Inter Miami face CF Montreal, seek to stay on a roll

MLS leader Inter Miami will hit the road this weekend looking for their fifth straight win in league play when they face CF Montreal on Saturday night.

Miami (7-2-3, 24 points) has at least three goals in each of its previous four matches and leads the MLS with 32 goals, 11 more than the next-closest team.

Leading the charge for Inter Miami have been stars Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, who have combined for 20 goals and 17 assists. Messi had an MLS-record five assists to go with a goal last weekend in the team's 6-2 win over the New York Red Bulls.

"The truth is that we have many players with the ability to score goals, so it's clear that at some point in the match we will have some favorable moments," Inter Miami coach Gerardo Martino said.

"The issue is how we get through the unfavorable moments, and that doesn't prevent us from always having to turn games around."

Miami lost its first meeting of the season with CF Montreal (3-4-3, 12 points) on March 10, 3-2. Montreal got late goals from Matias Coccaro and Sunusi Ibrahim to secure the win.

Coccaro is Montreal's top scorer this season with three goals in MLS play. As a team, Montreal is tied for the third-worst goal difference in the Eastern Conference at -7.

Montreal is in its first season under new coach Laurent Courtois.

"I think (the players) want to play soccer in the right way, meaning they want to do the thing with having fun, what we play the game for initially," Courtois said.

"And I have a few codes I think can be helpful. We need together to come up with common ground to execute this way that we like with those codes. They're still far from what I think they can do."