MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA — L’Impact de Montreal fought to a deserved 1-0 win over the new York Red Bulls Sunday afternoon — without the help of Didier Drogba — after a spectacular goal from Matteo Mancosu secured the lead in the 61st minute of the game. The goal was Mancosu’s 3rd goal in the Major League Soccer playoffs thus far.
On a cold, gloomy day in Montreal 15,027 Québécois shivered their way into Stade Saputo to cheer on the Impact in what could’ve been the Impact’s last game of the season.
The build up in the days prior, unsurprisingly, had swirled around Montreal’s Didier Drogba, and whether he would take any part in the first leg of this playoff tie. However the game-day suspense was taken away when the eclectic Ivorian tweeted that he was “very disappointed not to be of the team because of that darn pain in the back” on Saturday evening.
The tongue-in-cheek message to his 1.16 million “followers” on twitter was indicative of the legendary strikers relationship with the top brass of the club of late, but that wasn’t going to prove a distraction for Montreal in their push to even up their season record versus the New York Red Bulls with a commanding 1-0 win in the first leg of this Eastern Conference semi-final.
The Impact’s best chance of the first half fell to Matteo Mancosu. After a frustrating first 43 minutes Igancio Piatti was able to work his magic showing both his physical strength and skill by outmuscling a New York defender and clipping in a perfectly weighted cross to Mancosu, but the Italian striker was only able to guide his header wide of a scrambling Luis Robles.
The game was a physical battle, playoff matches usually are — it’s easy to lose focus, and your head when games get this way. But not Montreal, not today. L’Impact were tough, organised, and made it very hard for the Red Bulls — unbeaten in 20 games across all competitions until Sunday — to get Bradley Wright-Phillips or Sacha Kljestan going. They played with laser-focus, and never took their eyes off the prize.
Without the Red Bulls’ two most creative players firing on all cylinders, a game-of-inches second half opened up when Marco Donadel spotted a run being made his fellow Italian, Matteo Mancosu, and lofted a perfectly weighted pass in behind the defense. Mancosu let the ball bounce once and fired a shot past Robles that no goalkeeper in the world would have stopped, making the net ripple like a bag full of pythons.
C’est magnifique!, as they say here in Montreal.
L’Impact were unchanged from the 4-2 win against DC United at RFK, meaning that Laurent Ciman and Ambriose Oyongo would be playing in their third game in just eight days. Before the game there was a feeling that the Red Bulls may take advantage of this. But Lauren Ciman and the rest of Biello’s back-line had other ideas.
Ciman’s performance was particularly impressive, the Belgian international led the team with 67 touches and had a game-high 11 clearances. His experience in Europe and in major international competitions showed through with a composure and determination that you don’t see in many Major League Soccer defenders.
“Playoffs are big moments for big players and Lauren is a big player. His focus has been right on the last two games” said Mauro Biello. “He’s been able to win balls, anticipate well, pass out of the back. He’s a player that has played at the highest level; World Cup’s, in Euros. He’s someone with a lot of experience and now were seeing that in his play.”
Everything that Mauro Biello said about Laurent Ciman was on show vs New York, but one sequence of play summed it up perfectly.
In the 65th minute when Bradley Wright-Phillips skipped around Ciman, he didn’t just stand and watch — the 2015 Major League Soccer defender of the year gave chase across the box. Ciman saw Grella would pass the ball wide to Kljestan, and threw himself in-front of the former Anderlecht midfielder’s shot. It wasn’t the Belgian who got the block, but Ciman’s determination to make up for his mistake rushed Kljestan, and that was key in Evan Bush being able to re-adjust to keep the score at 1-0 — denying the Red Bulls that all-important away goal.
That came at a pivotal time in the game, Montreal was only just up 1-0 and the stop help L’Impact slow the game down and run out the clock.
The one blot on an otherwise fascinating physical battle was the sending off of Omer Damari. Damari entered the game int he 82nd minute for Alex Muyl, and just 11 minutes later — as referee Robert Sibiga was about to stop the game for a foul on Sacha Kljestan — Damari charged at Cameron Mallace and lunged at the ball. It was high, hard, and most certainly a red card.
New York Red Bulls coach Jesse Marsch did admit that the challenge looked “aggressive,” from where he was sitting but lamented the referee not making the decision to award New York a few seconds later because in his words “I thought they should have called a foul on Kljestan before … right? Then you just solve this and the play stops.”
Mauro Biello was extremely proud of his team’s performance; “Credit to my players,” the coach beamed. “It was a fantastic performance … to come out and win this game against probably the favorites of the MLS Cup is amazing.”
What Biello was most impressed with, however, is how the team continues to grow, and grow together. “What I liked most was what they did after they scored — they all celebrated together” said the Quebec native, “to me thats a bond and its something very strong. It gives a feeling of security, it gives a feeling of confidence and when you have that you become powerful.”
Stade Saputo shook as the Québécois roared at full time — the Impact are one step closer to the club’s first-ever Eastern Conference final.
The Montreal Impact plays the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Area in Harrison, NJ in the second leg of the Eastern Conference semi-final’s on Sunday November 6th, at 4pm ET.
