CF Montreal beat NYCFC to land playoff spot

CF Montreal grabbed a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with a 2-0 win over New York City FC on Saturday.

Caden Clark and Josef Martinez scored first-half goals for Montreal (11-13-10, 43 points), which beat NYCFC at Stade Saputo for the first time. With the win, Montreal extended its home win streak to four matches and now has points in six of its last seven matches.

NYCFC (14-12-8, 50 points) entered Decision Day needing a victory to move up from the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference. New York failed to pick up a point for the first time in five matches and fell into sixth place.

Trailing 2-0 in the second half, New York continued to dominate the possession.

Alonso Martinez had an opportunity to get NYFC on the board in the 71st minute but one-timed a Mitja Ilenic pass over the bar.

In the 83rd minute, Julian Fernandez put his strike from the middle of the area over the bar.

Despite NYCFC controlling the first half possession, Montreal had the 2-0 lead after opening 45.

Clark got Montreal on the board in the 18th minute by one-timing Bryce Duke's cross past Matt Freese for his fourth goal with Montreal

Martinez doubled Montreal's lead in first half stoppage time as his deflection of Clark's cross got past Freese for his team-leading 11th of the season.

New York's first quality chance came two minutes in as Martinez sent a cross into the area for Hannes Wolf, but the Austrian couldn't get a clear strike off.

Then, in the 10th minute, Santiago Rodriguez perfectly executed a bicycle kick in the area, but his strike went into the arms of keeper Jonathan Sirois.

In the 15th minute, a loose ball bounced to Tayvon Gray at the top of the area, but Sirois did an excellent job of getting a hand on the strike and directing it over the bar.

NYCFC blanked Montreal 2-0 on July 3 in the only other meeting between the clubs this season.