Home opener is finally on the horizon, and your Boys in Black and Blue are ready to take on the other boys in black and blue this weekend in the first of the regular season’s six interconference matchups. L’etoile du Nord vs. tous ensemble, droit devant. Or something.
When I first dug into my CF Montréal research, I figured information would be sparse simply because they’re an Eastern Conference team we’ve only gone head to head with a handful of times. But it turns out Minnesota United might actually have more in common with Montréal than expected, beyond the black and blue connection. A young roster with a lot of attacking potential, a new-ish head coach, and a French-speaking guy named Owen. Which team am I talking about? Exactly.
Both Minnesota and Montréal are on the cusp of new eras, but that era will likely take some time to build up in the city of a hundred bell towers. Let’s get into it.
Young Folks
Not the song with the catchy whistling, but that could be a fun backing track if you want to crank some tunes while you read. Montréal’s reworked their roster quite a bit during this transfer window, and I’d venture to say they’re laying the foundation to develop a very different team. The lineup is full of young talent, much of it untested in MLS, and the club is the youngest in the league at the moment with an average age of 23. Yes, I went into their active roster and calculated that like the dedicated researcher I am. Montréal is also the second-youngest if you go by average age of the starting XI after Matchday 1 (looking at you, New York Red Bulls).
To name a few of the youths: Ukrainian midfielder Hennadii Synchuk, 18, occupies a U22 Initiative slot, and former LA Galaxy homegrown center back Jalen Neal, 21, takes another. Nigerian forward Sunusi Ibrahim, 22, rounds out Montréal’s U22 Initiative players, providing youth and energy for selection. Homegrown Owen Graham-Roache just turned 17, and the team has three more 20s and more four 21s to boot.
All those fresh faces have yet to hit the field for Montréal, though. Against Atlanta, we saw 21-year-old Nathan Saliba start beside former Loon Caden Clark in the midfield. Clark switched shades of blue in August, and the 21-year-old MN homegrown might very well start against the Loons this Saturday alongside Saliba, Samuel Piette, and Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty.
MNUFC’s average age based on active roster is 25, meaning these teams are both fairly fresh and fast on the field. The Loons’ more recent recruits include 21-year-olds Owen Gene and Nicolás Romero, plus 24-year-old Hoyeon Jung. Both teams have twenty-something twenty-somethings. But this is less about the youth and more about the potential for growth. These teams are versatile and malleable, loaded with potential for their coaches to wield at will.
Here's the Kicker
In other news from the Great Roster Refresh of 2025, the Canadian side said au revoir to defenders Gabriel Corbo and Raheem Edwards and midfielder Victor Wanyama (not to be confused with the San Antonio Spurs star, Victor Wembanyama). They also parted ways with their top scorer of 2024, Josef Martínez, after last season. But now they’ve signed lead scorer for the New England Revolution Giacomo Vrioni, a 26-year-old left-footed DP player who has yet to make his Montréal debut but has the potential to fill the void in the front half of the field.
Montréal started the season with two goals to Minnesota’s zero, scored by Prince Owusu and Nathan Saliba. So who can put more in the net this Saturday — Owusu & Co. or our own array of forwards? Both clubs have a loaded bench with a lot of opportunities for strategic substitutions.
The last thing we need to talk about is the guys behind those substitutions: the ones in that high-pressure, creative-strategic role of head coach. CF Montréal’s Laurent Courtois joined the club last January, just a month before Eric Ramsay took over as head coach at MNUFC. Courtois isn’t new to MLS, but last season was his first as a head coach after spending a few seasons with Columbus Crew 2. Similarly, Ramsay got a number of seasons under his belt in coaching roles across the pond before making his head coach debut with Minnesota United at age 32.
Today’s Eric Ramsay Fun Fact: he’s fluent in four languages (French included). On the other side, Wikipedia says Laurent Courtoish has a blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Did he stop there for the color coordination, or is there a deeper, more documentary-worthy reason? The world may never know, but Ramsay and Courtois will be on the sidelines this weekend performing the tricky task of wielding potential in a way that gets results.
All this to say that this might be the perfect time to play Montréal, before they’ve had a chance to really settle in their new players and lock in formations. Both clubs will be looking to put a win on the record after losses on Matchday 1.
Don’t miss it: Saturday, March 1, at 7:30 p.m. CT on MLS Season Pass and ESPN 1500 Radio. We’re back home and better than ever.
