It's safe to say that CF Montréal proved some doubters wrong with their first game of the season. Taking on their Canadian Classique rivals Toronto FC at DRV PNK Stadium with only a handful of preseason games to prepare, Montréal grabbed a convincing 4-2 victory.
Asked about how the team reacted CF Montréal's low positioning in season predictions following Saturday's win, Djordje Mihailovic poked fun at some of his critics.
"Like I was thinking about before, if the media wants to say those things and they’re so certain why don’t they put their money where their mouth is and bet against us and see how much they’ll make or lose?" Mihailovic asked.
Still, the Jacksonville, Florida, native, who scored his first goal with his new club on Saturday, added that predictions and power rankings were things "the locker doesn't bat an eye towards." MLSsoccer.com's preseason Power Rankings saw Montréal ranked 27th out of 27 clubs ahead of the season after an offseason that saw previous head coach Thierry Henry depart for family reasons.
"We know how good we can be and it’s the confidence within the group that’s gonna bring us success or failure," Mihailovic said. "As of right now, the confidence is really through the roof. We can’t let it get too high because we know it’s just one game out of 34 and all our focus should be on the next game against a really strong team."
CF Montréal's new head coach Wilfried Nancy kept a level head and said that critics "could also be good" but added that his team need to be weary and remain focussed on their play.
"Everyone can talk about the team, about what they see," Nancy said. "For me, I stay focussed on what we want to do on the pitch. We work every day on concepts of play and that's the objective."
"Critics are positive for us today because we won but maybe in 10 days it will be the opposite," Nancy added.
