014 acquired Friday \u2014 during the summer transfer window.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 24, 2026.<\/p>\n
Elias Grigoriadis, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWell, if the best player in the world is not playing against you, I think it\u2019s a good…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":823962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-823961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}