VANCOUVER, B.C. - After going down a man in the 30th minute, the Montreal Impact fell 2-0 to the Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Wednesday night, at BC Place, and ultimately finishes as runner up for the Amway Canadian Championship with a 4-2 aggregate score.
Dominating the first half in possession, things went south in the 30th minute when Victor Cabrera was shown a second yellow card and ejected from the game. The Whitecaps took advantage 10 minutes later to open the scoring.
“There were two games tonight. The first in the opening 30 minutes, then after that it was a different story. It’s tough and unfortunate to play with 10-men for 60 minutes,” said Frank Klopas. “We moved the ball well in the beginning, but the cards changed things. It’s disappointing.”
On a broken play, Cristian Techera managed a shot on goal that was slowed by an off balance Eric Kronberg, who came out to challenge the ball, but Octavio Rivero was left on the goal line with an easy tap in at the 40th minute.
Vancouver doubled its lead in the 53rd minute when defender Tim Parker headed home a corner kick.
“We knew they were going to play well at home tonight, but we were able to neutralize them at the beginning of the game,” explained Calum Mallace. “We were doing well prior to the ejection. It’s a tough one to swallow with the rivalry between the Canadian teams in this tournament.”
Kronberg made a number of good saves, including two of the spectacular variety to keep his team in this one - the first on Pedro Morales in the game’s opening minutes, then again early in the second half, this time off of Kekutah Manneh.
“It hurts, but we’ve got a game on Saturday that is important to us, so we have to move on,” said Kronberg.
The Impact will travel to Toronto Thursday to play its next game this Saturday at 4pm at BMO Field (RDS, TSN, TSN Radio 690). The team will play its next home game on Saturday, September 5, at 8pm against the Chicago Fire. Purchase your 5-Game Pack to secure your seat for every remaining home game of the 2015 season, starting at just $85.
LINEUPS
MTL – GK-Eric Kronberg; D-Ambroise Oyongo, Victor Cabrera, Laurent Ciman, Donny Toia; M-Marco Donadel (Eric Alexander 73’), Nigel Reo-Coker, Calum Mallace, Johan Venegas (Andrés Romero 64’), Justin Mapp; F-Dominic Oduro (Anthony Jackson-Hamel 64’)
Subs not used: GK-Maxime Crépeau; D-Wandrille Lefèvre, Eric Miller; M-Maxim Tissot
VAN – GK-David Ousted; D-Steven Beitashour, Kendall Waston, Tim Parker, Jordan Harvey; M-Russell Teibert, Gershon Koffie (Matias Laba 84’), Cristian Techera, Pedro Morales (Mauro Rosales 68’), Kekuta Manneh; F-Octavio Rivero (Darren Mattocks 72’)
Subs not used: GK-Paolo Tornaghi; D-Jordan Smith, Christian Dean; F-Robert Earnshaw
GOALS
VAN – Rivero 40’
VAN – Parker (Morales) 53’
CAUTIONS
MTL – Cabrera 22’
MTL – Ciman 23’
MTL – Oduro 31’
EJECTION
MTL - Cabrera 30’
