Eduardo Sebrango, on the rebound of a stopped penalty kick at the 32nd minute, and Patrick Leduc, on a converted PK at 56th minute, led the Montreal squad to victory.
Greg Sutton came up with the shutout against the expansion-team Islanders. The Impact goalkeeper shut out the opposing team 11 times last year, most in the A-League.
The Montreal squad therefore put an end to a four-game losing streak in season openers. The Impact has a lifetime 6-5 record in such games, all played on the road, except in 1994.
"It was very important for us to get the win in our season opener," said Sebrango. "It’s been a couple of years that we’ve had a slow start, but we had a good camp, and everybody was up for the challenge."
Nick DeSantis, for his part, picked up a win in his very first outing as Impact head coach.
"We wanted to score more goals and be more aggressive offensively, and that’s what we did today," said DeSantis. "But also, at the same time, everybody as a group defended well. We’re a team that wants to play, and we showed that today."
Sebrango scored the only goal of the first half by heading in the rebound from a penalty kick stopped by Andrew Nucifora. The Islander goalkeeper dove to his right to make the save on Mauro Biello’s shot. The Impact captain earned the PK after he was brought down in the penalty area while trying to take a shot on net.
Leduc gave the visitors a 2-0 lead by taking a low shot to the right of Nucifora on his PK. The referee awarded the penalty kick when David Fronimadis, coming through on the right wing, was fouled in the penalty area.
The Islanders had then been playing one man short for six minutes. Javier Alessandro Novarini was ejected at the 50th minute for a hard tackle on Leduc. In spite of being down to 10 men, the Islanders had their best moments of the game after the ejection, often buzzing around Sutton’s net.
"In the first half, the Islanders had trouble controlling us because we were playing with two forwards and Mauro (Biello) was creating space from the midfield," said DeSantis. "In the second half, they only kept two defenders back and pushed up, but we stuck to our game plan, which was to block the midfield as much as possible, and we were able to contain them."
The Impact will continue its present three-game road trip next weekend. Montreal will face the A-League champion Battery, Friday night in Charleston (7:30 pm), and will be in Atlanta on Saturday to face the Silverbacks (6 pm).
The Impact will then have two weeks off to prepare for its home opener at Claude Robillard Stadium, set for Sunday, May 16 at 4 pm against the Virginia Beach Mariners.
SOMMAIRE/GAME SUMMARY
Impact de Montréal 2
Puerto Rico Islanders 0
Stade Juan Ramon Loubriel Stadium
Bayamon, Puerto Rico
Buteurs/Goal scorers:
32: MTL Eduardo Sebrango
56: MTL Patrick Leduc (PK)
Formations partantes/Starting line-ups
MTL: Greg Sutton, Gabriel Gervais, Adam Braz, David Fronimadis, Zé Roberto, Jason DiTullio, Mauro Biello (Antonio Ribeiro 75), Sandro Grande (Kyt Selaidopoulos 85), Patrick Leduc, Eduardo Sebrango, Nikola Budalic (Joel John Bailey 60).
PR: Andrew Nucifora, Javier Alessandro Novarini, Luis Fernando Zuleta, Christopher Gores, Alexis Rivera, Diego Deering, Raphel Ortiz, Hector Rivera (Angel Mussenden 81), Edivaldo Juninho Da Silva (Eddi Valdo 63), Martin Zapata, Mauricio Salles de Alencar
MTL : PR
Buts/Goals – 2:0
Tirs/Shots – 7:11
Arrêts/Saves – 4:5
Fautes/Fouls – 21:18
Hors-jeux/Offsides – 1:1
Corners – 4:7
Avert./Cautions - PR: A. Rivera (19), Novarini (40, 50), Gores (54) MTL: Grande (42), DiTullio (45)
Expul./Ejections: PR: Novarini (50)
Assist./Attend.: 5099
Arbitre/Referee
Joe Carrucio
Juges de touche/Linesmen
Antonio Lopez, Jimmy Tosado
4e officiel/4th official
Jesus Lebron
-30-
SOURCE:
bcomm
INFO:
Stéphane Banfi
514-328-3668 (ext. 27)
