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Montreal Impact 1 – Columbus Crew 1
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The Prelude to Battle
The Eastern Conference leading Montreal Impact were back in action following a two week break. The Canadian side returned home to Saputo Stadium after playing their first two home matches at the Olympic Stadium.
Originally supposed to be played on Saturday, a snowstorm in Montreal on Friday forced the club and the league to push the game to Sunday. The frozen pitch was all clear when the match started.
The Impact made one alteration to their starting lineup. Center back Alessandro Nesta was fit again to start alongside Matteo Ferrari. However, an injury to Ferrari during warm-up required assistant coach Mauro Biello to send Karl Ouimette into the lineup. Biello was of course replacing Marco Schällibaum, who was serving his one-match ban.
Columbus came into this match following a 1-1 draw against the Philadelphia Union last weekend. Crew head coach Robert Warzycha kept the same XI, but altered his formation to a 4-2-3-1 instead of the usual 4-4-1-1.
The Opening 45
The first shot of the match went to the home side. In the seventh minute, Andrés Romero's corner was unable to be cleared leaving Felipe with an opportunity. The Brazilian rolled his shot right at Crew goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum.
In the 36th minute, the Crew almost grabbed the lead. Midfielder Ben Speas dribbled through the center of the pitch and fired a strong shot from over 25-yards-out. Troy Perkins saved it for a corner kick.
Three minutes later, Columbus had an even better chance. After a failed pass from Hassoun Camara, Federico Higuaín was played in on a breakaway. Troy Perkins rushed out to challenge and stopped the Argentine from chipping the ball into the goal.
The score remained at nil-nil as the first half came to a close.
The Second Half
Montreal turned up the pressure early in the second half.
Within the first 20 minutes, the home side was constantly threatening the Crew goal. Marco Di Vaio, Felipe and Patrice Bernier each had their shot blocked or failed to fire a shot on goal.
In the 63rd minute, they should have had the lead. Bernier and Davy Arnaud connected well, when Arnaud slipped Di Vaio in on goal. The Italian found the low corner of the goal, but it was called back for offside. In a second look, Di Vaio timed his run perfectly and was in-line with former Impact defender Tyson Wahl.
Five minutes later, Di Vaio found the back of the goal...this time it counted. Following a cross from the left flank, where the volley was fanned on by Sanna Nyassi, the ball rolled outside the box to Di Vaio. He caught the ball right on the bounce and drove his shot low and past Gruenebaum for the lead.
In the 72nd minute, the Crew levelled the score. Following a botched clearance from Bernier, the ball flew high to Camara and Crew striker Dominic Oduro. Oduro beat Camara, expertly controlled the ball and laced a left-footed dipper over Perkins into the top corner.
Six minutes later, Montreal benefitted from a quick counter-attack. Justin Mapp surged down the left flank and floated a cross to Nyassi inside the box. Nyassi's volley sailed to the right of Gruenebaum.
Each side had a chance in the final 10 minutes of the match, but neither could score. Nothing was able to separate both sides as both settled for a point.
Post-Match Reaction
"I think we did enough to win this game," said assistant coach Mauro Biello. "They had one chance in the second half, other than set-pieces that looked a little bit shaky. It's not easy; games like this are going to happen. We would have loved to have the three points, but we got to continue to build on what we saw today and get better from here."
"I think their system was to stay very compact," he went on to say in his post-match press conference. "They wanted us to send long balls, because their center backs are tall and Marco [Di Vaio] is shorter. We wanted to play on the floor and use the wings to stretch the field and find space. I felt we were able to do that well."
"We're a little disappointed with the result," said captain Davy Arnaud. "It was one of those games where you felt like the team that got the first goal was going to win game. When we scored, it felt like we were going to go on and get the three points. Unfortunately we didn't."
"We got to be a little bit better in front of goal when we have our chances." said Patrice Bernier. "We had two or three clear cut chances that could have given us the victory. But, I got to take the positives. We dictated play and showed a lot more energy than we did in the game against Kansas City."
"It was a little bit more of an open game in the second half," said midfielder Justin Mapp. "We created some more chances, but unfortunately we weren't able to put enough away for the win."
The Final Word: Montreal did enough to win, but finishing problems keep them from the three points.
These types of matches are always tough to predict. In terms of the way the team played, the Impact did enough to win the game, but at the same time, a draw is realistically the fairer result of the two.
In the first half, the team kept the ball for as much as possible. They were winning the possession battle and did sneak into the Columbus penalty area on occasion.
Defensively things were tight. Nesta was able to keep everything under control and Ouimette was composed despite only knowing a few minutes into warm-up that he would be starting.
The ball was stuck in the middle of the pitch for a majority of the 90 minutes. Just as the Impact compressed and closed the middle, the Crew were also as good. Montreal were forced to play down the flanks instead of through the middle like they usually do.
Montreal's wide play was poor in the first half, but things were much better in the second half when Nyassi came on for Romero. With Nyassi on the right and Mapp on the left, the Impact were finding lots of success regardless of the side they were attacking on.
Mapp played great all match and always seemed able to find extra space to whip in a cross. His deliveries were almost all good. Almost each ball in had potential to be struck on goal. On Nyassi's right side, there were fewer crosses, but a lot more cut-ins and shots from around the top of the box.
Di Vaio did very well throughout the afternoon and should have had two goals, instead of the one. He was clearly onside on the goal that was called back.
What Montreal failed on was finishing from inside the box. There weren't plenty of chances to work with, but some of the ones that occurred should have ended much better. On a few occasions, whether it was a cross or corner kick, the ball would find an Impact player with enough space to challenge Gruenebaum. However, these shots were often off-target or blocked.
At the back, the Impact were perfectly okay. Having Nesta back was a major boost of confidence and the Italian was almost flawless. Ouimette had a tough night in Kansas City two weeks ago, but was much better this afternoon.
On the goal, it was a case of lackluster defending that hurt the team. This was the only time in the match, where the Impact just took it easy when they were defending. They paid for this mistake. A missed clearance from Bernier, followed by lazy defending from Camara, enabled Oduro to create space and fire on goal. Despite the poor defending, it still took a fantastic strike to be Perkins.
There are some positives to take from this match, but in the end Montreal will need to turn up the pace for the entire 90 minutes, instead of the bits of the second half where they showed their dominance. The Impact are capable of outplaying any team in the league, they just need to be more consistent and go harder every match if they want to keep winning like they have this season already.
Montreal Impact Line-up
1 Perkins
5 Brovsky
34 Ouimette
14 Nesta
6 Camara
8 Bernier
21 Mapp
7 Felipe
22 Arnaud
15 Romero
9 Di Vaio
Substitutions: (67) Nyassi in for Romero; (80) Wenger in for Mapp; (87) Tissot in for Di Vaio
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