MONTREAL – The Montreal Impact U21 team (2-0-3) remains undefeated this season, earning a shutout victory over Toronto FC Academy by a score of 1-0, Sunday, at the sports complex of St-Jean-Vianney College.
Impact forward Stefan Vukovic, who was playing against his former club, scored the lone goal in the 48th minute, beating the TFC goalkeeper with a low shot that went cross side from inside the 18-yard box, finishing off a nice play by Zakaria Messoudi.
“I am satisfied with the win, but a little less so in the way we played,” said Impact U21 head coach Philippe Eullaffroy. “We played a good first half without taking advantage of it. The courage and determination were better than our technique on the field. Defensively, we gave nothing away. I would have liked to see a little more from us but it’s always nice to beat Toronto.”
Impact goalkeeper Jason Beaulieu was effective over the 90 minutes to get the shutout.
A few seconds before the game-winning goal, Kevin Luarca-Echeverria, who entered the game at half-time, hit the crossbar with a one-timer following a cross that came in from the right flank.
In the game final minutes, the Impact had a couple of scoring chances. Defender Hugo Lapointe-Sénécal took a shot from point blank range that was stopped by the diving keeper. Then in stoppage time, midfielder Dominique Morin sprung Luarca on a breakaway, but the goalkeeper came charging out of his goal to end the threat.
In the first half, Messoudi had the best scoring chance, when in the 16th minute when he created a turnover in TFC territory and took a shot from 20 meters out that was stopped by the TFC goalkeeper diving to his left.
Next game
The Impact U21 will play its next game on Saturday versus SC Waterloo, again at the sports complex of St-Jean-Vianney College, in RDP, at 2pm (ET).
Impact U21 Starting lineup
GK-Jason Beaulieu; D-Francesco Augustin, Amine Meftouh, Kai Morton, Walid Abdelali (Kevin Luarca-Echeverria 45’); M-Hugo Lapointe-Sénécal, Zakaria Messoudi (Philippe Lincourt-Joseph 80’), Dominique Morin, Jeremy Gagnon-Laparé; F-Victor Ndiaye, Stefan Vukovic
Subs not used : GK-Samuel Dufort, D/M-Tarik Agday, F-Alexander King
Injured players
GK – Maxime Crépeau; M - Félix Cardin, Chris-Michel Rumuri; F – Anthony Jackson-Hamel, Mircea Ilcu
