FRISCO, Texas – Despite creating a number of good scoring chances, the Montreal Impact could not find back of the net against FC Dallas in its first Reserve League game, on Sunday, falling 2-0 at the Toyota Soccer Center.
Moments before the first half whistle was blown, FCD’s Andres Escobar collected a pass near midfield from Peter Luccin roughly 30 yards from goal before unleashing a right-footed blast that dipped under the crossbar.
FC Dallas doubled its lead in the 52nd minute, when Luccin hammered a free kick off the crossbar, bouncing back into the six-yard box where defender Stephen Keel ran onto an easy header from five yards out.
“Similar to what we saw the night before, we created really good scoring chances in the first half, but just missed out on finishing them,” said Impact assistant coach Mauro Biello, who runs the bench for Reserve League games. “We were pleased with how we created those chances, but need to tighten up a little defensively. More importantly, today’s game was an opportunity to give guys like Di Vaio, Bernier and Pearce 90 minutes.”
The Montreal Impact had the first good scoring chance of the game when an Andres Romero corner found Heath Pearce making a run to the short post in the 18th minute. His header hit the woodwork far side.
Working on the left flank, Blake Smith sent a quality cross into the area for Di Vaio in the 25th minute, but the Italian forward’s attempt was intercepted by goalkeeper Richard Sanchez.
Upcoming matches
The team will train in Dallas until Thursday before heading to Houston to take on the Dynamo at BBVA Compass Stadium this Saturday, March 15, at 8:30pm ET (TVA Sports, CJAD 800).
The bleu-blanc-noir then heads back north to host its home opener on March 22 versus the Seattle Sounders FC at Olympic Stadium, at 4pm ET.
Lineups:
MTL: GK - Evan Bush; D - Heath Pearce, Karl W. Ouimette,Wandrille Lefèvre, Callum Mallace (John Dinkota 78’): M -Blake Smith (Frédéric Lajoie-Gravelle 84’), Jérémy Gagnon-Laparé (Victor Ndiaye 75’), Patrice Bernier, Andrés Romero; F -Santiago Gonzalez (Zakaria Messoudi 58’), Marco Di Vaio
Substitutes Not Used: Maxime Crépeau, Amine Meftouh
FCD – GK - Richard Sanchez; D - Michel (Jordan Cano 81’), Steven Keel, Nicolas Walker, Ryan Hollingshead; M - Andres Escobar (Cobi Span 68’), Victor Ulloa, Peter Luccin (EthanSonis 81’), Tesho Akindele, Danny Garcia, F - Jonathan Top.
Substitutes Not Used: Jesse Gonzalez, David Texeira.
Goals
DAL – Andres Escobar (Peter Luccin) 45’
DAL – Stephen Keel 52’
Cautions
MTL – Romero 10’
MTL – Ouimette 51’
