MONTREAL – The Montreal Impact defeated Guatemalan side CD Heredia by a 2-0 score, Tuesday night at Stade Saputo in CONCACAF Champions League play, thanks to goals by forwards Daniele Paponi and Andrew Wenger, but is now eliminated from the competition based on goal differential.
The Impact, which dominated the game 29-15 in shots and having 58% of the possession, opened the scoring in the 4th minute when an initial shot by Brazilian midfielder Felipe was blocked. The rebound fell awkwardly to forward Daniele Paponi, who brought the ball down with one touch and then side-volleyed his shot past Heredia goalkeeper Jose Calderon to his right.
Then in the 54th minute, Andrew Wenger doubled the Impact’s lead when he took a through ball from Maxim Tissot in between two defenders and fired his shot to the left of the diving keeper.
Impact keeper Evan Bush earned his second shutout in four Champions League games.
"They fought until the end"
“Unfortunately, we can’t move on, but we played a really good game and guys fought until the end,” said Impact head coach Marco Schällibaum. “We approached this game with the attitude that we will fight until the end. We played with a lot of desire tonight and with a little luck, we could have scored a few more goals.”
“We knew we had to score six goals tonight, so we threw everything at them,” said Evan Bush. “We played so hard and left everything on the field. Guys were so tired at the end of the game. They were having trouble getting up and down the field at the end. It was a really good performance by us.”
“We had a chance to prove that we are reliable players and can be counted on when this clubs needs us,” said Wandrille Lefèvre.
Other highlights
The Impact managed to create a number of scoring opportunities in the first half. In the 13th minute, Felipe played Wenger through with a ball over the Heredia defence, but the Impact forward’s shot bounced wide left of goal.
In the 26th minute, mayhem ensued in the Impact’s 18 yard box when a cross into the area skipped through, bouncing around as bodies slipped to the ground before Impact keeper Evan Bush pounced on the loose ball.
An nice give and go in the 31st minute between defender Karl W. Ouimette and Wenger down the right flank eventually found Paponi in the box, near the short post, but his one-timer was blocked by the keeper.
In first half stoppage time, Wenger played Paponi in behind the defence, but the Heredia keeper came charging out of goal to stop the Italian’s attempt on goal.
The Impact brought on Marco Di Vaio in the 57th minute, pushing Wenger out to the right of midfield. A few seconds later, Wenger found Marco Di Vaio in the box with a cross, but the Italian’s diving header was stopped as the keeper dove to his right to parlay the ball with his outstretched hands.
In the 70th minute, Felipe played a ball into the box that finds Di Vaio. The DP’s shot rang off the far post, bounced out wide to Wenger, who then set up a deflection by Paponi that beat the keeper, but was called back on an offside.
Seven minutes later, Di Vaio played a short pass to Justin Mapp, who cut around his defender and fired a low blast opposite post, but hammered it off the post.
Upcoming games
The Impact travels to Chicago for a regular season matchup versus the Chicago Fire this Saturday at 8:30pm ET. Both teams will also play an MLS Reserve League game on Sunday at 12pm ET.
Lineups
MTL – GK-Evan Bush; D-Karl W. Ouimette, Hassoun Camara, Wandrille Lefèvre, Maxim Tissot; M-Collen Warner, Felipe (Blake Smith 80’), Sanna Nyassi (Marco Di Vaio 57’), Andrea Pisanu (Justin Mapp 66’); F-Andrew Wenger, Daniele Paponi
Subs not used: GK-Troy Perkins; D-Jeb Brovsky; M-Davy Arnaud, Andrés Romero
CDH – José Calderon, Henry Medina, Rodolfo Gonzalez (Hetzon Pereira 90’), Roberth Arias, Henry Medina, Wilmer Garcia, Wilfred Velasquez (Rony Guzman 73’), Hector De Mata, David Espinoza, Osmar Lopez (Anderson Andrade 61’), Enrique Miranda, Charles Cordoba
Subs not used: Darwin Mendez, Rodrigo De Leon, Sergio Guevara, Victor Hernandez
Goals
MTL – Paponi 4’
MTL – Wenger (Tissot) 54’
Cautions
MTL – Felipe 40’
MTL – Tissot 51’
MTL – Paponi 78’
