#mtlimpact

Deepest Apologies.

This should've been written sooner, but I have been troubled with other less pressing issues. This is the first time this season that Montreal went into a game expecting to win. In Montreal fashion, they lost definately. Marsche was visibly upset in the post match interview, as angry as any coach I've ever seen. 

Toronto ran at Montreal in the opening minutes and then defended with intent after going a man down. I still don't know why exactly Toronto lost Eckersley to a straight red, but it might've been to their benefit.

You know what, fuck this.

The game sucked, and you don't need me to tell you more.

Huge Win. 

Montreal earned their first away win at what might have been the most unlikely place to secure three points, Livestrong Sporting Park. The win moves Montreal to 5th in East, Kansas remain first however at 21 points. This is however their second consecutive loss in two games, and Montreal second win in as many. Interestingly, both teams started their respective winning and losing streaks against the Portland Timbers.

Montreal played an eleven that most would agree isn't the best Marsche had his disposal, and with the game happening between Montreal's Canadian Cup ties against Toronto it makes sense. Marsche has been on record saying how important he thinks the Canadian Cup is so it's no surprise him rotating for the tough road trip away to Kansas.

A second string team though also meant slightly different Tactics. Opposed to their normal game, Montreal weren't as worried about possession, moving the ball into spaces out wide as quickly as possible constantly trying to run through their defense.

Kansas City played a lopsided 4-3-3 with the left side of Espinosa, Convey and Harrington getting plenty of the ball in wide positions. On the other side Graham Zusi tried to move into the ten role, while Julio Cesar stayed back. Kansas City are a very strong team and especially their other two direct forwards, Kei Kamara and CJ Sapong, worked very hard to keep Montreal busy. 

Marsche played another 4-4-2 but made serious changes to the lineup. Bernier, Braun, Sebrango,Ubiparipovic, Camara and Rivas were all granted starts. Lamar Neagle continued his left midfield birth as did Felipe who's now the only Montreal outfield player to have started every game for the club. Montreal played very deep, kept their back 8 organized and forced Kansas to take uncomfortable shots. Both Montreal goals came directly after regaining possession and Montreal's quick thinking and uniform movement will no doubt impress Marsche. 

Nelson Rivas

The first play to sign with the Montreal Impact finally got his first start after injury kept him out of our first few games. Rivas is a very different player from Montreal's other star defender Matteo Ferrari, but still possess plenty of quality. Rivas is the cover defender, relishing pressure situations and not afraid of sitting tight and waiting for the perfect tackle. Sadly, he was subbed off making way for Ferrari and fans were robbed the opportunity of seeing the two play together. Although it's early doors, Montreal might have one of the pair Centre Back pairings in the MLS.

Felipe

Toronto earned a draw in Montreal. 

Marsche's team look to be dangerous exclusively on counters and against a very pragmatic Toronto side, opportunities were scarce. Montreal can have comfort in knowing that they did not allow Toronto the away goal, but they will be upset that they did not convert any of their chances. 

Toronto played a very compact 4-3-2-1 and kept the midfield packed. Montreal countered this early in the first half with Felipe dropping into the back four. This allowed Thomas and Ferrari to stretch out the back line and moved both Wahl and Brovsky up the flanks. This initially forced Toronto a whole load of problems and created two on one situations for their fullbacks. Neagle was the major beneficiary and easily looked our most dangerous player. 

Beginning of the first half Nyassi played well, beat his man a few times but couldn't make a finish. Despite his hard work, I'm not sold on Nyassi's ability to partner Corradi. Corradi however played well and is looking better as the season wears on. 

As the game logged on Toronto continued to defend deeper and deeper. Marsche, as he did in the second half vs. NY Redbulls, asked his men to stretch out across the field as much as possible and started playing some pinpoint crosses. The crosses however, weren't perfect and the game looked expecially dire after Corradi went off. 

Lamar Neagle

Montreal had a very productive first half. Fans will lament that Neagle did not get an assist or a goal, getting into great positions himself as well as dropping in an excellent cross for Nyassi. Neagle did though, keep his contributions to a minimum. He only completed 19 passes and missed another 7. This was Neagle's first start this season and after a few promising cameo's he should be upset with this start. 

He did play well, and was useful, but his numbers would be more in line with a player subbed in at the 71st minute, not a player who was subbed out at the 71st. 

Matteo Ferrari

With Toronto sitting so deep in their half later on in the game, Ferrari got plenty of the ball. A cultured Serie A defender, he played the well to both flanks, long and short and kept Toronto running. Ferrari completed 95 passes. Huge numbers.

