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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tL.A. Galaxy’s Harbor Miller, right, defends against CF Montreal’s Daniel Rios during first half MLS action in Montreal, on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Graham Hughes<\/p>\n
With other teams ahead of them in the standings dropping points, Montreal cannot afford to give away draws when three points are within reach. Despite these missed opportunities, just three points separate them from the final post-season spot, currently held by Orlando City SC.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne point is not what we wanted. Everyone gave everything tonight, players were cramping and running for 97 minutes,\u201d said Rios, who scored his 25th regular-season MLS goal. \u201cEveryone else is dropping points, but we have to focus on what we\u2019re doing; we will be fighting until the end. Three points away from ninth place \u2026 we\u2019re still in the run for this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both teams opened the game cautiously, trading stints of possession, but toward the quarter-hour mark Montreal began exercising control over the ball, while the Galaxy looked to hit back on the counter.<\/p>\n
Montreal\u2019s control paid off quickly as the persistent pressure set the stage for Rios to get on the end of a rebound spilled by goalkeeper James Marcinkowski and open the scoring in the 16th minute.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles replied almost immediately, using the counterattack to its advantage and jumping on a rebound. After driving the ball through the Montreal midfield, Kyogo Furuhashi\u2019s shot forced Thomas Gillier to spill the ball into the path of Ramos, who made no mistake.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told the guys at halftime \u2018we can lose by not playing well, because we can\u2019t always be good, but we cannot lose because we lacked intensity,’\u201d said Montreal head coach Philippe Eullaffroy. \u201cWe are a team that must set the tone \u2026 we cannot let the opponent set it, and that happened in the first half.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tension in the stadium increased even more just before halftime when Matty Longstaff was brought down in the penalty area, but the referee waved play on and declined to award the hosts a penalty.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are almost 20,000 people who saw the replay 15 times, and 97 per cent are certain \u2014 I took a poll \u2014 that it was a penalty. So there are 19,000 idiots in attendance,\u201d said Eullaffroy sarcastically after the game, visibly upset with the officiating crew\u2019s lack of communication.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get the impression that (the officials) treat us like less than nothing; there is a total lack of respect. When we get the impression with these guys that we are ignorant of the game, it\u2019s problematic, and it\u2019s not the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n
PRO Referees released their reasoning after the game, stating that \u201cBoth the referee in real time and the VAR on checking the incident determined that the contact did not constitute an offence of sufficient severity to warrant the award of a penalty kick.\u201d<\/p>\n
It took the Galaxy just 2 1\/2 minutes to take the lead in the second half, when a defensive mishap following a corner led to Yoshida sending an audacious backheel into the bottom right corner.<\/p>\n
At the hour mark and still trailing by a goal, Montreal brought on Sanchez to the delight of the Stade Saputo crowd for his first minutes with the club at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe impact was immediate. He stepped onto the field and he\u2019s a playmaker, he\u2019s moving around and it\u2019s amazing to have a player like this,\u201d said Rios. \u201cEveryone was very excited to see Alexis, he\u2019s played in some of the biggest clubs in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Los Angeles\u2019 task of defending their one-goal lead became significantly harder with 20 minutes left when Marcinkowski was sent off for denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity after bringing down Owusu as the last man back.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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Owusu would also be the man to take advantage of the numerical advantage less than 10 minutes later. Montreal\u2019s leading scorer found the back of the net for the fourth straight game when he rose above the defender and met Luca Petrasso\u2019s cross with a perfectly placed header, tying the game at 2-2.<\/p>\n
\u00a0UP NEXT<\/p>\n
Galaxy: Visits San Diego FC on Saturday, Aug. 29.<\/p>\n
Montreal: Visits Inter Miami on Saturday, Aug. 29.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 22, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2013 The MLS homecoming party for Alexis Sanchez was spoiled as his CF Montreal side needed a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-868429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868429","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=868429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}