Photo by Andy Marlin/USA TODAY Sports
By MICHAEL PENG
NEW YORK — The Montreal Impact turned what was a good week into a great one after picking up a key win on Saturday.
Days after completing the signing of former Chelsea star and Ivory Coast international Didier Drogba, the Impact took advantage of some shoddy defense and defeated New York City FC, 3-2, at Yankee Stadium in a match with playoff implications.
Both sides came into the contest with 24 points in the Eastern Conference and on the fringe of the playoff cut line, but the win vaulted Montreal into sole possession of sixth place as of the end of the match, and it also helped the team avoid a season sweep after dropping the first two contests to NYCFC.
Fans were still settling into their seats when Dominic Oduro opened the scoring in the fifth minute.
A well-placed lobbing pass by Laurent Ciman from the backfield found a streaking Oduro and the latter then slipped the ball under NYCFC goalkeeper Josh Saunders’ legs to quiet the Bronx crowd.
The NYCFC backline, with the absence of Chris Wingert who is out with a hamstring injury, continued to get tested by Montreal, and the Impact broke through for the second time in the 32nd minute.
Another ball from over the top, this time by Andres Romero coming from the midfield, found Montreal captain Ignacio Piatti racing past NYCFC defender Jason Hernandez before Piatti calmly chipped the ball over Saunders to double the Impact’s lead.
NYCFC was able to mount a bit of a rally in the second half, as a penalty conversion by David Villa in the 68th minute, followed by the debut of Frank Lampard, gave some momentum to the home side. However, Piatti canceled out the goal by converting a penalty of his own to make the score 3-1 in the 84th minute.
NYCFC was able to answer Piatti’s second score right away with a nifty sequence in the following minute that came from a Tommy McNamara goal after a nifty sequence that also involved Villa and Angelino, but the home side could not find the equalizer it needed to salvage a point in front of 27,645 in the stands.
The three goals given up by NYCFC marked the fourth consecutive time the expansion club has done so in a home match. NYCFC last had a shutout on June 20 in Toronto.
The two sides will each face the third-place New York Red Bulls next, with the Impact hosting on Wednesday and NYCFC visiting Red Bull Arena on Aug. 9.
So it was a penalty on the keeper? How? That’s crazy.
That penalty on Saunders was the ref “pulling a Geiger”, awful awful call. Basically ended the game.
Didn’t see the game, only the highlights. The last Montreal penalty looked really weird. Was Saunders, NYCFC’s goalkeeper, called for the foul? Seemed like a perfectly good challenge; keeper smothers the ball and forward flies over him. Never seen that called on the keeper, especially since he had the ball basically in his hands. Or was the foul called prior to that?
Disappointing outcome for NYCFC, but hopefully the 3 DPS start to really gel soon and Frank plays for more than 20 minutes. I really want this team to do well.