Montreal Impact 0 – 0 New England Revolution

The Montreal Impact lost their final game of the season to the New England Revolution on Saturday. Center back A.J. Soares netted the winner with a header off a free kick in the 88th minute.

Head coach Jesse Marsch only made one change for this match, bringing Alessandro Nesta back into the starting XI at the expense of Sanna Nyassi. With another defender in the lineup, Davy Arnaud returned to the midfield, playing on the left. Calum Mallace and Patrice Bernier partnered as central midfielders, with Collen Warner on the right side, instead of his usual center defensive midfield role. Rookie Andrew Wenger got another start at striker with Marco Di Vaio.

Even though playoffs were out of the question, this final match of the season had some implications. With a win, Montreal would have become the top-ranked Canadian side in the 2013 Canadian Championship. Now, the Vancouver Whitecaps will claim this distinction, finishing the season one point ahead of the Impact.

The key to the ratings, as seems to be the logic on a scale of 1-10, is not to view it as a “grade”, as in a 6 would be a 60 or a C. The formula is that each player begins the game with a 5 and is the equilibrium from which their performance either improves or degrades moving in increments of .5.

Here is the breakdown of the starting XI:

GK - Troy Perkins - 5
Perkins had an easy afternoon. The Revolution only fired four shots on target, but just two were menacing. Perkins did have to make a good stop on Fernando Cardenas in the 28th minute to keep New England off the score board. On the goal, he had little chance with the deflected header.

LB - Jeb Brovsky - 5.5
This was his 28th appearance of the season and 25 of them were as a starter. Brovsky had a good match to end his season. Montreal dominated possession 62%-38%, and therefore Brovsky was able to play higher up on the pitch. He added lots of width and another viable attacking option.

CB - Matteo Ferrari - 6
Before being substituted in the 71st minute, Ferrari was in total control at the back. Ferrari and Nesta were solid and rarely gave any opportunities away to New England. Ferrari has impressive by winning the ball back every chance he got.

CB - Alessandro Nesta - 6.5
After a few poorer performances, Nesta rebounded with a very strong performance to end the season. His previous slow performances could have been because of a minor injury bothering him. Against the Revolution, Nesta was exactly the veteran and superstar that he is known for. He made all the necessary tackles and even led the team in completed passes. Throughout the 90 minutes, he completed a team-high 89 percent of his passes.

RB - Hassoun Camara - 5.5
He played back on the side after spending last match against TFC in the center. As a right back, Camara's aerial abilities are used less and there is more focus on speed. Definitely not a regular full back, Camara was able to venture up the pitch and add width like Brovsky.

LM - Davy Arnaud - 6
Nhe captain gave a complete 100 percent effort in this match. Arnaud stood out more for his defensive work. At different times, Arnaud was able to force New England players to turn over the ball and his slide tackles were perfect. He led the team with 10 recoveries.

CM - Patrice Bernier - 5.5
Before the first ball was kicked, the Canadian international received the Giuseppe Saputo Trophy awarded to the team's MVP for the season. In the match, Bernier was quiet, but did everything right. He didn't contribute a ton to the offense; however he did start things up. Bernier was a good link between the back line and the strikers.

CM - Calum Mallace - 5.5
The rookie from Torphichen, Scotland made his third straight start to close the season. This was his fourth appearance in total. Mallace showed off his physical side against the Revs. He was more than aggressive and made sure he came out of challenges as the winner. Mallace did everything he had to do. He will be exciting to watch in 2013.

RM - Collen Warner - 5
He was not at his best in this one. Warner played as a right midfielder for the second match in a row. Against Toronto FC, Warner was involved and seemed to adapt to the new position. Now against the Revolution, Warner looked out of place at times. He was replaced by Sinisa Ubiparipovic in the 87th minute.

ST - Andrew Wenger - 5
Like Warner, he was much better against TFC than against New England. In this match, Wenger only managed to take one shot. He made some good runs and was always in a good position to score, except he never got the ball. As a result, he was ineffective and substituted in the 79th minute for Eduardo Sebrango.

MOTM ST - Marco Di Vaio - 6.5
Di Vaio single handily equalled all of New England's offensive starts. Both he and New England had a total of seven shots, with four hitting the target. The Italian was the sole person on the both sides of the pitch to either create a play or take the shot on goal. Di Vaio was able to play the playmaker and the targetman role equally well. If Montreal were going to score, it probably would have been off his foot.

Substitutes:

71st - Justin Mapp - 5.5

79th - Eduardo Sebrango - 5

87th - Sinisa Ubiparipovic - 5