The elusive away win has been plaguing many MLS teams. The Bleu-blanc-noir earned an great road victory on Saturday afternoon when it defeated New York City FC 3-2 at Yankee Stadium. Oduro opened the scoring in the 5th minute, while Ignacio Piatti netted a goal in each half to send Montreal back in a playoff position.
Ignacio Piatti 32’ (2-0)
The goal
The Impact played its way out of the back and was able to beat New York’s pressure. Andrés Romero received a ball at half field and played compatriot Piatti with a long ball over the top. Piatti judged the pass and calmly flicked the ball over NYCFC goalkeeper Josh Saunders to put Montreal up 2-0.
Why it happened
It was a similar goal to the one scored by Oduro earlier in the match. Just like that goal, the play starts at goalkeeper Evan Bush, results in a direct ball over the top and ends with a Montreal player scoring.
For the Oduro goal, Bush played short to Laurent Ciman as no New York City forward was nearby. Not under pressure, Ciman was able to lift his head and play directly, bypassing the midfield, to Oduro.
Fast forward almost 30 minutes, the Impact decided to do the same thing. This time, New York stepped up its pressure and tried to prevent Montreal from playing short out of the back. Bush, with New York players higher up the field, played a ball to the left side of midfield. The ball made its way back to Montreal and to its midfielders. New York’s pressure was not collective, as players were scattered individually trying to recover the ball. Montreal players provided good passing angles and were able to eliminate opponents easily.
The ball eventually made its way to Romero inside the center circle. With New York committing two of its three central midfielders higher up the pitch, their holding midfielder Andrew Jacobson failed to recognize the gap and distance between him and his center midfield partners Andrea Pirlo and Ned Grabavoy. This left Romero with lots of space to be able to receive a pass and turn forward.
From here on, Jacobson and the New York back line were caught in a lose-lose situation. No matter their decision either to step their line up altogether or drop deeper, Montreal would have been in control in both cases.
New York’s players made their situation much harder to deal with as no collective decision was made. Some players stepped up to play an offside trap and others dropped back. In this case, the team needs to commit to a decision and have every player on the same page. Romero took advantage of this organisation and played a long ball over the top for Piatti, who judged the pass and poked the ball over Saunders perfectly.
