MONTREAL – FC Montreal will face the Hammerheads FC in Wilmington, this Sunday at 3pm EDT at Legion Stadium, in the first of five straight games on the road for the Montreal team.
“I’m hungry for three points,” said defender Aron Mkungilwa. “It’s the first of a long series of away games, so we want to win and put on a good performance. We are confident; we have a really good group. It will be important to stay connected and to work together. It’s in these moments that we bond, even if we already have strong links together.”
The team started its season with two losses at the Olympic Stadium. The first one was a 1-0 loss to Bethlehem Steel FC and the second one a 2-1 defeat against Toronto FC II. Both games generated a feeling that the team could have done better.
“The group has the mentality of a team that wants to prove that its results don’t show its current level,” said head coach Philippe Eullaffroy. “They want to prove it. We lost for reasons that they know, but they want to show that they deserve points. We take the next five games as if it were a small league.”
In the last game, winger Ballou Jean-Yves Tabla scored his first goal of the year, also the first FC Montreal goal in 2016, on an assist from forward Charles Joly.
As for Wilmington, the Hammerheads won their first game of the season 2-1 against Orlando City B. Since then, they tied 0-0 against the Richmond Kickers and lost 2-1 against the Charleston Battery in their last game.
Logan Miller, Bruno Caldini Perone and Ashani Fairclough were the three scorers for the team. The Hammerheads’ starting goalkeeper, John Smits, also had a short loan stint with the Montreal Impact in 2015 in the away game of the CONCACAF Champions League Final at Estadio Azteca, against Club América. He backed starting goalkeeper Evan Bush on the bench while Eric Kronberg and Maxime Crépeau were not available.
In 2015, FC Montreal lost 2-1 in its first meeting with Wilmington at home and then tied 0-0 in its second game on the road.
Sunday’s game at 3pm will also be available via live streaming at www.montrealimpact.com.
