No team can expect to show up to a game and breeze to victory in MLS, especially on the road, but the Montreal Impact must have liked their chances coming in against Columbus Crew SC at MAPFRE Stadium on Saturday.
The Crew were on the worst form in the league, winning just one of their last 16 games, and that one coming over two months earlier. But streaks end at some point, and following a spirited comeback draw midweek, the Crew got in the win column on Saturday, beating the Impact 2-1.
"Losing is never fun," said Montreal head coach Remi Garde after the game. "I think that applies to everyone. Everyone needs to look at themselves in the mirror tonight. I've also made mistakes, without a doubt. I'm taking responsibility."
Montreal grabbed an equalizer in first-half stoppage time, but a red card on Bacary Sagna in the 55th minute for denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity put the visitors under major pressure, and they could not come back a second time.
Garde alluded to some discord as far as the roster carrying out a game plan.
"When you lose, it's not pleasant," Garde said. "What annoys me are certain attitudes, behaviors and orders that are not respected."
The Impact still sit above the playoff line in the Eastern Conference, in sixth place. But now on a four-game losing streak in league play, there's a concern that the season could slip away for them. Defender Daniel Lovitz, however, isn't buying that.
"Every single team goes through slumps like this and it's just a matter of how you come out," Lovitz told TVA Sports' Nicolas Martineau postgame. "Again, it's not something we're content with, but by no means we should throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak, in terms of getting down and being negative and feeling like the victim. We're in the driver's seat, we can change everything.
"I just think we need to stop making the same mistakes, whether that's mentality, whether that's stuff we don't execute on the field, we've just got to get out of this funk."
