Egypt international Ahmed Hamdi scored a late goal to lift Victor Wanyama’s CF Montreal to a 5-4 win against FC Cincinnati in a Major League Soccer duel on Saturday night.
The Kenyan captain started the game at Saputo Stadium while his Ugandan counterpart Mustafa Kiiza did not get playing time despite being named on the bench.
It was the visiting Cincinnati who started the game strongly and they took the lead in the sixth minute when Haris Medunjanin beat Montreal’s custodian James Pantemis will a low effort, and they were 2-0 up in 14th minute courtesy of Brenner Souza da Silva,
Sensing danger, Wanyama’s Montreal hit back in the 21st minute through Mason Toye and they were level in the 34th minute when Joaquin Torres made it 2-2 after connecting with a cross from Toye.
But Cincinnati ensured they went into the half-time break leading 3-2 after Gustavo Vallecilla scored in the 42nd minute, and two minutes after the half-time break, Silva made it 4-2 for the visiting side.
H A M D I 🔥
— CF Montréal (@clubdefootmtl) July 18, 2021
Lait's Go | #CFMTL pic.twitter.com/nvpDgjzeXV
However, in the 72nd minute, Toye netted his sixth goal of the season from the penalty spot, to reduce the deficit for Montreal and they were level two minutes later when Hamdi scored to make it 4-4.
With three minutes left to the final whistle, Hamdi then broke the hearts of Cincinnati players after he intercepted a pass before placing the ball in the bottom corner to secure the 5-4 win.
A devastated Cincinnati coach Jaap Stam could not believe they had lost the game but blamed his players for giving away the ball easily.
“We also need to be honest to ourselves...you went two-nil up in a very good way. They come back into the game, 2-2, and then you go 3-2 up and then after halftime you scored a fourth one," Stam said as quoted by cincinnati.com.
“At that moment, in how you're playing and what you're doing, you're disciplined. Yeah, you're giving up a little bit the ball away to them but you don't give them too many opportunities.
3⃣ième victoire consécutive 👊
— CF Montréal (@clubdefootmtl) July 18, 2021
What. A. Game 🤯
Lait's Go | #CFMTL pic.twitter.com/5HKTpL49r3
“And then I think for some reason, we still want to go and be stepping out at times and then they've got the ability, that's what we've seen as well, and the quality...But it's not that difficult in terms of that they need to score. You look back on the goals –we also need to defend better.
“As individuals, at times as well, we need to be very disciplined and keep playing very disciplined for a full [97] minutes to get something out of this game, and we should have handled certain situations better.”
The win pushed Wanyama’s Montreal to position four on the 14-team table with 22 points from 13 matches while Cincinnati will remain in position 11 with 12 points from 12 outings.
Montreal will next face New York City at Red Bull Arena on July 22.