CF Montreal and Inter Miami will both feature some new looks when they face off to open the 2023 season on Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Montreal, which amassed 20 wins and 65 points last year on the way to the Eastern Conference semifinals, will have to come together quickly with plenty of new parts. The team is in rebuilding mode after allowing stars Djordje Mihailovic, Ismael Kone and Alistair Johnston to leave for clubs in Europe and trading Kei Kamara, MLS’s third all-time leading scorer, to Chicago on Friday afternoon.
Romell Quioto is Montreal’s top returning scorer, with 15 goals and six assists in 2022.
Montreal also has a new man leading the team, as Hernan Losada took over as coach when Wilfried Nancy left in the offseason to helm Columbus. The team is expected to employ a more vertical attack and be much more aggressive than it was under Nancy.
“Coach wants to play more vertically and take more risks,” Montreal defender Kamal Miller said. “Last year, we kept the ball but didn’t really hurt the opponent sometimes so (Losada) is just trying to get the most out of us.”
Miami is also a club in transition — and likely to be a completely different team by midseason than the one that takes the field Saturday.
Rumors are rampant that Lionel Messi, the world’s best soccer player, is eying a contract with Miami when his current pact with Paris Saint-Germain expires in June. And there’s plenty of chatter that Barcelona captain Sergio Busquets is also in talks with Inter Miami and that he could join the team as early as this summer.
Miami coach Phil Neville can’t wait to see what happens in the summer but has to have his team ready to play now.
“You break the season into two, from now until July, and then we know in July we have the potential to strengthen,” Neville said. “But July doesn’t matter now. We’ve got to start well. This franchise has not done that, and we want to break that mold.”
Miami earned a berth in the MLS playoffs last year with 14 wins and a sixth-place finish in the East but had to replace the retired Gonzalo Higuain and former league MVP Alejandro Pozuelo, who left in free agency.
In their stead, Miami signed former league MVP Josef Martinez from Atlanta and has reinforced a number of other positions. Martinez will be paired in the attack with the dynamic Leonardo Campana, the 22-year-old who scored 11 goals in his debut season in 2022.
The two teams have some familiarity with each other after squaring off in a preseason friendly last week that Montreal won 2-1.
–Field Level Media