Montreal Impact shaky ahead of playoff vs. Houston Dynamo
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Frank Doyle
Ultimately, the Montreal Impact achieved their goal of making it to the MLS playoffs, but it’s been anything but a walk in the park. Thanks to some help in the standings, Montreal will visit the Houston Dynamo for a one-game playoff Thursday, with a date with the New York Red Bulls waiting beyond that should they advance.
Right now though, Montreal needs to use the next few days to get itself back on the right track. The Impact could have booked their playoff ticket Saturday when they visited Toronto FC in the regular season finale. However, they were thoroughly outplayed all over the pitch in a 1-0 loss to the Reds and had to wait until New York dropped Chicago 5-2 on Sunday to learn their fate.
“The first half, we weren’t very good,” Impact coach Marco Schallibaum told reporters after Saturday’s loss. “A lot of mistakes, a lot of tension. There were errors. The second half was better. Not much better, but better. There were also chances to score, maybe [make it] 1-1. But it was not good enough to win this game today. And that’s a pity.”
It’s something Schallibaum and Impact supporters have gotten used to lately. After jumping out of the gate and holding the top spot in the MLS table early on, the Impact have been on a gradual descent. They are just 1-6-1 in their last eight games. Montreal downed Houston 2-0 and 5-0 in two meetings at Stade Saputo, but also lost 1-0 at Houston earlier this month. The Impact are 0-2-1 in Houston all time.
Montreal has more than a couple issues to iron out before Thursday’s game. The Impact look completely clueless defending set pieces lately and had tons of problems defending when Toronto pushed the pace on the counterattack Saturday.
It wasn’t much better at the other end, either. Montreal had a handful of opportunities to draw level in the second half and couldn’t convert chances the squad buried earlier in the year. Marco Di Vaio was a non-factor for most of the day and Andrew Wenger created, but couldn’t finish anything.
This is where Alessandro Nesta, Patrice Bernier and Di Vaio need to control of the club before it’s too late. Unless this team can start controlling the play in its opposition’s end for extended periods of time, the Impact could be one-and-done in the playoffs.