The Rhinos therefore won the Northeast Division final, a two-game, aggregate-goal series, thanks to their 2-1 victory in the first leg, played Friday in Rochester.
The Montreal squad needed nothing less than a win to at least force overtime, but was unable to get the necessary goal although it dominated Rochester 11 shots to six.
Mauro Biello, the Impact’s leading scorer this season, missed a penalty kick at the 15th minute of play, his shot bouncing off the crossbar.
"I missed the penalty kick and it cost us, it’s my fault, there’s not excuse," said Biello. "I needed to put that one away, if I would have scored it would have been an entirely different match. I simply tried to take a clean shot, and I did, but I let the guys down. But we’ll be back next year, this is a young team with a bright future."
The Montreal squad, taking part in the playoffs for the seventh time in 10 A-League seasons, was eliminated from the first playoff round for the third time in club history, but the first time since the 1996 season.
"I don’t see anything negative about today’s game, except for the fact that we didn’t score," said Impact head coach Bob Lilley. "We outplayed them, but you can’t control the bounces around the goal. I’m proud of the guys because we created scoring chances and we minimized theirs, and that’s all you can do. I can’t question the players’ effort and their performance."
The Impact had a strong start as young players Sita-Taty Matondo and Antonio Ribeiro provided some sparks up front in support of veterans Biello and Martin Nash. Matondo was brought down in the penalty area at the 14th minute, prompting referee Silvio Petrescu to award a penalty kick.
Biello, Nash and substitute Ali Ngon had Montreal’s best chances in the second half. Nash received his second yellow card of the match in injury time, but the official whistled the end of the game a few seconds later.
"We have to remember that we’re a better team than we were last year, we accomplished a lot, and we just need to keep improving next year," pointed out Lilley, whose team finished on top of the Eastern Conference with a record of 16-6-6 and finished tied for first place overall in the A-League with the Milwaukee Wave United. "Rochester has a lot of talent and experience in the playoffs and yet, we had them on the ropes for the last 30 minutes in Rochester and for all of today’s game."
Since the Rhinos joined the A-League in 1996, this was the fourth time that these two teams squared off in post-season play and every time, the Rhinos came out on top.
SOMMAIRE/GAME SUMMARY
FINALE DE SECTION/DIVISION FINAL
MATCH RETOUR/SECOND LEG
Impact de Montréal 0
Rochester Raging Rhinos 0
Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard, Montréal
Formations partantes/Starting line-ups
MTL: Greg Sutton, Jason DiTullio (David Fronimadis 72), Nevio Pizzolitto (Chris Lemire 77), Gabriel Gervais, Abraham François, Zé Roberto, Sita-Taty Matondo, Martin Nash, Antonio Ribeiro, Mark Rowland (Ali Ngon 67), Mauro Biello.
ROCH: Billy Andracki, Craig Demmin, Scott Schweitzer, Carlos Mendez, Bill Sedgewick, Stoian Mladenov, David Hayes (Temoc Suarez 89), Kirk Wilson, Lenin Steenkamp, Ian Fuller (Yuri Lavrinenko 63), Doug Miller (Jamel Mitchell 76).
MTL : ROCH
Buts/Goals – 0:0
Tirs/Shots – 11:6
Arrêts/Saves – 0:6
Fautes/Fouls – 26:20
Hors-jeux/Offsides – 1:1
Corners – 5:3
Avert./Cautions – MTL Zé Roberto (4), Martin Nash (63), Abraham François (89), Martin Nash (89) ROC Scott Schweitzer (15), Yuri Lavrinenko (65), Kirk Wilson (72), David Hayes (81).
Expuls./Eject. — MTL Martin Nash (89)
Assist./Attend.:
8455
Arbitre/Referee
Sylvio Petrescu
Juges de touche/Linesmen
Dominic Rossetto, Jules Boccaro
4e officiel/4th official
Nick Theodorakis
(Match aller/First leg @ Rochester: Rhinos 2, Impact 1)
-30-
SOURCE:
bcomm
INFO:
Stéphane Banfi
514-328-3668 (ext. 27)
