MONTREAL – Impact fans can find solace in Toronto dropping back below the red line.
Otherwise, in this Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Columbus which pulls the Crew back in a playoff spot at TFC’s expense, there wasn’t much for them to rejoice over. Their team even finished the game without its head coach.
Referee Sorin Stoica sent Frank Klopas off in the 66th minute. It didn’t spark Montreal into a comeback, but it did make for great television: Klopas rose from his seat, applauding Stoica and shaking many hands on his way to the locker room via the Crew bench.
Klopas said he had been complaining over the 56th-minute penalty kick called against Montreal's Jérémy Gagnon-Laparé for a pull on Ethan Finlay.
“I know that maybe Jérémy made some contact, but [Justin Meram] is going in the corner,” Klopas told reporters. “There’s no ball played, there was no danger. He loses the ball in the corner, and the guy calls a PK. I’ve never seen a softer PK call ever in my life. And I said to [Stoica]: ‘In 30 games we played, we had one PK called [for] us.’”
Montreal had missed that attempt, in June 11 against D.C. United. They got another in second-half stoppage time when former Impact defender Tyson Wahl tripped Issey Nakajima-Farran. But Steve Clark made an outstanding save to deny Marco Di Vaio.
“I know he gave us one late, but there was another handball in the box with Tyson Wahl turning on Marco’s shot,” Klopas said. “For me to give up a PK call like that for 2-0… I don’t want to go there, because whatever I say, it’s going to come back and bite me, but it was a tough call on the road to go 2-0 behind and having given up a very fast goal in the first two minutes.”
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Gagnon-Laparé, who was making only his second start at left back for the Impact, admitted to dragging Finlay down – “Maybe I wasn't subtle enough,” he quipped after the game. It wasn’t Finlay’s first such foray into the area: Columbus’ opener came from his run between Gagnon-Laparé and left midfielder Maxim Tissot.
Columbus “exploited” Montreal’s left side, conceded Gagnon-Laparé. Klopas reiterated his confidence in the youngster, a midfielder by trade, but recognized that his team struggled with the Crew’s wing play.
“We had some good moments, but then I think we lost a little bit of momentum in the game,” Klopas said. “We didn’t communicate as much when they were overloading the sides. We had a little bit of an issue.”
