Goals by Mauricio Vincello, at the 33rd minute of play, and Fred Commodore, at the 78th minute, led to Montreal’s victory.
Montreal, who follows the Charleston Battery as the A-League reigning champions, wins the title for the second time in club history and the first time since 1994. Seattle lost in its third trip to the final, after winning the championship in 1995 and 1996.
"It was a great feeling as a player, and it’s a great feeling as a coach," said Impact head coach Nick DeSantis, who was part of the 1994 championship team, along with Mauro Biello and Lloyd Barker. "The guys have shown consistency all year, and they’ve done it all the way. They’ve been on a mission since day one and they showed today that they deserved the title."
"This final, I played the full 90 minutes, so it’s pretty special," said Biello. "This championship means a lot — I captained this team, a great group of players."
"I couldn’t hope for a better gift," said defender Gabriel Gervais, who was celebrating his 28th birthday, Saturday. "Everybody worked hard, we showed we had the better team. And all that in front of 13,000 people, it’s incredible."
The match-up was played in front of 13,648 spectators at Claude Robillard Sports Complex, a a club record for an Impact home game, regular season or playoffs. The old record — 11,019 fans — was set last August 6 against the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Vincello was proclaimed the Man of the Match, an honour all the more deserved considering he was knocked out by the flu, Friday, and spent the night on intravenous fluids under the care of Dr Scott Delaney, and was therefore able to recover enough to play.
"I didn’t feel so good during the warm-up, but I felt better and better during the game," said Vincello. "I wanted to play. I played all year, so I didn’t want to miss the final even if I wasn’t 100 percent."
Following a layoff from ZĂ© Roberto in the middle of the field, Vincello ran towards the penalty area and took a high shot on the right side with the left foot that left no chance for Seattle goalkeeper Preston Burpo.
On the second goal, Nevio Pizzolitto heeled the ball back towards Commodore, who found himself alone at the right post and didn’t miss his chance from up close.
Craig Tomlinson missed a good chance for Seattle a few minutes earlier, at the 74th. After moving up on the left side, his shot hit the crossbar.
"We wanted to go at them, we said let’s go out and put some pressure on them, and that’s what we did. We scored the first goal but we wanted that second goal, and we kept going. And we put the game away," explained Biello, whose team dominated the game 16-5 in shots — 10-2 in the second half.
Goalkeeper Greg Sutton picked up his fourth shutout of the playoffs, in five starts.
"Individual honours don’t mean much if you don’t win the championship," said Sutton. "There’s such good chemistry on this team. There isn’t one guy that didn’t contribute."
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SOURCE:
bcomm
INFO:
Stéphane Banfi
514-328-3668 (ext. 27)
