IMPACT MUST FIND A WAY TO FINISH
Montreal club has the talent, which was on full display in home opener against Seattle
As the clock ticked toward extra time Saturday evening at the Big O, Impact midfielder Ignacio Piatti somehow controlled a pass from Marco Donadel that reached him at the edge of the Seattle Sounders box.
Piatti flipped the ball high in the air, corralled it as it came down and, with two muscular Seattle Sounders defenders clinging to him like he was the last helicopter out of Vietnam, fought them off as he worked his way into the corner.
Piatti was knocked down, jumped back up, regained control of the ball and, finally, was taken to the turf a second time. Either incident should have earned him a free kick, but there was no whistle and play went on.
In hindsight, Piatti should perhaps have tried to score rather than looking to run out the clock by himself — but, for a time, it appeared he could do that.
If only. You know the rest: Seattle kept probing, desperately seeking the tying goal — and just beyond the three-minute mark of extra time, Seattle substitute Will Bruin scored to tie it 2-2.
That was how it ended, the Impact somehow snatching a very meh tie from the jaws of victory, showing at once their strengths and weakness within the space of a few minutes.
There are at least a couple of conclusions we can draw from the Impact home opener, when they were blessed to be indoors at the Big O on a frigid March evening in Montreal.
First, Piatti is as talented as anyone in Major League Soccer. The Argentine star is worth the price of admission all by himself, a multi-faceted player who would shine in any league on the planet. Saturday evening, Piatti set up the first Impact goal and scored the second before that final display of sheer wizardry.
Second, even with several intervening months to contemplate the sins that cost them the two-game East final against Toronto FC in December, the Impact when under pressure late in big matches still look about as organized as the mob around the bargain bin at a Boxing Day fire sale. You can sense the goal coming, you see things falling apart, and yet inexorably the opposition keeps pouring it on.
It was painful to watch from home and more so, no doubt, if you were at the stadium. I’ve made it to all the previous home openers since the Impact moved to MLS and I wanted to make it to this one, but the flu bug that caught the Canadiens out west got me right here in beautiful downtown Greenfield Park.
From what I saw, however, goalkeeper Evan Bush’s assessment seemed precisely correct.
“I thought in the 76th, 77th minute, we were comfortable,” Bush said. “Looking back to last year, it was the same thing, we were up 3-0 on Toronto, we got comfortable. We want to hear the olés from the crowd. But it’s not the time. You have to finish the game, keep the clean sheet.”
Instead, the Impact conceded a goal on a softish penalty called on Laurent Ciman in the 83rd minute. The penalty might have gone either way, but the Impact benefited from a couple of far worse calls, so there’s no room for complaint. They blew this one.
Still, better to settle for a tie in a match you should have won than to find you simply don’t have the firepower to be on the same pitch with the defending MLS champions.
With the Impact, talent is not the problem — it’s getting all the moving parts working together, especially when the team has to defend against set pieces and crosses into the box.
From the Department of Ready Excuses, it should be noted the Impact didn’t have right fullback Hassoun Camara because their most outstanding defender from last season was out with a onegame suspension against Seattle.
Not that the Impact need excuses. This is a good team. They expect a lot of themselves and they should. It’s also better to have problems at this stage, when coach Mauro Biello and his staff have an entire season to work out the kinks.
But the kinks are there. The Impact in the dying minutes of this contest were no worse than Paris St. Germain earlier in the week, when Barcelona FC was somehow scoring three goals in seven minutes en route to an improbable 6-5 victory on aggregate after losing the opening match 4-0 on aggregate in Paris.
PSG also threw a scrambled-egg defence at Barcelona in that one and when the opposition has players the calibre of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar Jr., that can be fatal.
With the odd MLS schedule, the Impact won’t play again in Montreal until they open their Saputo Stadium season on April 15. By then, perhaps, some of the chinks in the armour will be plugged and a two-goal lead late in a match will be more than enough.
For now, we’ll remember the dazzling Piatti — and the one that got away.
We want to hear the olés from the crowd. But it’s not the time. You have to finish the game, keep the clean sheet.