MONTREAL — The Montreal Impact could not shake a curse raging on for four years. The Impact have been winless at home against NYCFC since they joined MLS and a 2-0 loss on Saturday continued the drought.
Adding insult to injury, the Impact’s clean sheet streak at home ended at 186 minutes. During the sixth minute, Ben Sweat took a shot from the right flank and Evan Bush’s save got the ball straight into Maxi Moralez’s path. The Argentine tapped in his first goal of the season.
After the game, head coach Remi Garde drew comparisons to his team’s 2-0 loss to the Philadelphia Union on April 20.
“We took, like in Philadelphia, goals in very bad moments,” Garde said. “When we trailed 1-0, we wanted to push more and then their formation was tough to counter. We put in a lot of effort.”
The Impact didn’t record a single shot on target during Saturday’s game. Anthony Jackson-Hamel called it a bad day at the office for the offensive corps.
“Sometimes there are games like this where you need to give credit to the other team, they played well,” Jackson-Hamel said. “After that, it’s about playing the ball forward and try to be menacing on the opposition.”
After substituting in Omar Browne for Harry Novillo at halftime, the Impact looked to create more offensive play. Montreal had a promising start but were cut short by a defensive mishap four minutes into the half.
Fighting to regain possession in his own box, Orji Okwonkwo tried to clear the ball, but it fell straight to Ismael Tajouri-Shradi’s feet. The Libyan international beat Bush with a shot toward the far post.
“We didn’t expect that,” Micheal Azira said. “We didn’t want to concede right away and needed to be patient because the game was 1-0. It was still open and we could still create chances. Them scoring after four minutes wasn’t a good deal.”
Garde tried a final offensive move by substituting Maxi Urruti at the 57th minute and switching his formation from a 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2. The effort was in vein and through the latter end of the second half — during which the team has scored most of their goals — the Impact still couldn’t get a shot on NYCFC goalkeeper Sean Johnson.
“We tried to come back, but when you trail 2-0, we tried different formation to try and counter their players in the flanks, who they were able to find too easily. It didn’t work,” Garde said.
The Impact now turn to the rest of their three-game week. The team will visit the New York Red Bulls on Wednesday, then fly to Ohio to play FC Cincinnati on Saturday. For Jackson-Hamel, the opportunity to turn the page quickly is beneficial.
“We fought all game and in the end we lost, but we have a chance to redeem ourselves in four days, so it’s perfect,” he said.
Garde has more reservations about his team’s road trip, raising concerns over Montreal’s minor injury epidemic. Bacary Sagna and Mathieu Choiniere were out of the lineup due to minor injuries. On his end, Orji Okwonkwo substituted out of Saturday’s game due to a hamstring injury.
Looks like a hamstring injury for Okwonkwo #IMFC
— Joey Alfieri (@joeyalfieri) May 4, 2019
“I only hope that I have players that are fit to play because we have quite a lot of players that suffer from minor injuries, but injuries as well,” Garde said. “This is my main concern until the next game.”