Montreal Impact 1 – 0 Sporting Kansas City
The Prelude to Battle
The Montreal Impact needed a stoppage time goal to finally earn three points that have eluded them since mid-June. Substitute Blake Smith was clutch when he calmly converted a rolling shot from inside the box.
Given Montreal's last few results and their position in the standings, this was pretty much a must-win match. Sporting Kansas City arrived at Saputo Stadium four points ahead of the Impact to lead the Eastern Conference. Montreal has two matches in-hand.
Head coach Marco Schällibaum welcomed back Marco Di Vaio to the starting XI. The Italian was recently in Italy taking care of family matters and therefore missed last match. Schällibaum kept the same 4-3-3 formation with Justin Mapp and Sanna Nyassi providing wide support for Di Vaio. The rest of the lineup stayed the same.
New signings Hernán Bernardello and Adrián López Rodriguez were not in the lineup, but were presented to the fans at halftime. They are expected to join the club in training this week starting on Tuesday morning.
This was the third and final meeting between both Montreal and Kansas City. Sporting KC won the first match of the season 2-0 at home in March, while the Impact took the second in early June, also at Sporting Park.
The Opening 45
It did not look like a typical home performance for the Impact, as it was the visitors who were actually controlling play for over an hour.
However, it was the Impact with the first good chance of the match. In the 20th minute, Mapp recovered a ball in his own half, went on a run through the center of the pitch and played a good through ball for Nyassi. The Gambian had a clear path to the goal, but Jimmy Nielsen did well to stop the point-blank effort.
The visitors continued dictate the pace of the match by moving the ball around well in Montreal's half of the pitch, but had nothing to show with their 60 percent possession in the first half.
The Impact responded by playing very defensive and didn't give away much in terms of space and chances. The defensive block stayed compact and the middle was sealed tight making Sporting Kansas City struggle to get anything in the final third.
The Second Half
The second half started similarly to the first half. Sporting KC had an even easier time keeping the ball under control when manager Peter Vermes opted to bring American international Benny Feilhaber.
In the 52nd minute, Sporting had their best chance of the match. The visitors sent a long ball into the box which was headed towards the center. Striker Claudio Bieler caught the ball on the bounce sending it towards the top corner. Impact keeper Troy Perkins stuck out his palm to make a terrific off-balance stop.
Just over 10 minutes later, the away side kept on pushing for the opening goal. After working the ball down to the right side, Feilhaber hit a low cross that skipped by everyone in the six-yard-box. The ball met Bieler at the back post, but his shot was blocked by Hassoun Camara.
With two injuries that ended up stopping play for quite a while, the referee gave seven minutes of added time.
Three minutes after the 90, substitute Blake Smith controlled a poor Kansas City clearance and struck the ball on the half-volley. Nielsen made an outstanding diving stop to deny Smith a sure 'goal-of-the-week'.
Six minutes into the added time, Smith was at it again. A low ball played in from the right side was dummied by Patrice Bernier atop the box. The ball found Di Vaio who poked it through for an unmarked Smith. The rookie fired his low shot through Nielsen's legs to give Montreal the three points.
The Impact now, along with the New York Red Bulls, are one point behind Sporting KC for first place in the East. Montreal heads to D.C. United next week before returning home for their CONCACAF Champions League opener against San Jose on August 7.
The Final Word: The Impact sat back most of the match and waited until the end to get the winner.
This definitely did not look like a vintage Montreal home match. Normally, the Impact loves to try and control the entire match by keeping possession and constantly threaten their opponents with crosses and build-up plays that result in decent shots.
In this match, it seems as though Schällibaum was employing road tactics to try and snap the winless streak that has been troubling the team for over a month. On the road, Montreal tends to defend well by putting many players behind the ball. When the chance comes, it's a quick counter attack the other way to try and catch the other team on the back foot.
Against Sporting Kansas City, the Impact tried to do the same. Whether it was because the team was instructed to sit back or because Sporting had possession often, Montreal played very deep in their own zone, regularly dropping all but one man behind the ball.
To give credit where it is due, the defending part was almost perfect. The problem came once Montreal had the ball. They struggled to get the ball forward into an area that created problems for Kansas City defenders.
The Impact's counter attack was poor because wingers Nyassi and Mapp were way too slow to get wide and push forward quickly. With the wingers not in proper position, the only option the team had most of the match was to try and send a long ball forward for Di Vaio.
This was a problem as Di Vaio almost constantly had both Sporting center backs on him like glue. Usually they were able to win the battles, but when Di Vaio did come away with the ball, he had virtually no support whatsoever. Felipe was absent all match and the wingers were always late to the play. As a result, Di Vaio tried to do it himself, but of course didn't manage.
As of the 65th minute, Montreal changed the way they played. Now, the team held onto the ball and were a lot faster when attacking. Both wingers were in place and the Impact started to have success playing down the flanks. The team still struggled to get passed the Kansas City back line, but at least they forcing their opponents to think a little bit and handle the different situations.
Even though the Impact were looking more and more confident with the ball, the spark up front was still missing.
Just when everything was looking like a draw, the Impact got the breakthrough and finished when they needed to. Smith is turning out to be a great sub every match. Knowing that he doesn't see as much pitch time as some of the veteran players, Smith is almost always able to give a strong performance the few minutes he's on. This week it paid off.
Montreal were fortunate enough to get a win in this match, but the team has to improve its attack if they want to find the form they previously had in the season. The back line is strong like before and all that's missing is the domination up front to balance out the squad.
Approaching future matches like they did against Sporting Kansas City won't always get them three points. The Impact only really decided to push forward late in the match and they will not always be as fortunate as they were.
Montreal Impact Line-up
1 Perkins
5 Brovsky
13 Ferrari
14 Nesta
6 Camara
22 Arnaud
7 Felipe
8 Bernier
21 Mapp
9 Di Vaio
11 Nyassi
Substitutions: (66) Romero in for Felipe; (80) Smith in for Nyassi; (89) Wenger in for Di Vaio
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