IMPACT GIVING FANS HOPE
Back in playoff spot after win streak
The Colorado Rapids tried their best to put the 16,030 fans at Saputo Stadium to sleep Saturday night and for the first 45 minutes they almost did.
The Rapids came into this MLS game against the Impact obviously looking for a nil-nil road tie, and for the first half they looked sort of like the Canadiens last season: bad, boring and unable to score. But at least the Canadiens try to score.
The Rapids had 10 men — including former U.S. World Cup goalie Tim Howard — sitting back playing defence with one man left alone up front as a decoration. It made for a dreadful first half with only one shot on target by the Impact and none by the Rapids.
After watching so much exciting soccer and so many great goals at the World Cup in Russia, the first half at Saputo Stadium was not the “beautiful game,” and could have been used as Exhibit A for sports fans who say soccer is boring. Watching grass grow could be more fun, and the grass at Saputo Stadium is actually quite beautiful.
But the Impact aren’t boring — at least not anymore.
Algerian international midfielder Saphir Taider finally broke through Colorado’s two lines of defence to open the scoring in the 55th minute for the Impact and he scored again in the 56th. The Rapids then had to open up offensively and Dominique Badji scored in the 78th minute to make things interesting, but the Impact held on for a 2-1 victory.
The Impact have now won four straight games, outscoring the opposition 9-1, and are 5-1-0 in their last six, improving to 8-11-0 on the season and moving into the sixth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Rapids fell to 4-11-3.
This has been a very impressive turnaround by the Impact under new head coach Rémi Garde to finally give Montreal sports fans something to cheer about after a terrible NHL season by the Canadiens, and what’s looking like another brutal season for the CFL’s Alouettes. The Als fell to 1-3 with Friday night’s 28-18 loss to the Ottawa Redblacks at Molson Stadium.
“It was really hard, but it was not frustrating,” Impact defender Samuel Piette said about trying to break through the Colorado defence. “We knew we just needed one goal to win that game. It didn’t come in the first half, so we weren’t stressed about it at halftime. We just had to keep doing what we did.”
The Impact actually needed two goals to beat the Rapids and have now scored at least two goals in each of their last four games. For Taider, they were only his second and third goals of the season, which might not seem like much for a designated player in MLS. But Taider’s role and his star power aren’t the same as Didier Drogba’s when the striker was the Impact’s designated player.
“He’s a No. 8, box to box, he’s there to take the ball from our defence, our back line, and put it in a good spot,” Piette said about Taider. “That’s what he does normally and he did that as well today. But to get two goals for him was the cherry on the sundae. I’m happy for him, but he doesn’t need goals to show his value to the team.”
The Impact showed they can win even when Ignacio Piatti, who leads the team with nine goals and had four in the previous three games, doesn’t find the back of the net.
The second half was much more exciting than the first — which wouldn’t have been hard — with the Impact getting six shots on target while the Rapids had two. The Impact controlled the ball for most of the game with 68.2 per cent possession and it seemed like it was much more than that.
Impact goalkeeper Evan Bush saw his shutout streak come to an end after 414 minutes off a set piece, when Badji banged home a loose ball in the goal area off a free kick.
The Impact will be back in action Wednesday when they play New York City FC at Yankee Stadium (7 p.m., TSN, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio), and return to Saputo Stadium next Saturday against the San Jose Earthquakes (7:30 p.m., TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio). The Impact now have a 6-3-0 record at home.
Piette said the fans weren’t the only ones the Rapids were trying to put to sleep during the first half Saturday night.
“Obviously, it’s more like a boring game,” he said. “You feel like you’re just doing passes on the side. But that’s the way they played. I think we played the same way in Atlanta (during a 4-1 loss earlier this season) when you play a good team. We’re in a great moment now, so I’m not surprised they used that style of play.
“At the end of the day, we just want to win,” Piette added. “It doesn’t matter how they play.”