Impact hasn’t allowed a goal in over three games
What a day it was, Saturday afternoon at Stade Saputo, for the official return of the beautiful game to Montreal! With the sun shining and the temperatures at their highest so far in 2019, the Impact managed a 1-0 victory over the Eastern Conference’s first-place team at that time, the Columbus Crew SC.
More importantly, they did so without allowing a goal in a third straight game, or 276 minutes to be precise. The last time Rémi Garde’s men conceded was in Kansas City, on March 30.
“We’ve put things back in place since then,” said Impact head coach Rémi Garde. “Not everything, but to the point of being able to beat Columbus during a week in which we had three games. We had less time to prepare this game than our opponents. Not everything was perfect, but there are games during the season we need to win like this.”
With both teams earning their fair share of opportunities, the goal finally came in the 55th minute, thanks to a defensive mistake in the Crew’s defense, forced by Impact striker Maxi Urruti. The Argentine, applying pressure on the backline as he does so well, managed to recover the ball and lay it off for Harry Novillo, who blasted his first Impact goal past Zack Steffen to give his team the lead, and eventually the win.
“Maxi set me up perfectly. It’s the type of position from where I love shooting,” said Novillo after the final whistle. “We had to start pressing them more to move their block further down the field, and what better way to do that than by finishing off our plays.”
It hasn’t been an easy week for the Impact, who played New York City FC at Yankee Stadium last Saturday, coming away with a scoreless draw, before keeping the now first-place D.C. United at bay for 90 minutes, just three days later at Audi Field, with the same score line.
Knowing how important this sequence of games was going to be after its loss in Kansas City, the Impact immediately put that game firmly behind it, focusing instead on what it knew it did well.
“We restructured and recalibrated to what we’ve been good at in the past, especially at home,” said full-back Daniel Lovitz. “It was easy for us. And to do it on the road against two teams from our conference was great. We grinded out two results and moved forward, getting us to a place in which we were comfortable coming back home.”
The Impact will again play three games in quick succession, starting on Saturday, April 20, at 1pm, when Montreal visits the Philadelphia Union at Talen Energy Stadium (TVA Sports, TSN, 98.5, TSN 690). Rémi Garde’s men will then take on the New England Revolution on Wednesday, April 24 at 7:30pm at Gillette Stadium (TVA Sports, TSN, 98.5, TSN 690), before playing their second home game on Sunday, April 28 at 12:30pm against the Chicago Fire at Stade Saputo (TVA Sports, 98.5, TSN 690). Excellent tickets remain available on impactmontreal.com.
