By JUSTIN FERGUSON
Although their hot offense put them in a winning position, the Montreal Impact will have to thank goalkeeper Troy Perkins for holding onto three road points on Saturday night.
After falling behind on a controversial penalty at the end of the first half, Sanna Nyassi and Collen Warner netted goals in the second half to grab the Impact a 2-1 win and the top record in the Eastern Conference.
Montreal’s lead was thrown into serious danger in the 74th minute when veteran defender Alessandro Nesta was ejected for headbutting Claudio Bieler.
Perkins had to make several big saves after falling behind a man as a misfiring Sporting Kansas City squad missed multiple chances at a late equalizer.
After a back and forth first half, Sporting Kansas City broke the deadlock in first half stoppage time on Bieler and Nesta’s first incident. Nesta was whistled for tugging Bieler’s jersey, but the Impact defense claimed the foul came outside the box. But referee Armando Villarreal would have none of it, and Bieler converted the penalty after several minutes of arguing from Montreal.
The protests continued after Bieler’s goal, and Montreal head coach Marco Schallibaum received his marching orders during the halftime break.
Montreal did not stew over the controversial call for much longer. Two minutes into the second half, Nyassi chested down an attempted clearance from SKC and laced a low shot through traffic for the equalizer.
Clearance troubles would come back to haunt Sporting minutes later. A bicycle kick from Felipe Martins landed near Peterson Joseph, who completely missed on his chance to get the ball out of danger. Warner pounced on the mistake, and Montreal had a quick 2-1 lead.
Both teams traded chances until the 74th minute, when Bieler and Nesta got tangled up again. Nesta’s retaliation on Bieler’s foul resulted in an automatic ejection, and the veteran defender was soon joining his coach in the locker room.
Sporting immediately went on the offensive following the red card, but chance after chance went by the wayside. Although they forced Perkins to make saves, their best chance of the half finished with a wide stoppage time effort from Kei Kamara.
Both Eastern Conference powers will be off next week. Montreal (8-2-2) travels to Columbus on June 15, and Sporting Kansas City (6-5-4) visit FC Dallas on June 22. SKC will continue their hunt for an Open Cup repeat with a home match against Orlando City on June 12.
Here are the match highlights:
Montreal didn’t hang on, they dominated from a man down. Sporting was a train wreck after the second goal. The article is too kind to KC. Vermes can’t win the big games. His play is predictable and Montreal schooled us last night. I’m a KC fan and season ticket holder.
Talk about going to the confessional! 🙂
Nesta should know better than to react, and the card was justified.
The penalty call was both a little weak (Does Bieler fall down in a slight breeze too?) Right on the line too, which makes calling that a penalty a little weaker.
I’ll predict Bieler gets a game or two suspension for the kick to the head.
Best thing about this league is that they are willing to punish cheap crap like that after the fact.
Agreed!
Bieler’s antics are reproachable to kick Nesta when he’s down he was goading all the way. The penalty foul was a man going down far too easy. In this case the deserving team won, great drama.
good post.
Nesta’s foul on Bieler occurred outside the penalty area.
Also, Bieler should expect a suspension from the disciplinary committee. His kick to Nesta’s head when Nesta was on the ground is what brought the headbutt.
Sporks are the dirtiest team in the league, and nobody ever calls them out on it. It’s kind of disgusting.
Someone is a butthurt Montreal fanboy, even though they won. Stop being butthurt and just enjoy the win we gifted you.
No gift Eric and Bieler is a cheap shot artist. Montreal could have been up 3-1 at the half, certainly 2-1. They had the better chances and came out roaring in 2nd half. This game would not have been so dramatic had Nesta not reacted to Bieler’s kick/movement to his head when down.
I get the impression here that Montreal is a better team than SKC especially when BOTH teams get their injured/missing players back.
Today maybe, but we still have a long season to go and KC beat Montreal by one goal in their matches in KC. KC is down, but not out.
Obv we’ll see. I’ve bought my tickets for the rematch:
Vous avez acheté 1 billet pour:
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Impact de Montréal vs. Sporting Kansas City
STADE SAPUTO, MONTREAL, QC
samedi 27 jui, 2013, 19h00
cheers.
I’m calling it now…barring an epic collapse by either team, these two teams will meet in the eastern conference final.
And then lose to the Galaxy.
Correction: “And win the MLS Cup”. Don’t think Galaxy will make it beyond first round of the playoffs. We’ll see!