MONTREAL – Multicultural night has been good to the Montreal Impact as the bleu-blanc-noir defeated the Houston Dynamo for a second straight year on the occasion, this time by a 3-0 shutout victory on Sunday night at Stade Saputo. Jack McInerney scored a brace and Di Vaio found his second of the season in the win.
The Impact came out of the gates with the same energy it showed last Wednesday in Vancouver, controlling the tempo of the game and outshooting the Orange 7-3 in the first half, resulting in two good scoring chances.
The home side pressed throughout the first half, and in the 42nd minute, Jack Mac found his first of the game when he got his head on the end of an Eric Miller cross. The American defender earned his first career point in MLS with the assist.
The second half continued in much the same fashion as the first. McInerney found his second of the game and sixth goal in 10 regular season matches since joining the Impact in the 75th minute when Justin Mapp played a cross that the American international spun and half-volleyed into the far right corner. His second on the night was also the 30th of his career, becoming just the 85th player to reach the milestone in MLS.
“It feels good to score, but all the players had to step up today, we had to get the three points,” said McInerney. "I was fortunate to be on the scoring end, but our defence held them to zero and our midfield did a good job getting us the ball today."
Three minutes later, half-time substitute Marco Di Vaio put home the rebound after Andres Romero’s shot was bobbled by Hall.
After 90 minutes, the Impact led the shot count 17-8 and shots on goal 8-1, and has now shutout the opposition for 225 minutes.
“A lot of credit to my players,” said head coach Frank Klopas. "The attitude was very good and I think we not only scored the three goals, but I thought we created even more chances. It was also important for us not to give anything away, get the clean sheet and build from this after another good performance.”
The Impact will now travel to California to take on Chivas USA next Saturday, at the Stub Hub Center, at 10:30pm EDT.
Lineups
MTL – GK-Troy Perkins; D-Hassoun Camara, Matteo Ferrari, Heath Pearce, Eric Miller; M-Gorka Larrea (Marco Di Vaio 45’), Patrice Bernier, Andrés Romero, Felipe, Maxim Tissot (Justin Mapp 60’); F-Jack McInerney (Calum Mallace 86’)
Subs not used: GK-Evan Bush; D-Futty Danso, Karl W. Ouimette; F-Santiago Gonzalez
HOU– GK-Tally Hall; D-Kofi Sarkodie, AJ Cochran, Jermaine Taylor (Eric Brunner 45’), Corey Ashe; M-Boniek Garcia, Warren Creavalle (Ricardo Clark 74’); Giles Barnes, Andrew Driver; F-Will Bruin, Omar Cummings (Brian Ownby 59’)
Subs not used: GK-Tyler Deric; M-Servando Carrasco, Alexander Lopez; F-Fabian Johnson
Goals
MTL – McInerney (Miller) 41’
MTL – McInerney (Mapp) 75’
MTL – Di Vaio 79’
Cautions
HOU – Cochran 16’
MTL – Tissot 22’
HOU – Bruin 52’
