In a rematch from the 2024 Major League Soccer wild card round, Atlanta United welcome CF Montreal to Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday in the opening game of the 2025 regular season for both teams.
When these sides met for a spot in the opening round of the playoffs last year, the Five Stripes pulled out a narrow 5-4 shootout victory after that game ended in a 2-2 draw.
Match preview
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A regular season that looked destined for failure for a while picked up steam in the nick of time for Atlanta, as they earned points in five of their final six MLS fixtures in 2024 before the playoffs.
That was enough to book them a place in the post-season for a second time in three years, though they ended the previous regular season with 11 points fewer than they had in 2023.
After another off-season of big spending, while also hiring a former MLS Cup-winning head coach in Ronny Deila, the bar will undoubtedly be significantly higher for this team 2025.
One of the issues that held them back last season was a lack of chance creators in the midfield and quality in the attacking third, as they have netted fewer than 50 goals in two of their previous three regular seasons.
In 2024, Atlanta won a mere six matches as the home team in this competition, the fewest for them since the 2020 COVID season, when they claimed just four triumphs.
Last season, the Five Stripes won just one of their four MLS matches played against Canadian teams in the regular season, claiming a 2-1 triumph at home to Toronto in late June.
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The 2024 season was a complicated one to assess on the CF Montreal side, as they had plenty of ups mixed in with their share of downs.
Laurent Courtois's men failed to advance beyond the quarter-finals of the Canadian Championship, but they came on strong near the end of the MLS campaign, winning four of their last five contests.
Their squad in 2025 is littered with raw talent but mostly unproven at this level, which will leave it up to Courtois, a former manager for the Columbus Crew II team, to try and mould them into MLS-level players sooner rather than later.
As we have become accustomed to seeing in recent times, Le CFM were poor away from home once again last year, winning just three matches in this competition as the visitors, which was actually one more than in 2023.
It was only the pre-season, but we saw a sharper defensive unit in those four games played this year, as they conceded just a single goal in each encounter.
Le CFM have points in two of their previous three fixtures against Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, claiming a 2-1 victory in their last visit in October.
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Team News
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One of the many big signings Atlanta made in the off-season was bringing back their former all-star midfielder Miguel Almiron from Newcastle United, while they also added Mateusz Klich of DC United and Middlesbrough's Emmanuel Latte Lath.
Their veteran midfielder Dax McCarty retired, Tyler Wolff was traded to Real Salt Lake, Santiago Sosa was transferred to Racing Club, and they declined to pick up the option of Franco Ibarra.
Saba Lobzhanidze led the team with 10 goals in the last regular season, while Brad Guzan played a huge part in their opening-round upset versus Inter Miami, making seven saves in that decisive third-game triumph (3-2).
Montreal added Fabian Herbers from the Chicago Fire in free agency, acquired Jalen Neal from the MLS Cup-winning Los Angeles Galaxy and signed Giacomo Vrioni from the New England Revolution and Prince Owusu from arch-rivals Toronto.
They said goodbye to former Atlanta United and MLS Golden Boot winner Josef Martinez, along with Raheem Edwards, who joined the New York Red Bulls, while Gabriele Corbo left to sign with Cordoba in the Spanish second division and Matias Coccaro was loaned to Atlas in Liga MX.
After Martinez, their next highest goalscorer in the regular season was Sunusi Ibrahim who had six, while Bryce Duke contributed four assists in 2024.
Atlanta United possible starting lineup:
Guzan; Lennon, Gregersen, Williams, Amador; Slisz, Klich; Almiron, Miranchuk, Lobzhanidze; Latte Lath
CF Montreal possible starting lineup:
Sirois; Campbell, Waterman, Neal; Marshall-Rutty, Saliba, Piette, Herbers; Duke, Clark; Vrioni
We say: Atlanta United 3-2 CF Montreal
These two sides boast some high-quality attackers, while neither look to be that much better on the back end when compared to 2024.
That said, we believe Atlanta's experience will win this opening match for them, as many of their players have experience in finding a way to get ahead in what could be a match littered with opportunities for both sides.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joel Lefevre
