Three unanswered goals send Reds past the Impact
Montreal definitely had a game plan going into enemy territory last Saturday for its game against Toronto FC. Sitting nine points behind the Impact before this game kicked off, the Reds knew this was a must-win if they wanted to keep their playoff hopes alive. The Impact, on its end, relished at the opportunity of putting its biggest rival on the cusp of elimination.
That may have been the Bleu-blanc-noir’s downfall at the end.
“We’ve made the mistake a few times this year where we’ve looked at the table,” explained goalkeeper Evan Bush. “In this league, you don’t look at the standings, especially in games like this. Toronto is still a top team in this league, regardless of how many points they have. You fall in a trap of maybe going into a game with an arrogance that should really be just confidence.”
The Bleu-blanc-noir had a mountain to climb early in this one, when Sebastian Giovinco opened the scoring in the seventh minute. TFC followed that up with two more goals, putting the Bleu-blanc-noir into a three-goal deficit by the 29th minute.
“You can game plan all you want, but when you get there and get hit in the mouth, it’s still a game and you still have to play,” said defender Daniel Lovitz. “I thought we reacted poorly to them getting the opening goal, because it was an open game and we had chances right after that.”
The Impact did indeed get its fair share of opportunities in this one; the Montreal squad attempted 16 shots on Alex Bono’s cage, getting six on target, which is more than its counterpart. The Bleu-blanc-noir also had two goals overturned in the first half after Alejandro Silva got his team on the board in the 30th minute.
“We did not lose this game offensively. It’s collectively, defensively, in our intensity and in our desire to defend that we were beaten,” said Impact head coach Rémi Garde. “Every game we’ve won this season, we all collectively worked very hard, and we gave our opponent a lot less chances than we did tonight.”
Despite the result, the Impact remains six points ahead of Toronto in the standings, with the two scheduled to meet one more time before the end of the season, at Stade Saputo on October 21, for the Impact’s last home of the 2018 MLS regular season (TICKETS – TVA Sports, TSN, 98,5fm, TSN Radio 690).
