MONTREAL – The Montreal Impact shut out the Philadelphia Union 1-0 on Saturday afternoon in the Stade Saputo home opener. Brazilian midfielder Felipe scored the game winning goal in the first half, while goalkeeper Troy Perkins registered the clean sheet with five saves.
The Impact opened the scoring in the 14th minute when midfielder Patrice Bernier intercepted a pass along the sidelines near centre field. Dribbling towards goal, the Impact captain hammered a low shot that was knocked down by Union keeper Zac MacMath as he dove to his left, but Felipe fired home the rebound for his second of the season.
Former Impact striker Andrew Wenger came close in the 27th minute when a give and go play put him through into the box, but his toe punt was stopped by Troy Perkins diving to his left. Perkins came up big again in the 30th minute when Danny Cruz was also played through towards goal, but the Impact keeper got the better of him in his 200th MLS game and 50th career match with the Impact.
- WATCH: Full match highlights
Jack McInerney almost found one against his former team in the 53rd minute when he was played in behind the Union defence by Justin Mapp, but Jack Mac’s shot was stopped by MacMath, diving right.
Mapp took on two defenders in the 82nd minute as he found some space cutting into the box from the right flank and fired a shot that was caught by MacMath.
Impact defender Hassoun Camara was cautioned in the 37th minute and will miss the next game with an automatic suspension due to yellow card accumulation.
Post-game comments
“The group has been working really hard and it really felt that we had a home field advantage in the game. We fed off their energy,” said Impact head coach Frank Klopas, who won his 40th career MLS game. “I’m really happy for the guys because once again, they put the work in at training and had the right attitude coming into this game.”
“We are very pleased to get this win. The conditions weren’t ideal, and coming from our difficult start, it was good to push through,” said Patrice Bernier. “Now we finally got to see what happens when we put the same level of effort in the game as when we train.”
“It’s something to build on,” said Jeb Brovsky. “This is something that shows we’ve been working hard in training. One nil victories are hard to come by, but you have to win those games and we did.”
Upcoming games
The Impact has next weekend off before it hits the road to play its first game of the Amway Canadian Championship on Wednesday, May 7 against the winner of Ottawa Fury FC and FC Edmonton. Both teams played to a 0-0 draw Wednesday in the first leg in Ottawa.
The bleu-blanc-noir returns to Montreal to host Sporting Kansas City on Saturday, May 10 at Stade Saputo.
Lineups
MTL – GK-Troy Perkins; D-Hassoun Camara, Karl W. Ouimette, Matteo Ferrari, Jeb Brovsky; M-Patrice Bernier, Collen Warner (Calum Mallace 56”), Justin Mapp, Felipe (Eric Miller 89’), Jack McInerney; F-Marco Di Vaio (Maxim Tissot 78’)
Subs not used: GK-Evan Bush; D-Heath Pearce; M-Blake Smith; F-Santiago Gonzalez
PHI – GK-Zac MacMath; D-Raymon Gaddis, Aaron Wheeler, Amobi Okugo, Sheanon Williams (Conor Casey 81’); M-Vincent Nogueira, Brian Carroll, Maurice Edu; F-Andrew Wenger, Fabinho (Antoine Hoppenot 61’), Danny Cruz (Cristian Maidana 66’)
Subs not used: GK-Andre Blake; D-Austin Berry; M-Leo Fernandes; F-Sébastien Le Toux
Goal
MTL – Felipe 14’
Cautions
PHI – Edu 2’
MTL – Ouimette 17’
MTL – Camara 37’
MTL – Brovsky 40’
PHI – Gaddis 84’
