MONTREAL, Quebec - The Montreal Impact lost to the New York Red Bulls 2-1 on Saturday evening, in front of 20,373 spectators, in its last regular season game at Olympic Stadium. This was the Impact’s first home loss of the 2012 campaign in five games played.
The Impact opened the scoring in the 22nd minute when forward Bernardo Corradi (4th of the season) converted a penalty kick, beating Red Bulls’ goalkeeper Ryan Meara to his right with a well-placed shot. The referee pointed to the spot when he spotted a hand ball foul against defender Markus Holgersson in the box.
The Red Bulls’ Kenny Cooper equalized, also on a penalty, in the 37th minute, putting it past Impact goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts to his left, after the referee spotted another hand ball infraction. Cooper’s 10th marker was the first goal the Impact conceded at home in the first half this season.
Forward Dane Richards scored the game-winning goal when he buried a rebound that fell to him near the penalty spot in the 67th minute. Ricketts dove to stop a bad angle shot from the left flank by Roy Miller, but as he punched the ball away, it fell to Richards who one-timed it right under the crossbar from near the penalty spot.
“Before their second goal, some of our attempts were pretty good,” said Impact head coach Jesse Marsch. “We put together some decent attacking plays. We hit the post once and maybe we could have been a little cleaner on some other attempts. It’s frustrating because they come back, and one chance after they get a red card, and they score.”
“We wanted to try and bring a little more urgency in the second half,” said Impact captain Davy Arnaud. “At the end of that game we should have come out with a win. We said it all year that we had to be good at home. You don’t ever want to lose at home. These things happen some times. We just have to move forward.”
“As a group, we came out slow in the first half,” said defender Tyson Wahl. “We got the first goal and then an unfortunate play to get the penalty kick against us. We came out in the second half and got some chances, but had some trouble in the final third.”
The Impact came close to opening the score early on in the 14th minute when the ball took a high deflection and fell to midfielder Sanna Nyassi, whose one-time volley from the right side of the box, 20 yards out, was deflected away by Meara, diving opposite post.
Miguel Montano made his first start of the season with the Impact and his first appearance since the season opener in Vancouver against the Whitecaps, on March 10. In the 54th minute, he fired a low shot just wide right of the keeper after stealing the ball just after the half line and dribbling into the box.
Red Bulls’ midfielder Victor Palsson was shown his second yellow and thus ejected from the game in the 58th minute, after a foul on Montano.
Less than five minutes later, Felipe almost scored when he fired a low shot that beat Meara from about 35 yards out, but bounced off the post short side.
In the loss, the Impact held the advantage in a few facets of the game: 20-12 in attempts on goal, 22-12 in crosses, 60% of possession, 57% of duels won and 81% of passing accuracy compared to 68% for the Red Bulls.
This was the second meeting of the season between these two clubs, following a 5-2 loss on March 31, at Red Bull Arena, when French forward Thierry Henry scored a hat trick.
Next games
The Impact will play its next game on the road on May 26 against the Colorado Rapids, at 9pm ET. The game will be broadcast live on TVA Sports, and will be available on illico Web, illico Mobile and MLS Live.
The club will play its first game at Stade Saputo on June 16 at 7:30pm (ET) against the Seattle Sounders FC. New 12-game season ticket packages for all matches at Stade Saputo are available via impactmontreal.com, or by calling 514-328-3668.
Highlights : MTL 1, NY 2
LINE UPS:
MTL: GK - Donovan Ricketts, D - Jeb Brovsky, Tyson Wahl, Matteo Ferrari, Nelson Rivas (Andrew Wenger 72’); M - Felipe, Collen Warner (Justin Braun 84’), Sanna Nyassi, © Davy Arnaud; F – Bernardo Corradi (Lamar Neagle 80’), Miguel Montano
Unused Subs: GK – Greg Sutton; D – Shavar Thomas, Hassoun Camara; M – Patrice Bernier;
NYRB: GK - Ryan Meara; D - Brandon Barklage, © Markus Holgersson, Heath Pearce, Roy Miller; M - Victor Palsson, Dax McCarty, Connor Lade, Joel Lindpere; F - Dane Richards, Kenny Cooper (Jhonny Arteaga 93’)
GOALS:
MTL: Corradi 22’
NYRB: Cooper 37’
NYRB: Richards 67’
CAUTIONS:
NYRB: Palsson 4’, 58’
NYRB: McCarty 65’
MTL: Brovsky 71’
EJECTION:
NYRB: Palsson 58’ (second yellow)
