FRISCO, Texas – The Montreal Impact (1-5-1) lost 2-1 (halftime 0-0) to FC Dallas (3-2-1) on Saturday, in front of 16,164 spectators at FC Dallas Stadium in Frisco, Texas.
The Impact opened the scoring in the 61st minute when forward Bernardo Corradi converted a penalty kick, scoring his first ever goal in MLS. The referee pointed to the spot when captain Davy Arnaud was pushed from behind in the box following a long cross from the right flank by Zarek Valentin.
Forward Blas Perez equalized for Dallas in the 77th minute. A free-kick by midfielder Daniel Hernandez from 30 yards was headed by defender George John off the crossbar. The rebound fell to a waiting Perez who headed the ball down into the bottom right corner to score his third goal of the season.
Highlights: DAL 2, MTL 1
Dallas took the lead in the 88th minute when Perez back headed a throw in to Castillo who squared the ball to midfielder Brek Shea who was cutting towards goal. The US international’s shot beat Ricketts to his left as the Jamaican keeper came out to challenge.
"It's another game where we play well for long stretches, but in the end we let ourselves down as we let points get away," said Impact head coach Jesse Marsch. "We have to learn to turn good performances into points. Now we need to recover mentally and physically to get ready to push it again on Wednesday."
"It was disappointing," said midfielder Collen Warner. "When you have a lead on the road in the second half, its heartbreaking to give up two goals and lose the game. For 75 minutes, it was almost perfect for us, but then things went wrong."
Impact goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts had a solid first half, making three key saves to keep the score 0-0. First, in the 8th minute, the Jamaican national tipped away a point blank header from forward Blas Perez, near the right post, originating from a corner kick. Then in the 33rd minute, Shea played a long back heel from half, but the charging keeper cleared the ball out of harm’s way. He came up big again in the 45th minute when he charged out of his net to meet Dallas’ Fabian Castillo, who was breaking in alone.
“We deserved a better result today,” said Impact defender Zarek Valentin. “Good for Dallas scoring on their one and a half chances. It’s a tail of two halves due to the wind. We buckled down in the first half and then we took care of business. We scored early in the second half but we have to learn to shut it down in the final 15 minutes to get the win.”
The first chance of the second half fell to the Impact’s midfielder Felipe in the 55th minute when he won a physical battle in the corner of the box. The Brazilian then cut towards goal, but his short side shot hit the post. Then in the 75th minute, substitute forward Sanna Nyassi carried the ball towards goal, cutting to the inside to find an opening, but his shot going short side was stopped by Dallas goalkeeper Kevin Hartman.
A few minutes earlier, Fabian Castillo’s shot just missed far post after a give and go with Perez that sprung the Dallas forward.
Despite the loss, the Impact won 55% of duels over the 90 minutes of action.
Midfielders Davy Arnaud, playing as a forward, and Justin Mapp made it back into the starting lineup in place of midfielder Sinisia Ubiparipovic and forward Sanna Nyassi. Mapp reached the 15,000 minutes played milestone in MLS in the 32nd minute.
Next games
Following tonight’s game, the Impact will return to Montreal to train for two days before heading out to Washington on Wednesday to play D.C. United, 2-1 winners over the New England Revolution, on Saturday at 7:30pm ET.
The Impact’s next home game is on Saturday, April 28, at 2pm, against the Portland Timbers at Olympic Stadium. Season tickets are still available online at impactmontreal.com or by calling 514-328-3668 while individual for all games presented at the Olympic Stadium are also available through the Admission network. Both games will be broadcast live on TVA Sports.
LINE UPS:
MTL – GK-Donovan Ricketts, D-Zarek Valentin, D-Shavar Thomas, D-Matteo Ferrari, D-Tyson Wahl, Collen Warner, Felipe, Lamar Neagle (Sanna Nyassi 72’), Justin Mapp (Sinisa Ubiparipovic 88’); F - Davy Arnaud, Bernardo Corradi (Andrew Wenger 72’)
Unused Subs: GK – Greg Sutton; D – Josh Gardner, Patrice Bernier, F – Justin Braun
DAL – GK - Kevin Hartman; D - Zach Loyd, Hernan Pertuz (Bobby Warshaw 45’) , George John, Ugo Ihemelu; M – Brek Shea, Andrew Jacobson (Bruno Guarda 45’), Daniel Hernandez, Carlos Rodriguez; F – Fabian Castillo (Matt Hedges 89’), Blas Perez
GOALS:
MTL – Corradi 61’
DAL– Perez 77’
DAL – Shea (Castillo, Perez) 88’
CAUTIONS:
MTL - Corradi 18’
MTL – Felipe 22’
DAL – Castillo 28’
MTL – Wahl 46’
