Montreal eases past Charlotte to end winless run

CF Montreal scored two goals in a three-minute span in the first half en route to a 2-0 win against visiting Charlotte FC on Saturday.

Montreal (9-12-2, 29 points) snapped a four-match winless streak in which it was shut out in each match.

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The loss ended a run of five straight draws for Charlotte (6-9-8, 26 points), which is 0-3-5 in its past eight matches.

The visitors had a chance to score early thanks to a corner in the first minute, but an attempted header from the goal area rolled just wide.

From then on, Montreal controlled the ball and finally broke through in the 29th minute.

Kwadwo Opoku scored his first goal with Montreal in his second match with the club for a 1-0 lead. Aaron Herrera controlled the ball from midfield up into the attacking third, sending a rolling pass into the box for Bryce Duke.

Duke then passed to Chinonso Offor, who connected for a shot from the right side that was stopped by Kristijan Kahlina. However, the rebound came right to Opoku in front of the goal for the tap-in.

It was Montreal's first goal since it scored in a 1-0 win against Nashville SC on June 21.

Offor doubled the lead in the 31st minute. Joel Waterman lobbed a long feed from deep in the defensive end into the attacking third, where Offor got behind the Charlotte defenders. Kahlina came off his line to the middle of the area, but it was Offor who got to the ball first to make it 2-0.

Charlotte started to generate chances early in the second half and came close to getting on the board in the 57th minute. Patrick Agyemang took a right-footed shot from the right side of the 6-yard box, but his attempt was blocked.

Duke nearly added to Montreal's lead in the 70th minute after taking a cross from Mathieu Choiniere at the right side, but his attempt went wide.