Ten day break. Montreal win at home and keep the home record at 2-0-1. Undefeated at home. If this rolls on it'll be a huge mental advantage later on in the season. 

WHY THE HECK DOES PORTLAND AWAY KIT LOOK LIKE ARSENAL??

Pregame Ceremonies

Me and Ingarman both live on the south shore of Montreal and left our homes about an hour before the game and managed to get there about 5 minutes before kick off. We used public transportation. The trip was easy and surprisingly for a Saturday was fluid. I had initially planned to catch another bus an hour earlier but missed it as I saw it evade me at the bus stop, so it was major relief when we both showed up to the Big O with time to spare.

Once there we met up with our men and proceeded to seat ourselves at our corner post season ticket slots. I was personally really glad to be back after I missed the Toronto game. 

Goals

Montreal won the game in the second but they could've easily have killed it in the first. Corradi missed a well played Arnaud cross after Arnaud missed a great cut back from Mapp. Both shots were taken on time of a lateral play and were complete misses. Later on Montreal won the game with two well earned goals. The first after goal mouth scramble led to Portland defender Steven Smith blocking a shot with his arm. Corradi took a good penalty. Later on Corradi won a good ball in the attacking third, quickly released Arnaud who had the piece of mind to slide a ball across the net to Sinisa Ubiparipovic for a tap in.

Goal threats from Montreal were almost exclusively from the flanks. Portland had no goal threat. Whatever they did, Ferrari ate it.

Nyassi

Nyassi had a poor game. Montreal improved drastically after he got subbed off. It's really hard to spot which side of Corradi and what exactly he was supposed to do. Didn't manage to get on any of Corradi's flick ons and was a mess in possession.  Nyassi competed 9 successful passes and 6 unsuccessful. Managed to complete zero dribbles and was dispossessed 7 times from being tackled. His pace still makes him a problem for defenders to deal with, but I'm not sold on his ability as a forward. Did manage to create one half chance for Arnaud by just running around his defender and it was his tackle on Troy Perkins that forced Portland to bring out their second striker.

Zarek Valentin

Had a great game. Really brought it together during the second half when we just needed to keep it tight at the back. A few fantastic cross field crosses to Wahl to keep possession and Portland on their toes. Favourite moves from him include his balls over the straight to Corradi on his diagonal out runs. Caught Timbers out of their zone a few times. A bit worried with his injury although we've assured via twitter that he'll be alright.

Ferrari

Had a goal called offside. In field replay was shit. Man of the match for me. Made his job look too easy. However it is possible that Boyd is more illusion then ability.

-

Heart break.

I've been on Henry's side every time I've seen him play so it was a bit heart breaking watching him take on my home town Impacts side. That being being said, I hated his smug arrogance. I hated the way he patronized Wahl. Can't be believe he scored a hat trick! What a punk.

Montreal played the first half really well. The team defended deep and tight, moved forward well and took advantage in transition. Felipe and Mapp combined well on various occasions, creating through ball and one on one situations. Bernier motored in midfield, carrying the ball out of defense. Bernier also notched the most amount of successful passes in the game with 58, despite Montreal losing out in possession with only 40%. It was purposeful and although the first half ended 2-2 Montreal looked the healthier side. 

Mapp goal was beautiful as he came inside onto his weaker foot and took a well placed shot. He delayed on the initial pass to Nyassi and then never looked for Felipe. The defence stood off him for too long and the goalie never saw the shot coming. The Nyassi goal was good and well deserved for his hard work throughout this game and for all the running he's done for the last three. However I'm bothered that Corradi didn't make do a better job with that ball, I thought he was going to shoot instead it took the NY defender to fumble an easy ball for Nyassi to yank a goal off them.

Corradi vs. Braun

A major difference between yesterday's game and last weeks was Montreal starting Corradi, who despite being mentioned as a target man and a long ball option was everything but. In fact, Corradi only won one of his four headers, none of which were in the attacking third. With Braun on, Montreal play more compact direct game. Braun's a strong target man who's able to hold on to the ball long enough for  play to build up behind him. Against Chicago, Braun's movement made room for Arnaud to run in for the goal, and for Mapp to threaten throughout the entire game. Corradi's main contribution was a dynamite through ball which Nyassi probably should've made better considering his pace. 

