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First-half goals guide Impact to win over Dynamo

DiVaio1-HoustonDynamo (AP)

By DAN KARELL

Despite playing one to two matches less than everyone else in the Eastern Conference, the Montreal Impact continue to find themselves on top, with room to spare.

Impact forward Marco Di Vaio scored once and nearly had two more if not for the crossbar and a kick save from Houston Dynamo goalkeeper Tally Hall as the Impact topped the Dynamo, 2-0, on Wednesday night at Stade Saputo. The win puts the Canadian side four points ahead of the second-place club, the New York Red Bulls.

With head coach Marco Schällibaum back on the sidelines and Alessandro Nesta in the heart of defense, the Impact looked like the team of old, and nothing like the one who fell 2-0 to Columbus last Saturday. The Impact only needed 14 minutes to score the opener, as midfielder Patrice Bernier, with all the time in the world, bent an out-swinging ball with the outside of his right boot towards teammate Felipe Martins in the box, who took two touches to finish past Hall for an early lead.

The turning point of the match came in the 20th minute as the referee awarded the Dynamo a controversial penalty kick after Impact defender Matteo Ferrari took out the Dynamo’s Will Bruin. Giles Barnes stepped up a minute later to take the penalty kick but he put his shot was high and wide to the left, wasting a huge opportunity.

Di Vaio doubled the lead when he took advantage of a poor back pass into the defensive third, going one-on-one with Hall, and chipping the Dynamo goalkeeper in the 32nd minute. Di Vaio nearly scored the team’s third in the 62nd minute when his glancing header cannoned off the crossbar.

Barnes put a long-range shot on target in the 82nd minute, but Troy Perkins strong goalkeeping in net for the Impact kept the Dynamo off the board, despite enjoying a large percentage of possession on the evening. The result keeps a log-jam in the Eastern Conference standings, with the Dynamo sitting tied on points in fourth place with the Philadelphia Union and Sporting Kansas City, all of them on 22 points.

Here are the match highlights:

Comments

  1. Jason,

    I agree as well with the fact that Impact and Portland, should they still be around (could but shouldn’t happen), other teams will be there as well the likes of SKC, LA and your team as well. This is what makes MLS such an interesting championship: unpredictable but predictable, if that makes sense.

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  2. Well well, so the Dynamos were missing two key players. Such is the nature of soccer and all team sports. Impact were missing Mapp, Arnaud and Rivas (still out since last season). I think the “missing persons” file even out pretty much.

    I saw the game from in close, section 127 within ear and eye shot of all the opps Impact had during the first 30 min or so in first half.

    Let me say this: wave after wave of attacks from the creative and unpredictable Impact attack led to numerous scoring opportunities, two off-side goals. Overall, the score could have been 5 or 6 zip for Impact at the half.

    Dynamo were stunned and never recovered. I believe teams w the most depth will go the farthest in this league.

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    • The Impact are a very good team this season, and are contenders for the titles. Nonetheless you can’t say the score could’ve been 5-0 due to offsides goals. That’s like saying the Dynamo would’ve won 2-0 if Boniek, and Davis had played.

      I actually like the team that Montreal has, and except for a few morons, the supporters have been class too.

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    • I agree with your last comment. I am definietly not blaming the loss on not having those guys. Montreal, Portland, these are good teams and are the new “sexy teams”. But, come playoff time, the DYNAMO, Galaxy, SKC and NYRB will be where they should be, contending for the MLS Cup. Thats how the MLS goes…..

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  3. The Dynamo played with intensity, but were seriously lacking the cohesion needed without Davis, and Boniek, the two national team players whom had just played a WCQ the night before, against each other.

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    • Do you think their return will be enough? I just feel uneasy about our final 3rd attack and our slow defense. I know Dom cranks it up late in the season, but like I asked…, will their return be enough?

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      • It’s been more than enough before the injuries and call-ups. The Dynamo had the best start to the season in their existence, and for a while they were near the top in goals scored. They have fallen off with all of the injuries, and absences. I still think that the Cummings acquisition has fallen far short of expectations, and that the Dynamo need to finally add a forward during the summer. The Dynamo have stated that they will be active during the summer transfer window, and it will be interesting to see how much space they really have.

      • Ashe, and Sarkodie are not slow, and Taylor, and Boswell are good CB’s, positionally, and in tackling. The back line is good if they don’t have the mental errors like Ashe’s last night with his lazy backpass. Rico at D-mid provides good cover for the central defenders, but Moffat/Camargo could be upgraded, though buying a striker is more important. Boniek has really added a lot of defense during his tracking back, and when he’s gone Houston loses a lot of speed. The Dynamo are weak at LB though, if Ashe is injured. Chabala is good, but has not looked “MLS quality” this season.

      • Ashe is moderately fast although not as fast as the sales pitch is often made. His failings are he can’t cross a ball and routinely makes mistakes like the second goal last night.

        We traded Chabala before, this is Cochrane and Serioux over again, how do we think we will be more satisfied on try 2? This is Dom’s weird veteran/known quantity fetish.

        The center of the defense is glacial and has been a thorn in our side for years. The signing of Boswell roughly coincides with our slide to just another team. He’s a good defender if he doesn’t have to move but that’s not usually how soccer works.

        I like Taylor but he’s not much more mobile than Boswell.

        I think we have a good midfield put together but there is no forward depth and insufficient backline quality and speed. A lot of Kinnear favorites are in the forward and back lines. The issue will be if he is willing to crack some eggs to make a better omelette.

        It’s an OK team, and good when we have everyone and depth isn’t exposed. But some depth and quality issues are being exposed, and I say this about every year, we need to address the need areas if we want to surpass the Galaxy. If the FO is content to get by at forward and thinks these backs are good enough, then we’re not moving up past second place (at best) even if Driver/ Boniek/ Davis/ Moffat/ Clark /Barnes are a good bunch of middies.

        We’ll see how Cummings comes out, I’m sure Kinnear thinks it’s a “Carr” type risk but Carr is back out again, and we’ve picked up his former teammate Colin Clark before and had that injury diceroll go south in a hurry. The veteran backup offseason signings at F are killing us right now.

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