This will be the last game played at the Montreal Olympic stadium this year, unless Montreal is hit with another late snowstorm that is. In their sixth game of the season, the Impact are still looking for their first win. It will be a special game for Frank Klopas, who will be facing the team he coached prior to the Impact.
This will also be the first we’ll see of Jack Mclnerney, the US striker the Impact picked up from the Union. He will surprisingly be playing alongside Marco Di Vaio, which means that the Impact’s ususal formation will be changed.
Bernier will start his third straight game on the bench, with Klopas opting to play Warner in his place again. Warner has been playing quite well through this spell, however. Camara will also start this one on the bench, allowing Karl Ouimette to make his first start of the season.
The Opening 45
Ouimette made his first start of this season, and he made his presence felt early on with a few key tackles outside of the box.
The game started with a scare from the Impact, when Miller’s clearance from their defensive zone hit Warner in the face. He was down for a few minutes, but was able to stay in the game. Still, Bernier was warming up on the sidelines.
The Fire got the first real chance of the match, when Patrick Nyarko passed Romero and Pearce on the side and passed it in the box to Mike Magee. Luckily, Perkins was there to make the save.
Felipe answered back a few minutes later with a blast from outside the box, forcing Chicago keeper Sean Johnson to make an amazing diving save. The Impact failed to capitalize on the rebound.
The Fire's midfielder Larentowicz got the next best chance, with a nice run down the line and into the Impact box from Nyarko found him wide open, but he put it way over the bar. The score remained 0-0.
The Impact were having trouble escaping Chicago’s pressure, and it showed in terms of possession, Chicago having almost 60 per cent of it. The new change of formation, seeing two strikers instead of one, going to a more of a classic 4-4-2, is something the Impact wasn’t used to, and it showed quite clearly in the first half. Klopas will want to tweak something in order to make the transition through the middle smoother if he wants a chance to win this game.
The Di Vaio-Mclnerney connection is what every fan wanted to see today, and we saw it in the 43rd minute. Di Vaio made a heads up play with his back to the net, unleashing Mclnerney on a partial break, who squeaked it past Sean Johnson, who managed to get a piece of it. In his first start for the Impact, number 99 has his first goal, and the Impact was up 1-0 right before the break.
In stoppage time, Mclnerney almost returned the favor. After being unleashed on the run by Justin Mapp, his pass to Di Vaio in the middle was barely touched by Johnson to intercept what would’ve been a beautiful pass. The half ended with the Impact up by one.
The Second Half
Klopas made a change to start the second half. A very mediocre half for Romero meant that he would start the second on the bench, and captain Patrice Bernier came into the lineup. Camara also came in for Pearce.
"Today was disappointing because we had more energy in the other games and commitment was not there today," said head coach Frank Klopas. "We felt tired and that the game was flat. We made some changes in the second half and started off a little bit better."
The Impact wasted no time trying to double their lead. Bernier coming in next to Warner meant that Felipe slight moved up into a center attacking mid position. In the 50th minute, he made a run behind the defense, opting to pass it to an open Marco Di Vaio on the other side, who shot it over the bar. The play was opening up for the Impact now.
In the 54th minute, after a few minutes of pressure, the Fire finally tied it up. After Larentowicz’s header touched the bar, Magee threw the rebound in the box, and Fire striker Quincy Amarikwa cleaned it up efficiently. The score was now 1-1 and the Impact’s lead short-lived.
Camara, who came in alongside Bernier in place of Pearce, was shaken up on the play and stayed down for a few minutes, but also managed to stay in the game.
The Fire came close to taking the lead on another corner, but luckily for the Impact, Hurtado’s header went just wide. That was Chicago’s best opportunity since they scored. The Impact, on the other hand, were more content sending long balls to their strikers than to build up play from the middle, meaning that not much was created, despite having started the half quite well.
Magee caught the Montreal defense sleeping, and took advantage of Ferrari’s slowness to pass him for a partial break. Perkins stopped his shot with no rebound. The game would end without much more excitement, with the score at 1-1.
Six games into the season, the Impact still do not have a win, with a record of 0-3-3. Still, a draw is better than a loss, but there is a lot of work to do. Although this was by far their best defensive game of the season, the rest of the team disappeared in the second half, despite starting it off strong, something that probably has Klopas scratching his head in frustration. There was some good for the Impact, and that includes Mclnerney getting his first goal in blue and black on his first start for the team.
"It's good to get the first goal out of the way, but overall the performance of myself and the team was disappointing," said McInerney. "I think we were lucky to have a goal go in and be able to change the game up a little. Today's game didn't play in our favour."
Man of the Match
Karl Ouimette
A very mediocre performance offensively for the Impact means that the man of the match goes to Karl Ouimette. The young defender played his first match of the season and gave Klopas many reasons to consider starting him again next match. However, with the potential return of Nelson Rivas looming on the horizon, that might not happen. Still, Ouimette was a wall in the back, and was definitely the Impact’s brightest player today.
"I've been working hard the whole year at every training session," said Impact defender Karl W. Ouimette. "I just have to do even better next time and keep evolving as a player."
Honourable mention
Justin Mapp, as usual, was dangerous on the side, and continued his good play today against Chicago. Although Mclnerney scored a goal, he was hard to find on the pitch at times and failed to create much of an impact throughout the rest of the game.
Montreal Impact Line-up
1 Perkins
34 Ouimette
13 Ferrari
44 Pearce
3 Miller
21 Mapp
7 Felipe
18 Warner
15 Romero
99 McInerney
9 Di Vaio
Substitutions: (46) Camara for Pearce; (46) Bernier for Romero; (85) Mallace for Warner
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