We might have forgotten, but CF Montreal is celebrating its 30th anniversary this season. The Montrealers on the field were not counting the number of candles they would place on the cake, but rather the minutes remaining in the game.

After a dramatic 5-0 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps last Saturday, CFM have been upgraded again. This time it was in the 50th minute that the game was folded.

With an unequivocal 4-0 loss to the New England Revolution on Saturday night, CFM is off to its worst start to the season since entering MLS. It comes down to five losses in six games and a victory snatched in stoppage time while his rival played ten. Only the 2014 edition started its season with three points in six games, but it had only suffered three losses.

This is not entirely the result of chance, since the latest performances have in no way indicated that the tide was going to turn.

This failure can also be seen defensively, as the Montreal XI allowed 16 goals, a record in MLS. As Losada said, “It’s impossible to win when you always have to score four goals.”

The problem is that teams move into CFM’s defensive block “like it’s hot butter,” noted right-back Aaron Herrera, who also called the team’s play “soft.”

Still, defense and defensive midfielders were to be Montreal’s cornerstone this season. Only Alistair Johnston left the club and he was replaced by a well-established MLS player in Herrera. Notwithstanding, the results are not present and the defenders are aware.

“We let Hernán down a bit,” admitted central defender Kamal Miller. He clearly had to have higher expectations for Joel [Waterman], Rudy [Camacho] and me. We haven’t really had a good start to the season. We have to go back to the drawing board. »

The defense didn’t do the job – talk to Dylan Borrero, who had all the time in the world to send a perfect curl shot into the top corner and open the scoring, or Bobby Wood, who took advantage of a downright burlesque sequence where Waterman flew off during a duel and where Miller was foiled before being left behind on the ground.

Certainly. But Impact head coach Hernán Losada draws a more general conclusion.

If the play on the pitch was not in tune, the team members were of the same opinion regarding the performances. “We were bad,” Losada said. “The results are unforgivable,” Miller added.

Proof that the CFM is in a bad patch, Losada confided that it was his worst period as a professional coach: “We have to learn from it. I am the first responsible. The team and I have to do some introspection, because it’s not enough. »

Already struggling with several major injuries such as captain Samuel Piette, Lassi Lappalainen and goalkeeper James Pantemis, the CFM may have lost another key cog during the game. Romell Quioto, who needed the help of the healers twice in the first half, did not return to action for the second half.

Losada said he didn’t want to use the injury situation as an excuse, but said it was a factor to consider since there is no consistency in his starting XI. Likewise for games on the road, although he is looking forward to playing at home.

In fact, the CFM will have the chance to recover when they return to Stade Saputo next Saturday against the fragile D.C. United. Again, there’s no excuse not to take a point from Wayne Rooney’s men, but…

Despite everything, Miller explained that “morale is good” in the ranks of Montrealers. In this burst of positivism, Losada added that the club “can still do something this season” as it is early in the schedule and “anything can happen in this competition”.

Indeed, only six games out of 34 have been played in MLS. But this false start will certainly be a pebble in the shoes of Montreal in the final sprint.