Unacceptable performance on a beautiful night
Oh, to have been a fly on the window inside Joey Saputo’s car during his ride home from Saputo Stadium Saturday night.
The Impact owner is not a happy man.
The stage was set up perfectly for the Impact on an absolutely gorgeous, late-summer night in front of a sellout crowd of 20,801. During the national anthems, two fathers a couple of rows in front of the press box were standing with their young sons sitting on their shoulders. It was the type of summer night when longtime memories can be made for a young boy spending some special time with his dad at a soccer game. The “beautiful game.”
But this night turned out to be ugly for the Impact ... very ugly after Abu Danladi scored in the 89th minute to give Minnesota United a 3-2 victory.
If those young boys didn’t know much about Minnesota United before the game, their fathers might have told them the expansion team arrived at Saputo Stadium with a 1-9-2 road record, had allowed the most goals in Major League Soccer and had a minus-21 goal differential. Minnesota’s overall record was 7-15-5 and the club had to fly across Canada and play on only two days of rest after losing 3-0 to the Whitecaps Wednesday night in Vancouver.
And somehow the Impact couldn’t send their fans home happy and put three points in the standings, despite taking a 1-0 lead in the ninth minute on a goal by captain Patrice Bernier. The Impact’s Ignacio Piatti was stopped on a penalty kick in the 13th minute and Kevin Molino scored for Minnesota in the 20th on a penalty kick to send the teams into halftime tied 1-1. Blerim Dzemaili scored a gorgeous goal for the Impact in the 55th minute and the crowd went wild as he took a bow. But only five minutes later Christian Ramirez tied it up, setting the stage for Danladi’s winner.
Minnesota now returns home with three points, while Saputo drove home wondering if his team’s playoff hopes are shot. It sure looks that way.
The Impact’s record dropped to 10-12-6 and with six games remaining in the regular season they trail the sixth-place New York Red Bulls by six points for the final playoff spot. The Red Bulls tied the Philadelphia Union 0-0 on Sunday.
On Sunday evening, the Impact released a statement from Saputo in which he said: “Our team’s latest performance has clearly fallen short of our expectations and those of our members, supporters, and city. Rest assured that this message has been conveyed to the technical staff and the players.”
The owner added: “Today, our resolve and our objectives have not changed. While this season has been extremely trying on many fronts, we ask for your patience.”
The Impact’s next two games are on the road — Wednesday in Toronto and next Sunday in Atlanta. The Impact has a 2-6-5 road record, while Toronto is unbeaten in 14 home games (11-0-3) and Atlanta has an 8-2-2 home record.
Good luck with that.
The Impact has also lost four straight games now, including three at home.
“Unacceptable performance,” coach Mauro Biello said after Saturday’s loss.
No kidding. “Everybody’s disappointed and right now it’s not good enough,” the coach added. “We got a mountain to climb from here to the end of the season.”
What does the coach say to his players now?
“The message is you got to perform,” Biello said. “Everybody’s got a responsibility. You get paid to play and that’s what it is. Perform every day in training, perform in the game, work hard and that’s the message from here on in.”
Words can be easy. Wins aren’t — and there’s something seriously wrong with this Impact team right now and it’s probably too late to fix to make the playoffs.
These last six regular-season games could also be the final ones in the playing career of captain Bernier, who will retire after this season and become a coach with the Impact Academy. Can that fact help motivate Bernier’s teammates?
“I don’t know if I could use that as a motivating factor,” said Bernier, whose goal was his first in MLS play since the 2013 season. “For me, I don’t want for these (games) to be something nostalgic. I want to play and I want this club to succeed.”
“I’m an optimist. There’s six games, we still have to play and perform. But this one is a sour feeling. It was there for the taking and we didn’t take it.”
I wonder what those two fathers who had their sons up on their shoulders said to them about the Impact on their drive home?
Saputo will be hoping now that they come back.