Montreal Impact 2 – 2 Chicago Fire
Prelude to the Battle
The Montreal Impact were back in league play following their midweek Champions League match against CD Heredia. Montreal travelled to Chicago for their final season encounter with the Fire at Toyota Park.
The Impact's form as of late has been poor. The team has lost their last three consecutive matches in Major League Soccer and have slipped a couple of spots down in the Easter Conference standings. In their last match on Tuesday night, Montreal beat Heredia 2-0 at home, but needed a 6-0 win in order to have a chance to progress to the knock-out round of the CONCACAF Champions League.
Against Heredia, head coach Marco Schällibaum put out a young starting lineup which did well and held its ground. Andrew Wenger, Collen Warner, Hassoun Camara and Wandrille Lefèvre all got the start in Chicago as a result of their performance on Tuesday. Marco Di Vaio, Davy Arnaud, Patrice Bernier, Justin Mapp, Jeb Brovsky, Matteo Ferrari and Troy Perkins were inserted into the lineup alongside those four.
This was a highly important match for the Chicago Fire. The men in red came into this fixture with 39 points in seventh place, three points behind the Philadelphia Union who hold the final playoff spot in the East.
In their last five matches, Chicago has only one win, two draws and loses. They were blanked last week against the Columbus Crew on the road.
Between both sides, Montreal and Chicago have met twice before this match. Montreal won the first meeting at Saputo Stadium in April, while the Fire replied with their own win last month at Toyota Park.
The Opening Forty-Five
Play got off to a slow start in the opening 20 minutes in this one. The Fire had two minor chances, but there was nothing major until the Impact had their first chance.
In the 25th minute, Ferrari spotted Arnaud wide open just past center field and played him a ball to his feet. Arnaud was able to turn, take all the space given to him and slide a through ball for Di Vaio. The league's leading scorer fought off Gonzalo Segares and poked a shot past Sean Johnson to score his 19th goal of the year.
Seven minutes later, the Fire came close to levelling the score from a free kick. From around 25-yards away, Mike Magee curled a free kick over the wall, but within whiskers off finding the corner of the goal.
In the 44th minute, Magee was at it again. Midfielder Dilly Duka did well to break into the Impact 18-yard box and find enough space to cut a ball to Magee at the top of the both. Magee fired quickly towards goal, but Wandrille Lefèvre's last second block resulted in Perkins easy collecting the ball.
The Second Half
The home side came out pressuring strong to start the second half. In the 53rd minute, the Fire had their best chance yet to tie the game up. Magee whipped in a corner from the right side which found a completely unmarked Egidio Arévalo Rios. Rios's powerful header bounced straight into Perkins's hands.
Four minutes later, Chicago finally got the goal they needed. After winning the ball near the center of the park, the Fire cruised towards the Impact goal which saw halftime substitute Alex rip a long shot towards goal. Rios's ball deflected off Ferrari and went luckily right to Magee inside the box. Magee just needed to tap it in to get the score equal at one apiece.
In the 73rd minute, Chicago's persistence upfront saw them take the lead. Following a back pass, Perkins was indecisive with the ball at his and lost the ball to Magee putting on pressure. Magee had an easy open net tap-in to make Montreal pay for the blunder.
It went from bad to worse for the Impact. Five minutes after conceding, Montreal gave up a penalty kick when Perkins brought down Patrick Nyarko in the box. Magee stepped up to take the spot kick. Magee also had a chance to get his hat trick and more importantly secure the Fire all three points. The hometown boy smashed his penalty off the cross bar and it was eventually dealt with by the Impact.
In the 82nd minute, the third goal almost came for Chicago. Substitute Chris Rolfe worked his way down the left flank and played a perfect ball inside the box for Juan Luis Anangonó. The Ecuadorian's shot was tipped by Perkins hit the opposite side post.
The Impact weren't able to properly clear and picked up possession. Nyarko, who cut into the box and played Magee a ball at the top of the area. Magee curled his shot passed an out-of-position Perkins, but it was cleared off the line by Camara to deny his hat trick once again.
In the 87th minute, the Fire would pay for all of their missed chances. Arnaud dribbled untouched down the center of the pitch and played another through ball for Di Vaio. Di Vaio lost control of it, but the ball bounced up into Tissot's path down the left side. The 21-yeard-old guided his floating header past Johnson for the late equalizer.
Both sides held on for a 2-2 draw.
The Final Word: Montreal luckily fights off conceding a third goal and manages to score in the dying moments.
Although three points was probably the goal, the Montreal Impact should be more than happy picking up a point in this match against the Fire.
Despite a few good looking moments in the first half, Montreal let the home side gain control of play in the second half. Without possession, the Impact were forced to sit deeper and deeper and contain all of Chicago's third goal chances.
The Fire did well to not let up after scoring the equalizer and continued to push for a second. It finally came and at a great time as well.
Montreal opened up even more following that second goal and should have probably allowed a third goal. Magee came very close to scoring his third goal after having a shot cleared off the line and a penalty kick rattle off the crossbar.
The Impact were playing with fire, but finally had their late game good fortune. Another good dribble straight down the middle of the park unbalanced the Chicago Fire back line and resulted in Di Vaio getting a look on goal. His blocked effort left Tissot with a clutch header to tie t so late on.
Judging by how close Chicago came at the end, the Impact should take this point and run. Montreal's game plan in the first half was to dictate the tempo of the match and potentially score one. They did just that, but failed to keep it up in the second.
In the second half, the Impact looked less interested in playing forward and started to play very defensively instead. Unfortunately, relying on the one goal to hopefully get them a win did not pay off as they let Chicago have some good time with possession.
The Impact were under constant pressure from sitting too deep and should've conceded that third. But, since it didn't go in, Montreal were very luckily when youngster Tissot scored his header.
From now until the season ends, the Impact will have to make do with every point they get. On Friday, the team travels to Houston to face the fourth place Dynamo, who is only two points behind Montreal.
Montreal Impact Line-Up
1 Perkins
5 Brovsky
13 Ferrari
55 Lefèvre
6 Camara
8 Bernier
33 Wenger
22 Arnaud
18 Warner
21 Mapp
9 Di Vaio
Substitutions: (67) Tissot in for Wenger; (71) Romero in for Mapp; (76) Paponi in for Warner
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