Montreal

Red Bulls seek to avenge playoff loss to Montreal (Jun 03, 2017)

Published Jun. 2, 2017 7:58 p.m. ET

The New York Red Bulls will be seeking retribution when they travel to Canada on Saturday to face the Montreal Impact at Stade Saputo.

The Impact (3-4-4) knocked the then-top-seeded Red Bulls (5-5-2) out of the Eastern Conference playoffs last fall by a two-game aggregate score of 3-1. The Impact was the fifth seed in the conference. They eventually lost to Toronto FC 7-5 aggregate in the next round.

"They (Red Bulls) drafted me and I spent a lot of time there," said Montreal defender Chris Duvall. "They left me unprotected in the expansion draft so I feel like I have a little bit of something to prove, to prove my value."

Red Bulls coach Jesse Marsch acknowledged that last year's match with Montreal is a motivator.

"We've already talked about it," he said. "It's a different (Montreal) team but a lot of us still carry a lot of frustration of how they ended the season makes it personal. We'll make sure we focus on what's important in the game, but that we also know there is a motivational factor here."

New York is on a five-game road losing streak. It is the Red Bulls' longest road losing streak since they lost nine straight away games from April 24-July 26, 2009. Playmaking team captain Sacha Kljestan has created a team-high 43 chances for New York this season. No teammate has more than 14.

The match features two of the more explosive strikers in MLS. Bradley Wright-Phillips has led the league in goals the past two seasons and struck for six so far for New York. Ignacio Piatti tops Montreal with six goals.

The Impact are completing 35.1 percent of their crosses/corners this season, the best percentage in MLS and four percentage points higher than the next closest team.

Get more from Montreal Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Montreal

MLS