Liel Abada scores hat trick in 16 minutes as Charlotte FC thrash CF Montreal 4-0

Barely six minutes had gone by when Idan Toklomati headed home from the center of the box, off a cross from Allan Saint-Maximin, to put the first goal on the board. From there, Charlotte FC never let up and ended up thrashing CF Montreal 4-0 at Bank of America Stadium in MLS play.

The match looked headed for a tight scoreline after that opening goal: for much of the first half Montreal even had its chances, with Hennadii Synchuk testing the keeper from outside the box and Efrain Morales grazing the crossbar with a header from point blank range. But the home side went into halftime with the bare minimum lead, 1-0, and everything fell apart for the visitors in the second half.

With Liel Abada freshly on from the bench, the match changed completely. In the 66th minute, Abada himself finished with his right foot from inside the box, just inside the post, off an assist from Djibril Diani, making it 2-0. Not satisfied, he struck again in the 78th minute, this time with his left foot and also along the ground, set up by Toklomati, for 3-0. Four minutes later, in the 82nd minute, he capped his performance with a shot into the top corner off a pass from Pep Biel, sealing the final 4-0. Abada completed a hat trick in just sixteen minutes of play.

A performance the numbers back up

Charlotte FC did not dominate possession (46.9 percent to Montreal's 53.1 percent), but it was far more effective in the final third. The gap shows up most clearly in shots on target: seven to one in favor of the home side over the Canadian club.

That dominance also shows up in the expected goals figures calculated after the fact based on shot location: 2.044 for Charlotte FC against just 0.47 for Montreal, a sign that the home side did not just win big, but generated far more real danger on the opposing goal.

Before the match, our projection gave Charlotte FC a 62 percent chance to win, with a draw at 23 percent and just 15 percent for a road win, along with expected goals of 2.10 for the home side and 0.97 for the visitors. The result went even further than projected: the home team not only lived up to its favorite status, it multiplied that edge in the final score.

What it means in the standings

The win leaves Charlotte FC in fifth place in the Eastern Conference with 50 points from 32 matches played (14 wins, 8 draws and 10 losses). CF Montreal, coached by Philippe Eullaffroy, sits at the bottom of the table in 15th place with 25 points, the product of 6 wins, 7 draws and 19 losses, and a goal difference of minus 30 that this rout only makes worse. The two sides are separated by 25 points, a fairly accurate reflection of what played out on the field.

For Montreal, the blow stings twice over: not only did the club fall by a lopsided margin, it barely troubled the opposing goal in the decisive stretch of the match, when Abada turned the game on its head in little more than a quarter of an hour.