Montreal Impact 0 – 0 FC Dallas
The Montreal Impact were desperately searching for three points that have eluded them since June 19. On Saturday night, the team welcomed FC Dallas to Saputo Stadium for the first time since joining Major League Soccer.
The Impact came into this match following their heaviest defeat of the season against the New York Red Bulls. Thierry Henry and his mates scored four goals and kept a clean sheet last weekend at Red Bull Arena.
This week, Montreal had to do without team leading scorer Marco Di Vaio. The Italian is in Italy dealing with family issues and should be back for next week's match against Eastern Conference leaders Sporting Kansas City.
The Blues, however, did welcome back center midfielder Felipe to the starting XI. He returned to the lineup after missing last week's loss in New York. With these changes, head coach Marco Schällibaum decided to debut a 4-3-3 formation, featuring Daniele Paponi up front with Justin Mapp and Sanna Nyassi as wingers. Felipe, Patrice Bernier and captain Davy Arnaud were the three center midfielders. The back line remained identical.
FC Dallas have also been on a major slump. After leading the Western Conference earlier in the year, the Texas based squad have not won a match since June 12, when they blanked the Houston Dynamo 3-0 in Open Cup play. Their last league victory came against San Jose in late May.
The Opening 45
The home side looked ready to go in the first minutes of this encounter. The Impact controlled play and had possession in Dallas' half for a significant time.
In the third minute, Felipe recovered a ball on the left side and played an excellent through ball for Paponi. Paponi's shot was blocked for an early corner kick.
The visitors were reluctant to push forward in the first half, but did have an excellent chance in the 10th minute. Striker Eric Hassli received a pass 25 yards away from goal, pulled off a 'Zidane/Maradona Turn' around Arnaud and quickly fired towards the corner of the goal. Goalkeeper Troy Perkins got a slight hand on the effort, deflecting it out for a corner.
In the 26th minute, the Impact had the best chance to open the scoring. The home side pressured heavily in FC Dallas territory, not allowing their opponents to clear the zone. Alessandro Nesta recovered possession at half field and found Mapp on the right side. Mapp cut in on his preferred left foot and smacked his long range effort right off the crossbar.
For the remainder of the half, both sides cancelled each other out in terms of possession. Each would have one more good chance before the midway point.
For FC Dallas, that was in the 36th minute. Full back Zach Loyd received a ball on the right flank and whipped in a cross from the byline. The ball found Je-Vaughn Watson near the penalty spot, but his header was straight at Perkins.
One minute before halftime, the Impact had another good opportunity to take the lead. Paponi controlled a ball on the left side, cut inside the box and tried to curl a shot to the opposite corner. FC Dallas goalkeeper Raúl Fernández parried the effort right in the middle of the box to on onrushing Arnaud. The Impact captain's attempt was blocked by defender George John for a corner.
The Second Half
The second half was far less eventful and both sides did a good job of cancelling each other out defensively.
Montreal kept on concentrating their efforts on keeping possession and they succeeded. The Blues had the ball 62 percent of the match and a majority of it was inside the Dallas half. Possession was in vain as the club had a tough time getting passed the FC Dallas back line.
After squandering a decent 5v4 counter attacking opportunity in the 72nd minute, the Impact almost made up for it one minute later when Bernier's lobbed through ball found Mapp behind the FC Dallas defence. Mapp's poor first touch left him with a tough shot which was saved by Fernández.
Five minutes later, it was Mapp playing provider this time. On the right side, Mapp curled a cross to the back post, but it was not fully cleared by the visitors. Jeb Brovsky got to the loose ball first and laced his effort on target. Luckily for Fernández it was right at him.
FC Dallas couldn't muster anything up front and were forced to defend all half. The Impact kept coming with a few crosses, but nothing caused any significant problem. The match ended nil-nil.
Post-Match Reaction
"The fighting spirit was excellent today," said head coach Marco Schällibaum. "When you go and don't score, it is very difficult for the mentality. We believed until the end, but only got one point."
"It was perfect," he went on referring to the Impact's defence. "You can't play better than this on defence. They [FC Dallas] had no space, no open chances, but we couldn't score."
"We played a good match," said midfielder Patrice Bernier. "We looked like our old team from before. Defensively we were solid and in the second half we pushed and pushed. We weren't as effective in front of goal, but in terms of our overall performance it was night and day compared to our four last matches."
"Obviously we would have liked to get that goal," said midfielder Justin Mapp. "I thought we were the better team when comparing chances, half chances and loose balls in the box. It was one of those nights where we couldn't get anything in front of the net."
"We work a lot on tactics defensively," said defender Hassoun Camara. "We gave away little space to the opposition and defended high up the pitch which was good. The balance was right, we had two or three good chances to score tonight, but it seems luck is against us recently."
The Final Word:
Defensively things were tight, but struggles continue up front
In the last month of action, Montreal's back line suddenly seemed to have lost their cohesion that has earned them so much success earlier in the year. Losing 4-3 to Colorado, allowing three in a draw against Toronto FC and then getting blanked 4-0 by New York, the Impact really needed this clean sheet to get their confidence back up.
Defensively, things were perfect as described by Schällibaum following the match. Dallas only managed two shots on target the entire night and those were in the first half. Following those two chances, the visitors hardly even came close to Perkins's goal.
Were things really perfect defensively? Perfect, seems rather a bit too over the top, but the back line was nonetheless good when they had to be. The key words there are 'had to be'.
The truth is for a majority of the match, the back line and Perkins were not really tested. FC Dallas only entered the box once in the second half alone. Montreal's defence looked perfect because their opponents hardly had the ball.
The Impact center midfielders that were able to keep possession for as long as they did were the real success on the night. Montreal dominated the possession stat and all of this was mostly in the Dallas half of the pitch. There was a point in the second half when everyone but Perkins was in the Dallas half.
So when you look at it, the Impact were very good in all but one third of the pitch. With things calm in the defensive third, under control in the middle third, it was the final attacking third that let the team down.
In the Impact's 4-3-3 formation, Paponi was the targetman. The Italian did the best he could under circumstances, but lacked support often at times. Paponi naturally is not a targetman, but rather likes to provide support as a second striker. With Di Vaio, Paponi is able to flourish as he's always right there waiting for a pass or often plays provider for Di Vaio.
Alone, Paponi did well to hold his ball with his back towards goal, but found it hard to find somebody in support. In a 4-4-2, that somebody is usually Di Vaio.
The Impact had the most success attacking through the middle of the pitch. Through balls from Felipe or Bernier seemed to work the best and posed numerous problems for Dallas.
When Felipe was subbed off in the second half, the team shifted its attack to the flanks. Montreal did well to get the ball deep and made plenty of crosses, but they struggled in the air. With the types of players the Impact have up front, aerial battles are rarely won. The squad has a lot more success when attacking with the ball on the floor.
Next week the Impact will face Eastern Conference leaders Sporting Kansas City. If the defence and midfield repeat their performance, things should be a lot better up front with Di Vaio's return.
Montreal Impact Lineup
1 Perkins
5 Brovsky
13 Ferrari
14 Nesta
6 Camara
22 Arnaud
7 Felipe
8 Bernier
21 Mapp
35 Paponi
11 Nyassi
Substitutions: (71) Romero in for Felipe; (76) Wenger in for Paponi; (86) Smith in for Nyassi.
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