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Sporting Kansas City 2 – Montreal Impact 0
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The Prelude to Battle
The Montreal Impact were back on the road following two consecutive matches at the Olympic Stadium. The squad travelled to Sporting Park looking to repeat their 2-0 win in 2012.
Head coach Marco Schällibaum made one substitution from last week's victory over New York. Justin Mapp was back in the starting lineup, replacing Andrea Pisanu at left midfield. Pisanu was not on Montreal's bench either. Blake Smith, this year's first round draft pick, was on the bench and made his first career appearance late in the match.
Sporting Kansas City came into this one on a three match winless streak. Their only win this season came on opening day against Philadelphia. Head coach Peter Vermes made three changes to his lineup. Graham Zusi and Matt Besler returned from international duty and replaced Soony Saad and Ike Opara respectively. Chance Myers replaced Mechack Jerome at right back.
The Opening Forty-Five
The home fans could not have asked for a better start.
In the fifth minute, Benny Feilhaber picked out Claudio Bieler with a good through ball atop the 18-yard-box. Bieler curled a shot passed Troy Perkins.
Sporting KC almost doubled the lead seven minutes later. Zusi floated in a free kick to Aurélien Collin inside the box. Collin's header sailed in the goal, but was called for offside.
In the 23rd minute, Zusi and Bieler were very close to finding that second goal. Sporting recovered a Perkins clearance and moved the ball quickly to Zusi. The American international found space and squared a ball to Bieler inside the box. The Argentinean's left-footed effort flew over the bar.
Despite Sporting's constant threats, the team was only ahead 1-0 at the break.
The Second Half
The home side came close to scoring four minutes after the restart. Myers dribbled right through the midfield unchallenged, beat two Impact players are nailed a shot not far off Perkins's left post.
In the 57th minute, Besler played a great through ball down the left side for Seth Sinovic. Sinovic fired a left footed low shot across the face off goal and out.
Montreal's first and only shot came on the hour mark. Patrice Bernier's long ball was deflected to Marco Di Vaio just outside the box. Di Vaio hit a quick left-footed volley right at Jimmy Nielsen.
In the 71st minute, SKC midfielder Paulo Nagamura found Bieler with a cross field ball. Bieler controlled it on his right foot and missed the opposite top corner by inches from inside the box.
The home side were finally rewarded with their second goal in the 80th minute. Feilhaber's through ball met Zusi on the run. Zusi shrugged off Karl Ouimette and bounced his shot passed Perkins.
That goal confirmed the three points for Sporting Kansas City.
The Final Word: Montreal outplayed at both ends of the pitch
The Impact began the season with two tough road matches in Cascadia. They won them both by playing extremely organized defence and were successful on the counter attack.
In this match, coach Shallibaum, as expected, kept the same formation which earned the team four straight wins. Although the formation was the same, the same can't be said about the team's style of play.
Perhaps riding the confidence from a perfect start to the season, Montreal played this road fixture completely differently than their first two.
In this match, Montreal were looking to control the game by winning the possession battle and attempted to employ high pressure once they lost the ball. On the ball, fullbacks Jeb Brovsky and Hassoun Camara played high up the pitch in order to give the team extra width and more men up front.
However, Kansas City did not sit back and play defensively. They worked hard to win the ball back and were able to play forward quickly to their three attackers up front. The 4-3-3 used by Vermes always ensured the team had support on the flanks and up front.
When SKC did win back possession, Camara and Brovsky were caught too far up and out of position, leaving Matteo Ferrari, Ouimette and Bernier defending.
Bieler's first goal was an example of this. Sporting intercepted a long pass in midfield intended for Camara. Instead of staying in the center, Ouimette shifted out right to cover an oncoming winger. Ferrari was too late to slide over leaving Bieler alone in the middle.
Many first half Kansas City threats were similar scenarios.
Montreal did decently well in the midfield. Felipe was successful finding Di Vaio a few times, Bernier build up plays and was solid for most the 90 minutes. Davy Arnaud did well on both sides of the ball as well.
Offensively, the Impact were barely able to get into the attacking third. Poor decisions or good defensive plays stopped every attack.
When Montreal lost the ball, they tried to pressure high up, but were beat most occasions leaving players too far up and out of position.
The back line was never secure as a result, often being left with little support. With the unstable back line, and struggling front line, Montreal were in for a tough night.
This was a type of match the Impact could have used Alessandro Nesta. Nesta and Ferrari have great chemistry and are almost always calm while under pressure.
In his fourth MLS appearance, Ouimette looked unsettled and was never able to get his confidence up. There were a few moments where there seemed to be some miscommunication between him and Ferrari.
This could have been the issue on Zusi's late goal. Zusi was able to run behind and around Ferrari, where he cut in towards Ouimette's side. Neither Montreal center back picked him up.
However, the major problem on this goal was the fact that Feilhaber had lots of space to pick out the pass. Arnaud was the closest to Feilhaber and was easily beat trying to defend him while he was flat-footed.
Coach Schällibaum and his side now have two weeks to review their tactics or revert to their previous style of play that got them four straight wins. In the beginning of the season, it's always okay to experiment with different tactics, especially when the team is still leading the conference regardless of the result.
Montreal should be able to recover from this bump and come out strong against Columbus at Saputo Stadium on April 13.
Montreal Impact Line-up
1 Perkins
5 Brovsky
34 Ouimette
13 Ferrari
6 Camara
8 Bernier
21 Mapp
7 Felipe
22 Arnaud
15 Romero
9 Di Vaio
Substitutions: (62) Wenger in for Felipe; (63) Nyassi in for Romero; (79) Smith in for Di Vaio.
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