MONTREAL, Quebec – Braces by forwards Mircea Ilcu and Victor Ndiaye helped the Impact U21 (10-3-5) earn its fifth win in a row, Sunday afternoon, in a 6-1 triumph (1-0 at half ) over the Brantford Galaxy (8-11-1), at the Claude-Robillard Sports Complex, in Montreal.
The win puts the Impact in fifth place in the Canadian Soccer League (CSL) standings, tied with TFC Academy (10-4-5). The Impact has one game in hand.
“We were not good enough at the start of this game,” said U21 team assistant coach Nicolas Gagnon. “We played to their level, which was slow, but we corrected some of our mistakes and the final score tells the story of the game’s second half.”
“The team is playing very well right now,” said forward Mircea Ilcu. “We didn’t start the game well, but with some adjustments at halftime and we performed much better.”
Ilcu scored his first goal in the 17th minute. Defender Maxim Tissot played a long cross from the right flank towards Ilcu near the penalty spot, whose shot short side beat the goalkeeper.
In the 57th minute, midfielder Wandrille Lefevre scored the first of three goals in a four minute span, with his seventh of the season. Near the top of the box, Lefevre took a pass from Tissot from a corner kick before firing a hard shot that beat Galaxy keeper Zoron Pusica.
Two minutes later, the Impact U21s improved on their lead when midfielder Zakaria Messoudi found the back of the net. Taking a pass in the box from forward Yacine Ait-Slimane of the Impact U18 squad, Messoudi beat the keeper with a shot to the near post.
Ilcu then scored his second of the game in the 60th minute, taking advantage of a rebound by the goalkeeper and putting the ball into an empty net. Ilcu came close to scoring a hat trick in the 76th minute, but his penalty kick was stopped by a diving Pusica.
Forward Victor Ndiaye, who came into the game in the 70th minute, scored his fourth and fifth goals of the season in the 71st and 87th minutes.
Midfielder Shayne Trembley scored the lone goal for the Galaxy in the 79th minute, spoiling Impact U21 goalkeeper Jason Beaulieu’s shutout.
Impact U21 head coach Philippe Eullaffroy was not on the bench for this one, serving a one game suspension resulting from an ejection in the last matchup versus Niagara United.
Upcoming games
The Impact U21 travels to Ontario to play two games in as many days, against the North York Astros (2-17-1) on Saturday, September 29, at 4:30pm (ET), and then against the York Regions Shooters (9-1-10) on Sunday, at 6:30pm (ET).
Impact U16 and U18
Elsewhere, the U16 and U18 Impact squads played in their third weekend in the US Soccer Development Academy (USSDA), on Sunday - a double header against FC Westchester.
The U18 team tied its third consecutive game, a 3-3 draw, scoring its first ever goal in USSDA play. Francis Duceppe scored a brace, while Charles Joly was also on the scoresheet.
The Impact U16 won its second consecutive game of the season, by a 6-0 scoreline, including a hat-trick by Heikel Jarras. Claudio Di Zazzo, Juliano Cobuzzi and Jimmy Sanon also scored in the win, which now puts the team in first place, tied with three other teams.
U21 Lineup
GK - Jason Beaulieu; D - Hugo Lapointe-Sénécal, Amine Meftouh, Karl W. Ouimette, Maxime Tissot; M – Kevin Luarca (Philippe Lincourt-Joseph 53’), Wandrille Lefevre, Dominique Morin (Félix Cardin 66’), Zakaria Messoudi (Kai Morton 72’); F – Yacine Alt-Slimane* (Victor Ndiaye 70’), Mircea Ilcu (Anthony Jackson-Hamel 79’)
Unused subs : GK – Hicham Kettani; D – Francesco Augustin
*Impact U18
Goals:
MTL – Ilcu (Tissot) 17’
MTL – Lefevre (Tissot) 57’
MTL – Messoudi (Ait-Slimane) 59’
MTL – Ilcu 60’
MTL – Ndiaye (Meftouh) 71’
BRT – Trembley 79’
MTL – Ndiaye 87’
Cautions:
MTL – Lefevre 55’
MTL – Cardin 78’