Second Half Implosion

The entire second half, Montreal was stretched. Well I'm not too sure. It's also fairly possible that Montreal just played very wide. Marsche looked like he set out a team to get goals, and pushed his entire midfield up leaving Bernier as the only one left in back, but New York just outran him and then through out back four. Every Montreal player looked to be given explicitly direction to take up position about 15 metres apart from each other and the team looked out of shape. I've never seen such a catastrophy in my life and makes sense that I would witness it in the MLS. With such a wide set up Marsche would need Montreal to win all their battles, because any break would lead a massive gap for New York to run into. The Third and Fourth goals were results entirely of a Montreal player making a mistake and no one nearby to cover for them. The Zarek Valentin pass once intercepted by McCarty left defenders in a tough spot vs Thierry Henry who finished spectacularly.  Then a foolish missed tackle by Gardner let Solli walk right into our box. 

This is a very late write up the game at the Stade Olympique on Saturday past, March 17 2012. Montreal Impact and 58 912 (fifty eight thousand nine hundred and twelve) fans welcomed the Chicago Fire to our great city.

We, the Ahmed and Ingarman entourage, got there a bit too early and had to scour the local landscape for breakfast. We settled for some Tim Hortons inside a gas station a few blocks over. On the way back we were hounded by both the paper press and local TV news. It was a great way to begin the day. 

Inside the stadium, fans were everywhere. Boutiques and stalls were packed, however it was difficult to decide whether lines were there because of general interest or... goblins. You see, the club hadn't actually been prepared to process the massive amount of transactions that over 58 thousand people might demand. Systems looked to be fine when one of my friends bought himself a hat at noon, kick off was at 2:00 pm. However, there were at least two separate reports of dysfunctional point of sale cashiers that were forced to accept cash only. I came across of both on these incidents through casual conversation, so it's very possible that every other boutique in the establish ran perfectly. I doubt it though, and I'm fairly certain that busted point of sale systems had more to do with the clusters of people around boutiques then their genuine interest of buying merch.

KickOff.

Let me just say, Montreal played very well. Marsch's 4-4-2 worked perfectly. Bernier dropping deep, Felipe moving all around the central zone, Montreal moved the ball at their tempo. Chicago attacked almost exclusively on the counter, and it almost worked for them as soon as 45 seconds into the game when a misplaced Bernier pass almost brought us back to Vancouver. After the initial hiccup though, Montreal settled well. Braun, who I didn't recognize from his anonymous field trip to Vancouver, had a great first half. His control from high balls and good use of channels always gave our midfield somewhere else to run up to.

Nyassi worked hard as a forward, pushing the Chicago back four deep with his space and always finding pockets of room by the corners. 

Mapp was good. I honestly didn't feel his positioning against Vancouver, but on Saturday, everything he did made sense. Sadly he didn't have the chance to finish the game, and in hindsight Montreal should've gotten a goal with Mapp on. Clever control and quick releases on the wings, Mapp allowed Braun and Gardner real estate to do damage on the right and made their runs look easy. Gardner by the way, took that beautiful 40 yard rocket that bounced off the cross bar in extra time, what a winner that would've been!

Second half, Montreal didn't play as well, but earned a solid goal after changing formation. Braun led the line alone and Montreal moved to a 4-2-3-1 with Nyassi and Mapp on either flank and Arnaud in the pocket.

Felipe drove from deep, layed off for Nyassi who delivered a solid cross into the marauding Arnaud who's run from midfield wasn't tracked by the Chicago midfield. A perfectly timed run, and a well placed header. Arnaud, our captain, first goals for Montreal in the MLS.  The stadium erupted at this point. If you weren't among the 58 thousand there, you won't know what it was like. One of my friends legitimately busted his knee by smashing it against the seat in front of him in celebrations. He now regrets it.

The honey moon looked to last forever, but after scoring Montreal lost control of the game. Little by little, until eventually the Impact conceded. Grazzini turned on the edge of the box after receiving a pass from out wide and got a ball in behind the defence where Oduro crept in behind Wahl to get the Chicago equalizer. Grazzini might've taken a shot, but it ended up becoming a weak chipped cross into a dangerous zone. Wahl didn't see the danger and Ricketts didn't get out fast enough. An all together soft goal that ruined a great result.  2nd goal from individual errors that lead to goals in two games. A fairly alarming statistic and in light of our lack of teeth in attack it's especially important that we stay clean in back. Good news is that Rivas has yet to play and he should, if what I remember him from Inter and FIFA 10 is correct, should be able to move into our starting line up right away.