Did Daniel Lovitz save the Impact’s season? What’s certain is that his first career MLS goal allowed the Bleu-blanc-noir to maintain its favourable position in the race for an MLS Cup playoff spot. With eight games remaining, Montreal is still sixth, tied for points with the Philadelphia Union in fifth, and four points ahead of the New England Revolution, our last opponent in the regular season.
Unbeaten in their last three games, Rémi Garde’s troops had time to take a breather after an exhausting month of July, and have been able to get results through sheer effort, most certainly, but also thanks to their resilience. If Saturday’s game wasn’t the most complete in terms of performance, the Impact reacted well after Nemanja Nikolic’s equalizer in the middle of the second half. The eagerness shown by the players, along with the loud encouragements from our supporters, was rewarded with three points in the end. Here are your weekly advanced stats.
Samuel Piette: 52 successful passes, including 4 in the final third, for an 84% success rate, 9 duels won, 1 tackle won, 2 interceptions, 2 aerial duels won, 9 recoveries, 73 touches.
Nacho Piatti: 3 shots, 1 on target, 26 successful passes, including 12 in the final third, for a 76% success rate, 2 chances created, 4 dribbles completed, 6 duels won, 2 tackles won, 1 interception, 7 recoveries, 47 touches.
Saphir Taïder: 3 shots, 44 successful passes, including 18 in the final third, for an 83% success rate, 1 chance created, 3 duels won, 2 recoveries, 70 touches.
Bacary Sagna: 48 successful passes, including 15 in the final third, for an 80% success rate, 2 chances created, 1 successful cross, 5 duels won, 4 interceptions, 3 clearances, 3 aerial duels won, 3 recoveries, 94 touches.
Bacary Sagna in club career: 508 games played, 6 goals, 37 assists, 52 yellow cards, 2 red cards, 43,137 minutes of play, 1 FA Cup, 1 League Cup, 1 Coupe de France.
