Nashville SC vs. CF Montréal
2026 MLS Regular Season | Matchday 35
Saturday, October 24 | 12:30 p.m. CT
Stade Saputo | Montréal, QC
Broadcast Details
Watch | Apple TV
Listen | 104.5 The Zone
Nashville SC’s penultimate road match of the season comes with a host of potential milestones: it’s 21st win of the season and seventh away from home, its 70th point and its first Supporters’ Shield title. With a win or draw at CF Montréal (15th in the Eastern Conference, 25 points) on Saturday, the Boys in Gold (first, 67 points) can secure MLS’s premier regular-season prize with three games to spare, placing them firmly in the driver’s seat for playoff glory.
Key Storylines
A struggling team with a star striker
Very little separates the back half of the Eastern Conference from the playoff line. Red Bull New York, in ninth, sits level on points with 10th-placed Toronto and just six points ahead of 14th-placed Atlanta United, owning a worse goal difference than five of the six teams below it. The outlier of this compact group is Montréal, who sits rock-bottom of the conference and just three points ahead of Sporting Kansas City for the Wooden Spoon. Montréal has just six wins all season, four of which came at home, to go with a conference-worst minus-24 goal difference and 17 losses.
There has been a bright spot amid the team’s quagmire. Striker Prince Owusu has put in the best season of his career with the club in 2026, accounting for 15 goals and five assists through 26 appearances. This matches or exceeds both of his totals from 2025 in eight fewer matches and places him level on goals with many of the league’s best forwards, including Luis Suárez, Nicolás Fernández and Martín Ojeda. He’s just one score shy of Nashville MVP contender Hany Mukhtar and two off Sam Surridge, who finished second in last year’s Golden Boot race.
Owusu’s continued output has been vital for a side which otherwise lacks offensive punch. Mexican forward — and former Boy in Gold — Daniel Ríos is the club’s next-best goalscoring option with six goals and two assists in more than a thousand fewer minutes, followed by Venezuelan winger Wiki Carmona with four and four, respectively. Owusu will thus be vital in Montréal’s attempt to accomplish an already herculean task of taking points off Nashville and its league-leading back line. Three Defender of the Year contenders in Andy Najar, Maxwell Woledzi and Jeisson Palacios headline the group, alongside one of MLS’s best young full backs in Reed Baker-Whiting and Brian Schwake, the league’s clean sheet leader. That strength in defense will help the Boys in Gold feel good about their chances at securing the Shield on Saturday. But Owusu is a tough assignment nonetheless and will almost certainly prove their tallest hurdle.
DPs, new and old
Montréal made one of the most unexpected signings of any MLS club this year by snatching veteran winger Alexis Sánchez from free agency as a Designated Player in August. The 38-year-old endured a nomadic half-decade before landing in Quebec but was one of the world’s premier wide players before that point, leading his native Chile to Copa America glory in 2015 and 2016 alongside trophy-laden spells with Arsenal, FC Barcelona and Inter Milan, among others.
Like his team’s season, however, Sánchez’s start to life in Montréal has been underwhelming. He owns a solitary assist in 11 matches, achieved in a 1-1 draw at Seattle last weekend, well below the standard of his fellow attackers and the other DPs he’ll face on Saturday. Nashville’s trio of Surridge, Mukhtar and Cristian Espinoza — himself a winger signed this offseason — have each accounted for at least 18 goal contributions in 2026, helping the Boys in Gold achieve the league’s second-most-productive attack. Mukhtar has arguably been MLS’s in-form forward of late, too, logging at least a goal in all his last five matches as he chases the second MVP of his career.
With Montréal’s spotty form and the Supporters’ Shield at stake, Saturday looks more than ever like a match which will be defined by the performances of DPs, new or old. Will Mukhtar and Surridge help Nashville to the club’s second trophy? Will Espinoza help it to the first of his MLS career? Or will Sánchez, a serial winner across his glittering European odyssey, create the moment that hands Montréal an improbable upset?
Series History & What’s Next
Nashville has dominated the all-time series with its Canadian hosts, winning seven and drawing four of the previous 12 meetings. The Boys in Gold are undefeated at GEODIS Park against Montréal, have lost just once at Stade Saputo and ride a five-game unbeaten run against the club into Saturday’s match on the banks of the St. Lawrence. Nashville won the reverse fixture this season 1-0 at GEODIS Park through a second-half Surridge penalty.
Should Nashville win or draw, they will mathematically secure the Shield ahead of Wednesday’s meeting with a resurgent Philadelphia Union in Music City, the trophy’s previous holders. A Vancouver draw or loss will also secure the title for the Boys in Gold, regardless of their result.
