RBNY Goes For First 3-Win Start in Club History: CF Montreal Match Preview

On Sunday, Mar. 8 at Sports Illustrated Stadium, Red Bull New York will look to improve to 3-0-0 on the year when it faces last-place CF Montreal.

Kickoff set for 4:30 PM, Head Coach Michael Bradley and the 2026 Red Bulls could be the first team in club history to open up the season with three straight wins. Statistically speaking, they are facing what should be the weakest opponent Major League Soccer has to offer.

And while the vibes will be on the low side for Montreal, RBNY should have a lot of confidence after securing another victory to remain perfect in the early days of the Bradley era. Not only that, but the driving force of their success on the pitch continues to be the young academy products. Matty Dos Santos (17), Adri Mehmeti (16) and tied-for-the-league-lead-in-goals Julian Hall (16) combined for the first goal in MLS history where three players aged 17 or younger contributed to a single goal.

This will be the 32nd all-time regular season meeting between the Red Bulls and Montreal, with New York holding the advantage with a 16-5-10 mark. At Sports Illustrated Stadium/Red Bull Arena, RBNY holds a 12-2-1 record over Montreal in MLS regular season matches and has gone five games unbeaten against L’Impact (three wins, two draws) going back to 2023.

Let’s take a closer look at the fixture:

CF Montreal At a Glance:

CF Montreal were coming into 2026 with incredibly low expectations and they have met them. No sugarcoating it, they are having the worst imaginable start to a season and it feels like the club is just disinterested now.

The Saputo family appears to have been paying more attention to Bologna and less to Montreal as the years go on, which is such a shame considering the vibrant and impressive soccer culture Montrealers have shown when the team is good.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the good times are on their way back any time soon. CF Montreal dropped their first two matches by a combined score of 0-8. First, it was a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Western Conference giants San Diego FC (that was made worse by a bogus Tomás Avilés red card, to be fair) and then it was a 3-0 humbling to a 10-men Chicago Fire in Matchday 2.

If I could offer one silver lining it’s that Montreal is forced to open up its season with extra matches away from home due to the cold weather. Specifically, they won’t play a home match until Apr. 11, their seventh match of the season. This is adversity they’ve dealt with before (to varying degrees of success) and they’ll have a backload of home matches later in the year.

If the first two matches (and last three seasons) are any indication of what’s to come this season, though, I’d say this opening stretch is going to put Montreal in a hole they will not be able to climb themselves out of.

Head Coach Marco Donadel has had a tough task of making this poorly constructed team greater than the sum of its parts. Since taking over the job in March of 2025 (when the club was 0-1-4), the club has a 6-10-20 record, averaging about 0.79 points per game under Donadel. It’s not working and the team just isn’t good enough.

After a tumultuous offseason where 11 players were sent away from the club, though, CF Montreal has a new feel to its squad. Thomas Gillier is the new permanent first-choice keeper after Jonathan Sirois was sent to Dallas in the offseason. Young center backs Efrain Morales and Jalen Neal started in the loss to Chicago in Avilés’s absence, while former Real Salt Lake defender Brayan Vera has been primarily used as a left back. Bode Hidalgo and 18-year-old Aleksandr Guboglo have traded turns at the right back position, with the youngster looking the more fit for the role.

Central midfield has been a bit of a disaster, with Victor Loturi underwhelming in the opening two matches. He’s been paired to both club legend Samuel Piette and Matty Longstaff, who has at least looked like himself, but the double pivot has not been able to dictate either game they’ve played in.

In front of them, there just unfortunately isn’t enough to write home about. Ivan Jaime is an exciting attacking player on loan from Porto until June, but just hasn’t found a home yet in this side. Prince Owusu is a quality striker but suffers from not receiving any service, leading him to have mustered only one shot through 150 minutes of play this year for a measly 0.07 expected goals.

Dagur Dan Thorhallsson and 19-year-old Hennadii Synchuk have looked decent as the nominal wingers, but neither have shown that they possess match-altering quality. Honestly, it’s not outside of the realm of possibility that Wiki Carmona gets a sympathy start in his return to Harrison, NJ:

PROJECTED STARTING XI (4-2-3-1):

GK T. Gillier

RB O. Guboglo

CB J. Neal

CB T. Avilés

LB B. Vera

CDM M. Longstaff

CDM V. Loturi

RM H. Synchuk

CAM I. Jaime

LM D. Thorhallsson

ST P. Owusu

And Now Red Bull New York:

I thought the vibes were high last week. Now the entire American soccer landscape is talking about Red Bull New York.

