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MONTREAL – The Montreal Impact suffered a 3-0 defeat against the Chicago Fire on Saturday night, in front of another sellout crowd of 20,801 at Stade Saputo.
Luis Solignac, David Accam and Matt Polster tallied for the Fire, clinching the club’s first-ever win at Stade Saputo and hopping to ninth place in the Eastern Conference. The Impact, for its part, remains fifth in the East, six points ahead of its next opponent, sixth-placed D.C. United.
“I want to apologize, on behalf of my team, for this performance, as this is the kind of performance that hurts,” said Impact head coach Mauro Biello. “We played against a team that gave more than we did, that won every physical duel for the ball. What we gave wasn’t enough, and I hope that we won’t see another game like this one this year.”
Speedy Fire catches Impact on the break
After a first missed opportunity on the counter in the 11th minute, David Accam’s speed allowed the Fire to take the lead in the 16th minute. After a Montreal corner kick, Accam and Solignac both ran down the middle toward Evan Bush’s net. Accam slid a ball through for Solignac on the left, and Solignac cut onto his right foot to strike a shot that took a slight deflection before hitting the back of the net.
“We knew that this would be a tough game,” said Hassoun Camara. “They were focused defensively. The first goal was tough to take for us, but we should have been able to rebound, and we didn’t. We have a chance to make up for this here on Wednesday, and we’ll focus on that.”
Didier Drogba, back on his feet after he suffered from an infection this week, was among the Impact starters. The forward found a handful of chances in the first half, including a pair of free kicks to the top right corner that forced goalkeeper Sean Johnson into fine saves to his left.
Despite having put together some good sequences back from the break, the Impact conceded a second goal 73 minutes in. After Johan Kappelhof played a diagonal pass into the centre-right channel, Michael de Leeuw placed a low cross just ahead of the six-yard box. Touches from Arturo Álvarez and Accam were just enough for the ball to trickle into the net to Bush’s right.
“In this league, if you don’t fight from the beginning to the end, you can’t win,” said Laurent Ciman. “Tonight, we were second to every ball. We didn’t defend as a team. The Fire didn’t give up on anything.”
Polster made it three in the 89th minute. After he recovered the ball some 25 metres from goal, Polster took the space to Evan Bush’s right and opened his hips to curl the ball out of the Montreal ‘keeper’s reach.
Next game
The Impact will play its next game this Wednesday, August 24, at 7:30pm against D.C. United at Stade Saputo (TVA Sports, 98,5fm & TSN Radio 690). Excellent individual tickets are still available for this game on impactmontreal.com.
LINEUPS
MTL – GK-Evan Bush; D-Donny Toia, Wandrille Lefèvre (Anthony Jackson-Hamel 78’), Laurent Ciman, Hassoun Camara; M-Marco Donadel, Hernán Bernardello (Kyle Bekker 81’), Calum Mallace (Michael Salazar 46’); F-Didier Drogba, Ignacio Piatti, Matteo Mancosu
Subs not used – GK-Eric Kronberg; D-Amadou Dia, Víctor Cabrera; F-Dominic Oduro
CHI – GK-Sean Johnson; D-Johan Kappelhof, Jonathan Campbell, João Meira, Brandon Vincent; M-Razvan Cocis (Khaly Thiam 59’), Matt Polster, John Goossens (Arturo Álvarez 72’), Michael de Leeuw (Michael Harrington 80’), David Accam; F-Luis Solignac
Subs not used – GK-Matt Lampson; D-Rodrigo Ramos; M-Michael Stephens; F-Joey Calistri
GOALS
CHI – Solignac (Accam) 15’
CHI – Accam (Álvarez, de Leeuw) 73’
CHI – Polster (Álvarez) 89’
CAUTIONS
CHI – Solignac 31’
MTL – Ciman 44’
MTL – Drogba 71’
