Redmen soccer's scoreless draw with Citadins leaves second-place unsettled

McGill's Mohamed Kleit (PHOTO BY DEREK DRUMMOND)

MONTREAL -- A scoreless draw between McGill and UQAM at Stade Saputo on Thursday may not have settled anything in the RSEQ men's soccer standings but it kept Redmen hopes to have home-field advantage during the post-season in good stead.

The game, played in a torrid downpour, started 40 minutes later than expected due a late-arriving referee, who was no doubt stuck somewhere in Montreal's notorious traffic woes. The result was the third consecutive shutout posted by the Redmen who also extended their undefeated streak to 1-0-2 since a shocking 5-1 road loss to the Montreal Carabins on Oct. 6.

"It was a difficult game in atrocious conditions," said McGill head coach Marc Mounicot, whose troops were forced to play the final 30 minutes with only 10 men on the pitch.

The game featured six yellow cards and a red, which was issued to Redmen starting midfielder Mohamed Kleit for incurring two yellows. The electrical engineering senior from Outremont, Que., will have to miss the next game with an automatic suspension.

Both goalkeepers received credit for a clean sheet, with McGill's Antoine Marchal, a 6-foot-3 freshman from Montreal, making two saves and Valentin Lamoulie of UQAM turning aside just one shot.

With three games remaining before playoffs, McGill (4-2-3) remains deadlocked with the undefeated Citadins (3-0-6) for second-place in the RSEQ standings. The top two spots will have home-field advantage in the sudden-death semifinals. If McGill and UQAM remain tied at the end f the season, they will have to go deep into the league's tie-breaking procedures as they also played to a draw in their only other meeting, a 2-2 tie at Molson Stadium on Sept. 30.

UQAM closes out their campaign with games at Concordia (Oct. 23), at Sherbrooke (Oct. 28) and at home to the Montreal Carabins (Oct. 30).

McGill, which leads the conference in scoring with 20 goals in nine contests, will host Laval (Oct. 23) and Montreal (Oct. 28) before closing out their schedule at Concordia (Oct. 30).