Commodore, who scored his 8th goal of the season, an Impact high so far this year, headed in his own rebound at the 80th minute of play, after the initial save by Puerto Rico goalkeeper Michael Ueltschey. Yuri Lavrynenko took advantage of a free kick to find Commodore in the box.
“There was good chemistry on the field, we created a lot of good chances,” said midfielder Antonio Ribeiro, who took three shots on net, one less than Mauro Biello and two less than Eduardo Sebrango. “We could easily have scored two or three.”
Commodore’s goal rewarded clear domination by Montreal. In the first half alone, Biello was involved in five scoring chances by the Impact. He forced former teammate Ueltschey to make two reaction saves, at the 11th and 37th minute of play. He also fed Sebrango twice — at the 30th and 40th, but the Cuban-born striker was unable to get a good shot away the first time, and missed the net the second time.
Sebrango and Ribeiro came up with clear chances early in the second half, but it was finally Commodore, who came into the game for Chris Lemire at the 76th, who had the last word.
“You have to give credit to the goalkeeper,” said Biello, referring to Ueltschey, Greg Sutton’s back-up last season. “He was great. He covered his angles and made the big saves. He was ready for this game. Fortunately, Fred scored a big goal for us.”
Greg Sutton came up big at the 51st minute, as he dove to his right to block a solid free kick taken from 20 yards out by Mauricio Salles, Puerto Rico’s leading goal-scorer with 11 goals. Sutton went on to earn his 14th shutout of the season, a new club record. The old record of 13 in a year had been set in 1996 by Paolo Ceccarelli.
Head coach Nick DeSantis’ squad also tied a club record by coming up with its 15th shutout as a team in 2004, taking into account Andrew Olivieri’s. The record was first established in 1997 by Paolo Ceccarelli (10), Peter Zaratin (3) and Ricky Tangredi (2).
With this fourth straight win, the Impact increased its lead on top of the Eastern Conference standings to four points ahead of the Richmond Kickers. Montreal, after playing its second match-up of a six-game homestand, has a 6-1-2 record on its own turf.
The homestand resumes Friday night, as the Vancouver Whitecaps will be the visitors at Claude Robillard Sports Complex (8:00 pm, live on FSW and CKAC, tape-delayed on RDS).
Source: bcomm
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