Some Montrealers are going to spit their coffee onto the sports pages Sunday morning.
If Twitter is any indication, a fair amount of Impact supporters had already gone to bed in Montreal when Erick Torres uncorked a magical bicycle-kick stoppage-time winner, seemingly out of nowhere, to lead Chivas USA to a 1-0 victory Saturday night – early Sunday morning on the East Coast – over the Impact.
It was all set up when Marco Delgado’s long-range shot struck Impact defender Matteo Ferrari square in the face – a painful reminder that the referee hadn’t blown the final whistle yet – and with two touches on the rebound, Torres crafted a goal that drew a deservingly stretched “¡Gooooool!” shout from the local broadcasting crew.
Until then, it had been the Impact’s third sound defensive effort in a row.
Chivas had been restricted to two shots on target, both from long range. But in an instant, a point vanished, leaving Montreal (3-8-5, 14 pts) bottom of the Eastern Conference for one more week.
“A game like this, it hurts,” head coach Frank Klopas told reporters after the game. “At the end of the day, we put a lot into the game. We had our moments. Maybe you score some of those chances early and it could be a different game. The way this ended, it’s heartbreaking.”
This Chivas fixture looked a challenge that Montreal could rise to. The Goats had scored seven goals and conceded 17 in eight home games, while the Jack McInerney-Marco Di Vaio pairing was due to start after they teamed up on Montreal’s three goals in last Sunday's win against Houston.
McInerney had a shot from close range blocked by Tony Lochhead, while Di Vaio scored a goal but from an offside position. Andres Romero failed to thread the needle one-on-one with Chivas goalkeeper Dan Kennedy, while Felipe Martins skied a glorious chance in front of goal 20 minutes in for Montreal’s best chances on the night.
“More than anything, I just felt that our decision-making could have been better in the first half,” Klopas said. “We had chances in transition when they were pushing forward, but once they were set, we kept forcing a little bit too much of the ball for every play to be almost like the perfect pass. We could have been a little bit better in possession.”
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But Klopas threw no one under the bus, saying he felt for his group who “put a lot into the game.”
They just didn’t take anything from it.
“I’m not saying we should have walked away with three, but definitely at least with one point tonight,” Klopas said.
