A goal in each half was enough to push the Montreal Impact to a win over Orlando City this past weekend. Donny Toia’s header goal was his first in Major League Soccer, while Dominic Oduro sealed the three points with his 50th goal in MLS. Montreal has now won its last four matches at Stade Saputo.
Donny Toia 36’ (1-0)
The goal
Montreal struck once again from a set piece, this time from a corner kick in the first half. Marco Donadel whipped in a corner kick to the first post that was met by a diving Donny Toia. The Impact full back was facing away from goal, but was still able to direct his header on target.
Why it happened
In the play leading up to the corner kick, the Impact was in a good sequence of possession in which it calmly moved the ball around the Orlando City half. Eventually the ball came back to Laurent Ciman as the Impact was switching the point of attack. Ciman played a long diagonal ball to the right side of the pitch for Ambroise Oyongo.
The Cameroon international settled the ball down with his first touch and was locked in a 1-v-1 battle against Orlando City defender Luke Boden. Oyongo decided to take on his opponent towards the corner, as the option to cut inside the box was taken away by Brek Shea. Boden closed down Oyongo just enough to deny a cross into the box, but that wasn’t enough as the Impact won a corner kick.
The Impact relied on a simple case of synchronised runs from two of its players in order to score. Just as the ball is about to be struck, a player ran from the top of the six-yard box towards the front post. On the play, Toia was being marked by Brek Shea but he was able to get a few steps ahead of him by using a check-in/check-out run by leaning against Shea and accelerating away towards where the ball was being played. Toia was left with a very difficult header attempt, as he was facing away from the goal and needed to angle his body perfectly in order to head the ball into goal. Toia did exactly that and his header looped over goalkeeper Tally Hall.
