Orlando City hopes to stop downward spiral vs. CF Montreal

Orlando City SC will begin life without manager Oscar Pareja on Saturday when they host a CF Montreal side coming off a surprising victory in New York.

Pareja and the club mutually parted ways on Wednesday after Orlando (0-3-0, 0 points) began the 2026 season in the same bad form in which it ended 2025.

The Lions won only once in their last 11 games across all competitions last season, and now hold an MLS-worst minus-8 goal differential as one of four Eastern Conference sides yet to earn points.

In a news conference this week, sporting director Ricardo Moreira suggested the club's issues run deeper than the 57-year-old Colombian manager, who guided Orlando to the playoffs in all six of his full seasons in charge.

"I know that he took full responsibility for the results, but I think it's a shared responsibility," Moreira said. "Every time that a coach leaves a club ... it's obviously time for us and for me specifically to look in the mirror and to self-evaluate decisions, self-evaluate what was done."

Assistant coach Martin Perelman will take the reins on an interim basis.

Lions goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau will be unavailable while serving a one-match suspension for an early red card that set in motion a 5-0 defeat at New York City FC last Saturday.

Meanwhile, Montreal (1-2-0, 3 points) earned a 3-0 victory Sunday against a New York Red Bulls side that had won its opening two matches.

Entering that fixture, Montreal's form made Orlando's early struggles look trivial, with a 5-0 loss at San Diego on the opening weekend followed by 3-0 defeat at Chicago.

But in the third game of six straight on the road to begin the season, Prince Owusu scored early from the penalty spot. Wiki Carmona then added goals on each side of halftime for his first career MLS brace against the club where he played five seasons.

The visitors trailed RBNY slightly in both shots and efforts on target, but easily generated the more dangerous opportunities, for which goalkeeper Thomas Gillier praised manager Marco Donadel's tactics.

"We played a perfect match," Gillier said, according to QMI Agency. "Marco understood the Red Bulls very well. It's good for the team and I think we need to keep improving."

The two squads played to a pair of draws in 2025 and have left the pitch on equal terms in four of the last five matches.

--Field Level Media