ONE TOUGH SCORER
Injured Fisher helps Impact
The Impact’s Kyle Fisher never played hockey, but he wouldn’t look out of place in an NHL locker-room.
When the defender met with the media after the Impact’s 4-1 win over Portland on Saturday afternoon at Saputo Stadium, he had six fresh stitches above his right eye, the result of a collision with the Timber’s Fanendo Adi in the 34th minute. Both players ended up on the ground and play was delayed for more than three minutes while trainers wrapped a bandage around Fisher’s head, making him look like a rugby player.
This is one tough dude.
In the 43rd minute, Fisher scored his first career MLS goal — on a header off a corner kick — giving the Impact a 2-0 lead after Ignacio Piatti had scored on a penalty kick in the 13th minute.
After the game, Fisher said the header opened the cut a bit and he had some blood dripping through the bandage, but stitches and a new tape job done at halftime made things better as he played the full 90 minutes and helped shut down Timbers forward Adi, a designated player who had six goals in Portland’s first 11 games.
“It was a little better job of bandaging,” Fisher said about the halftime patchwork. “I didn’t feel like my head was going to explode from the pressure of the tape around it.”
Diego Valeri scored the only Portland goal in first-half extra time, while Piatti got his second goal of the game in the 50th minute and Ambroise Oyongo gave the enthusiastic crowd of 19,138 more reason to sing, dance and cheer on a gorgeous, sunny day when he scored in the 77th minute.
It was a huge win for the Impact, who improved to 3-4-4 and moved out of last place in the Eastern Conference. Their next game is Tuesday in Vancouver against the Whitecaps in the first game of the two-leg Canadian Championship semifinal series (10 p.m., TSN, RDS, TSN Radio 690).
After Saturday’s game, Fisher said he had gone through a concussion protocol and was feeling good, adding: “There’s no problems.”
Impact coach Mauro Biello called it a “Gordie Howe night” for Fisher, who is from South Carolina and was asked afterward if he knew who Howe was.
“Yeah, a hockey player for the Red Wings,” Fisher said proudly of the late Hall of Famer.
“The (Gordie Howe) hat trick,” he added impressively. “The fight, the goal and an assist, I think? I was missing one or two of those, though.”
The fight and the assist, to be exact — but it was still a good analogy by Biello.
When the Howe reference was mentioned to Impact goalkeeper Evan Bush, who is from Ohio, he responded: “That one’s over my head. I don’t watch hockey.”
But Bush certainly appreciates Fisher’s rugged style of play.
“I think if you ask any of the guys they’ll say the same thing,” Bush said about the six-foot, 176-pound defender who was the Impact’s first-round pick (14th overall) at the 2016 MLS SuperDraft. “He’s one of the better pros that we have. He does all the things right off the field to stay ready, to stay fit, to stay mentally tuned in to what’s going on.”
Said Biello about the 22-yearold Fisher: “He’ll run through the wall for this team. He’s got a very strong character and you saw that.”
The corner kick by Blerim Dzemaili that led to Fisher’s goal was a set play the Impact had worked on in practice, trying to get Fisher isolated in the box. Fisher showed an impressive vertical leap as he outjumped defender Alvas Powell in the middle of the box to get his head on the ball.
“I was just waiting for you guys to see it,” Fisher, who played basketball and baseball as a kid, said with a grin about his leaping ability.
Fisher said it had been about two years since he last scored a goal, going back to his college days with the Clemson Tigers. Fisher has always been a defender in soccer dating back to his youth-league days when he was part of five state championship teams in South Carolina.
Fisher only played two games with the Impact as a rookie last year, but has already made six appearances this season, including the last four games as a starter.
“It shows character,” Biello said about Fisher’s play. “It shows a young player that has worked extremely hard and is focused on what he could control and right now he’s taking his moment and his time. It’s a guy that’s done well over the last four or five games.”
Fisher said he spoke with his father back home in South Carolina before the game.
“My Dad told me to get one today,” Fisher said with a smile. “He said: ‘I’ll be watching, and on the back post I want you to just try to get your head on one.’ ”
Fisher did exactly that.
He does all the things right off the field to stay ready, to stay fit, to stay mentally tuned in to what’s going on.