MONTREAL –The Montreal Impact put in another good performance but allowed a late goal and fell to Sporting Kansas City 2-1 on Saturday night at Stade Saputo.
“When you give up goals like that at the end of a game, twice now, it’s hard to accept,” said head coach Frank Klopas. “I thought we deserved a point in a solid performance, despite a first half where we forced the ball a little too much. We had good moments, but I feel for the guys.”
After IMFC went down early on header by Dom Dwyer in the 4th minute, the Impact rallied to score a highlight reel goal in the 28th minute. Captain Patrice Bernier turned toward goal and chipped his cross to the opposite post that found Justin Mapp on the run. His one touch pass to the short post found Di Vaio who headed the ball into the far corner.
Despite a solid performance defensively in what was a physical battle (five yellow cards) the Impact defended well and was creative and opportunistic moving forward, until the 89th minute when a miscommunication between Perkins and Pearce led to a bobbled ball that landed on Dwyer’s foot. He made no mistake and scored his second of the game.
“These things happen, it was a mess from the beginning of the play,” explained Perkins about the winning goal. “There were moments where we outplayed them in this game. We just have to believe in ourselves more and it will come.”
Unfortunately for the Impact goalkeeper, who came up big earlier in the second half when SKC’s Antonio Dovale found himself all alone in front of goal, but Perkins stoned him with a reflex save to his right.
“This is a tough loss to swallow,” added Bernier. “We give up a gift goal and we hurt ourselves. A game like today where we came back after going down early hurts even more. It’s those little mistakes that keep us from winning or earning points that we deserve.”
Defender Krzysztof Krol made his first start of the season for the home side, earning a yellow card in his debut.
The Impact will travel to Columbus on Thursday to face the Crew on Saturday night at 7:30pm EDT (TVA Sports, TSN Radio 690).
Lineups
MTL – GK-Troy Perkins; D-Hassoun Camara, Matteo Ferrari, Heath Pearce, Krzysztof Krol; M-Andrés Romero, Patrice Bernier, Felipe (Gorka Larrea 71’), Andrés Romero (Issey Nakajima-Farran 67’); Justin Mapp; F-Jack McInerney (Calum Mallace 87’), Marco Di Vaio
Subs not used: GK-Evan Bush; D- Karl W. Ouimette, Futty Danso; F-Santiago Gonzalez
KC – GK-Andy Gruenebaum; D-Igor Juliao, Aurélien Collin; Matt Besler, Seth Sinovic; M-Benny Feilhaber, Jacob Peterson (Soony Saad 76’), Lawrence Olum; F-Dom Dwyer, Graham Zusi, Toni Dovale (C.J. Sapong, 76’)
Subs not used: GK-Jon Kemplin; D-Kevin Ellis; M-Mikey Lopez, Sal Zizzo; F-Claudio Bieler
Goals
KC – Dwyer (Besler) 4’
MTL – Di Vaio (Mapp, Bernier) 28’
KC – Dwyer 89’
Cautions
MTL – Felipe 31’
KC – Sinovic 32’
MTL – Romero 41’
MTL – Krol 64’
MTL – Di Vaio 90+2’