Two wins and a young dynamic trio has made the start of the Michael Bradley era must-see TV for soccer fans across the country. Hey, when a national team legend is winning games by ushering in the next generation, and playing beautiful football doing it, who’s gonna say no?

RBNY followed up their eye-opening away win over Orlando with a less impressive but still controlling 1-0 victory against the New England Revolution in their home opener on Saturday.

And, yes, the teenagers were once again at the center of it. Matty Dos Santos was so good with RBNY II last year, impressed even more during the 2026 preseason and has exceeded expectations in the first two matches of the season, so much so that he earned his Homegrown MLS Contract ahead of schedule. And while looking more than competent defensively, he collected his first MLS goal contribution against the Revs.

Julian Hall is having the breakout year that fans have been waiting for. Since turning pro at 15, the Manhattan native has looked primed for a productive goalscoring season in MLS. We’re only two games in, but the 17-year-old hasn’t just impressed because he’s the joint top scorer of the league, but because of the way he’s scored his three goals.

Armchair Analyst Matt Doyle said it best on The Cooligans this week. “What makes Julian Hall different for his age is he finds tap-ins. He knows how to be in the right place at the right time and that’s the number one skill for any consistent goalscorer because those are the types of goals that don’t dry up.”

I asked Bradley about Hall’s maturity and game/situational intelligence ahead of the match:

“What goes unnoticed is the work against the ball. The pressing, the sprinting, the running, the chasing from top down to make life miserable for the other team’s midfielders. He has been relentless in those ways.”

And another player who has proven to be mature beyond their years, and perhaps the most impressive one of the lot, Adri Mehmeti. His two game-winning assists in as many matches have earned him back-to-back MLS Team of the Matchday honors. But, like Hall, he’s not just impressing people with the statistics, but by the eye test, as well.

A calming presence and a passing threat with a stature about him that already has likened him to Sergio Busquets, the Staten Island native has arguably been RBNY’s most crucial performer through its first two games this season.

And while the youngsters have taken all the headlines, Ethan Horvath has had back-to-back Player of the Match performances in his first matches with the club, including a clean sheet in the home opener. Defender Justin Che joined Mehmeti on the Team of the Matchday list for his part in Saturday’s clean sheet, and center back partner Dylan Nealis has been just as good

Former CF Montreal full back Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty has looked great on both the right and left side of defense and he even earned a standing ovation from Red Bulls fans when he made the goal-line clearance on Jackson Yueill.

Emil Forsberg continues to be able to impact a match at its heart. Speaking of which, Ronald Donkor sets the rhythm for this team so dramatically that his absence was very noticeable when he came off at halftime against New England with a minor knock and a yellow card.

And as for the wingers, while Cade Cowell and Jorge Ruvalcaba didn’t look as dangerous against the Revolution as they did on opening night in Orlando, their relentless pace and pressure will continue to be a nightmare for defense to have to deal with.

Andy Rojas struggled as an eight to the point that he couldn’t complete the second half in Donkor’s place, but he showed signs of why he’s a solid winger when he carried the ball in transition. Juan Mina getting the call off the bench instead of Omar Valencia raised additional eyebrows, but it’s been difficult to look at Bradley Ball and have any complaints right now.

That’s quite a bit of praise. They’ve earned it, but it’s also still just the third game of the season on Sunday. Complacency would be their worst enemy, not that they’ve shown any signs of arrogance.

Here’s how I think the Red Bulls will line up when they shoot for their first three-win start to an MLS season:

PROJECTED STARTING XI (4-3-3):

GK E. Horvath

RB J. Marshall-Rutty

CB J. Che

CB D. Nealis

LB M. Dos Santos

CDM A. Mehmeti

CM R. Donkor

CM E. Forsberg

RW C. Cowell

ST J. Hall

LW J. Ruvalcaba

Score Prediction

While the Red Bulls weren’t as potent offensively against the Revolution as they were against an admittedly poor Orlando City team, there were still some goals left on the table.

This weakened CF Montreal side is the best chance they’ll have to really capitalize on a lot of those scoring opportunities. I think the Red Bulls will up for it and I think they’ll win comfortably.

With Charlotte, Cincinnati and Inter Miami looming in the not-so-distant future, it’s crucial that they bank points now before they lose a few in a row and everyone forgets about all this excitement.

And it’s about time the club finally won the first three matches of a season. I’m going 3-0 RBNY, even though Jaime, Synchuk and Owusu can sneak a goal past them. Hall scores again, followed by Forsberg and Cowell.