Impact defenders score big goals in back to back games
The MLS regular season is truly coming down to the wire. Only seven games remain for the Bleu-blanc-noir to cement its position in the Eastern Conference and take part in the fall tournament.
But if the Impact has been able to maintain the sixth and last playoff spot in the East during the last few weeks, that’s because of the positive results they’ve been able to achieve: a 1-1 draw in Real Salt Lake, and a dramatic 2-1 win over the Fire just last week at Stade Saputo.
What do those two games have in common? Both the tying goal in Utah and the winning goal against the Fire were scored by full-backs. And they could not have come at a better time.
“It’s important,” said midfielder Samuel Piette. “Both goals came off corners. It feels good to score in a different way. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who scores as long as we win the game, but it’s nice to not have just Nacho or Saphir scoring goals. The guys are happy, and it gives them more confidence. It gives them a little something more for the remaining games.”
The goals were scored by Finnish defender Jukka Raitala, who tied the game in Real Salt Lake, and Daniel Lovitz, who scored in the dying seconds of last week’s game against Chicago to give his team all three points.
“Us contributing offensively is huge,” said Lovitz. “I think in this part of the year, every team kind of understands each other, we all know who to look out for and who poses the most attacking threat on the other team. If we’re able to be a little bit more unpredictable, in terms of where we’re attacking, how we’re attacking, and who’s involved, that’s only going to help us.”
Of the 33 goals the Montreal Impact has scored in MLS this season, 12 have come from Argentine Designated Player Nacho Piatti, five from Saphir Taïder, and four from Jeisson Vargas. The two goals scored by Raitala and Lovitz these past two games were the first from the defensive unit this season.
It may be an added bonus that both goals came from full-backs, a position head coach Rémi Garde said he wanted to see a little more out of offensively just a few weeks ago.
“Teams are obviously going to tailor their game plans around Nacho, Alejandro, Matteo, or whoever is up top,” added Lovitz. “Any kind of support we can add and any kind of dangerous problems we can pose the other team is only going to help us create more chances in the long run.”
