A strong second half performance saw first-place Montreal Impact leave Chicago with three more points. One-nil down at halftime, the Impact made minor adjustments such as bringing on Didier Drogba, who equalized in the 56th minute. Nacho Piatti’s well-placed injury time winner gave Montreal a deserved victory.
Ignacio Piatti (Oduro) 90’+1’ (1-2)
The goal
The beginning and end of each half are always the most crucial periods in a match. Games are often won and lost in these moments.
The Impact caught the Fire in second half injury time when Piatti perfectly placed his curled shot into the opposite top corner, just out of the goalkeeper’s reach. While the technical components of this goal were superb, the entire action starts seconds earlier, with a series of defensive mistakes by Chicago.
It all starts on an Impact corner kick. The Fire defend Marco Donadel’s short corner to Piatti, clearing the ball well outside to the flanks. Chicago’s Alex Morrell chases down the clearance but instantly loses the ball when double teamed by Donadel and Eric Alexander.
At this moment, the Fire is reorganizing its defensive block after the corner. With the ball near the halfway line, the team should be organizing much quicker but is unable to. Alexander dribbles easily past Chicago forward Gilberto, whose sluggish 1-v-1 defensive effort puts his side in a bad situation. The Fire’s defensive block is still extremely unbalanced with lots of space to exploit.
Alexander sends a ball into the centre for Dominic Oduro, who receives with much time and space. Oduro attracts Chicago defenders and immediately sends the ball out to the left side for Piatti, who is also alone with loads of time and space around the edge of the box.
Another poorly played 1-v-1 defensive duel costs Chicago the game. Oduro’s ball to Piatti is played in the air, which should have given Fire right back Rodrigo Ramos the cue to press Piatti hard as the ball drops. Ramos doesn’t read that cue, leaving one of the league’s best players in space, and Piatti hurts the Fire by finessing his strike into the opposite corner of the goal.
No professional player should switch off in those moments, especially when the score is tied at home.
