Montreal Impact 2 – 1 D.C. United
The Prelude to Battle
The Montreal Impact returned home to face D.C. United at Saputo Stadium after playing their last two league matches on the road.
The fixture promised to be a good one as both sides squared off at RFK Stadium two weeks earlier which saw the home side come out as 3-1 winners.
In the lead up to this match, Montreal created a roster spot by placing defender Dennis Iapichino on waivers. The Swiss fullback was snatched up by none other than D.C. United. Iapichino started on the bench for his new side and came on in the final minutes.
In terms of lineups, Montreal head coach Marco Schällibaum decided to switch over to a 4-4-1-1 formation which saw Felipe playing directly behind Marco Di Vaio. Andrés Romero, Patrice Bernier, Hernán Bernardello and Justin Mapp made up the four man midfield. The back line was familiar with Jeb Brovsky, Matteo Ferrari, Alessandro Nesta and Hassoun Camara protecting Troy Perkins in goal.
D.C. United boss Ben Olsen lineup his side in a 4-4-2 formation that had Dwayne De Rosario and Luis Silva up front. De Rosario was one of three Canadians in the visitor's lineup. Midfielder Kyle Porter and defender Dejan Jakovic also featured in the starting XI.
The Opening 45
Montreal came out like vultures in the opening minutes and had plenty of chances to grab an early lead.
Their first one came only three minutes in. Following a Daniel Woolard mishap, Di Vaio took over possession and played a ball wide for Felipe. From the right side, the Brazilian sent a square ball across the box to a wide open Romero. Romero's effort from six yards out was impressively stopped United goalkeeper Bill Hamid.
Less than two minutes later, the Impact took advantage of another United turnover. This time it was Romero playing provider. Romero threaded a through ball behind the D.C. United back line for a running Felipe to latch onto. With Hamid rushing out, Felipe poked a ball to the left for Di Vaio whose failed chip attempt denied the home side a sure lead.
Despite the shaky start, the visitors did work themselves back into the match and had two of their own chances to steal a lead. Nick DeLeon and Luis Silva both had decent opportunities, but missed their open shot and header respectively.
In the 26th minute, a good build-up from the Impact resulted in Felipe getting possession deep on the left side of the pitch. Felipe lobbed a high cross into the box that was met by Mapp rushing in. Mapp's header could only bounce right into Hamid's hands.
Two minutes before halftime, the Impact got the lead. Felipe went untouched down the center of midfield. He rolled a ball on the right side for Mapp, who surged down to the byline and whipped in a low right-footed cross. A simple dummy by Felipe left Di Vaio with a wide open shot from eight yards out.
Montreal had a deserved lead going into the break, but D.C. United were not to be ignored.
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Très content de voir @divaio9 marquer et deux fois en plus! Maintenant gros test pour #IMFC en Amérique Centrale!
– @LeKurosawa |
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The Second Half
The final 45 minutes began with the visitors pushing high for an equalizer. However, before D.C. United were able to generate a good scoring chance, it was the Impact who should have gone two goals up.
In the 61st minute, Felipe took advantage of all the space D.C. United were giving him and played Di Vaio a long ball. The long ball was poorly handled by Woolard at the back, leaving Di Vaio 1-v-1 with Hamid. The Italian rolled a shot wide of the target and missed an easy chance to get Montreal's important second goal.
Three minutes later, D.C. almost made Montreal pay for that miss. A ball worked from the left side ended up at Luis Silva in the center of Montreal's half. Silva feinted around Nesta and wired a left-footed shot towards the top corner. Perkins made an expert stop to deny the chance.
In the 74th minute, the game turned ugly when a Perkins long ball sailed towards the substitutes benches. Mapp and James Riley both rose up to challenge for the airborne ball and some contact resulted in Mapp flying into a television camera. Tempers flared on both sides with Schällibaum and Olsen exchanging their thoughts. The referee ejected both coaches from the match.
The incident seemed to fire up both sides, but it was D.C. United who benefitted first. A ball from midfield was tipped forward for Luis Silva, who shrugged off a challenge from Nesta and went towards goal. With Nesta now out of position, Silva played a through ball in space for substitute Conor Doyle. He didn't think twice about guiding his left-footed shot far post past Perkins.
Two minutes later, Montreal were celebrating on the other end. Bernier recovered possession in the center of the park and was able to send a long ball forward for Di Vaio. Up against Jakovic, Di Vaio simply touched the ball towards the inside giving him enough space to curl a perfect shot around Hamid and into the top corner.
The Impact just had to play keep-away for the remainder of the match to hold out for a valuable three points. The win puts Montreal right back into the mix which sees the top five Eastern Conference teams within points of each other.
The Final Word:
Early missed chances almost came back to haunt Impact; MDV clutch.
With the way the match started, it seemed as though the Impact were going to run over D.C. United. Montreal always found a way into the final attacking third without much trouble and had their fair share of chances to score more than one early on.
Scoring one early, or possibly two, would have completely deflated the visitors. It doesn't happen very often where a team suffers in the beginning of the game and manages to climb back. It occurs sometimes, but often not.
Montreal not being able to put something away gave D.C. some hope and a bit of confidence along the way.
The goal right before the break was deserved, but should have occurred earlier on. Felipe was brilliant playing behind Di Vaio and was responsible for almost every chance Montreal had.
After the break, Olsen was able to rally his side up and they came out very strong in the second half. Montreal's high powered offence from the first half was largely absent due to the fact D.C. had possession and pressured high to win back balls in good areas. The Impact had trouble building up and could only manage some long balls ahead for Di Vaio.
What made Montreal win the game was the defensive errors committed by D.C. United. These mistakes, such as bad control, poor flick ons and passes, gave the Impact too many easy chances to score.
The Impact's back line was also unbalanced with the left side (Ferrari and Brovsky) having a good match and the right side (Nesta and Camara) struggling. D.C. took advantage of this and sent their attacks towards those two Impact players and they got a goal from it.
With both sides back line's looking shaky and both with their high intensity attacks, it came down to one man to decide the match, Marco Di Vaio.
Typically playing with one striker, managers like to see the striker challenging for every ball and pushing nonstop. At his age and being the type of player he is, Di Vaio rarely does that, but still manages to score and change a game.
In the first half, Di Vaio would give up maybe a bit easily on balls and never looked like he was working hard enough to get a goal. This may seem like a defect in his game, but it isn't...it's what he does best.
Just when Di Vaio seems to be having an off-game, he just takes off instantly and wrecks havoc on defenders. He makes any team pay for giving just the slightest inch of space when he's in a good scoring location. He did so against D.C. and ended up with two good goals leading to the Impact's victory.
Montreal Impact Line-up
1 Perkins
5 Brovsky
13 Ferrari
14 Nesta
6 Camara
15 Romero
23 Bernardello
8 Bernier
21 Mapp
7 Felipe
9 Di Vaio
Substitutions: (72) Warner in for Bernardello; (82) Nyassi in for Felipe; (89) Paponi in for Di Vaio
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