The Kenya international was in action for Wilfried Nancy’s men, albeit, he was unable to help them subdue the Crew
Victor Wanyama’s CF Montreal played out a 0-0 draw with Harrison Afful’s Columbus Crew in Saturday’s Major League Soccer outing.
Unable to cancel out one another after 90 minutes, both teams left Quebec’s Saputo Stadium with a point each.
Having surrendered a two-goal lead to settle for a 2-2 draw at Nashville SC their last time out, Wilfried Nancy’s team hosted the Crew – with the ambition of returning to winning ways – but that was not the case.
Montreal started the game well and they dominated ball possession, however, they were unable to translate their attacking forays into a goal as they wasted the few opportunities that came their way.
For the visitors, they rarely threatened as Senegalese goalkeeper Clement Diop was infrequently tested. Their only opportunity was converted by Bradley Wright-Phillips, but it was ruled offside by referee Tim Ford.
Montreal’s impressive start to the second half suffered a slight setback as they had to substitute Zachary Brault-Guillard for Clement Bayiha due to injury.
Despite the attacking substitutions that saw manager Nancy throw in midfielder Ahmed Hamdy and Lassi Lappalainen into the field for Amar Sejdic and Erik Hurtado respectively, the scoreline did not change.
Egyptian U23 star Hamdi made his presence felt but his efforts and that of his teammates were thwarted by goalkeeper Eloy Room who put up an impressive showing.
In the closing stages of the game, Caleb Porter’s team thought they had secured the much-needed win when Wright-Phillips put the ball past Diop. Sadly, that effort was cancelled for an offside.
While Wanyama was in action from start to finish alongside Diop, Uganda’s Mustafa Kizza was handed a place in the starting XI. However, he came off for Bjoern Maars Johnsen with ten minutes left to play.
On the other hand, Afful made the starting line-up before he was taken off for Saad Abdul-Salam early in the second half, whereas his compatriot Jonathan Mensah was not listed for action by manager Porter.
Even at this result, Montreal lead the Eastern Conference log having accrued five points from three outings, while Columbus Crew occupy the 10th position with just two points with a game at hand.
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