SOGGY 2-1 LOSS FOR IMPACT
Rain delay can’t stop Atlanta win
Tired legs from a heavy schedule and west-coast trip may have left the Montreal Impact easy prey for Atlanta United scoring machine Josef Martinez.
The quick-legged Venezuelan forward scored his 23rd and 24th goals of the season as MLS -leading Atlanta defeated the Impact 2-1 in a match delayed by a 75-minute thundershower on Saturday night.
Martinez pounced on a rebound to score in the 31st minute and got another on a tap-in in the 57th as Atlanta (14-4-5) stretched its unbeaten run to four games.
With 11 games left in the regular season, Martinez is only three short of the MLS record of 27 goals in a season shared by three players.
“Obviously he’s a very good player,” said Montreal fullback Michael Petrasso. “Him and (Miguel) Almiron, you can see a lot of their attack goes through them.
“You see how fast he is and how he can switch it on right away from nothing. We focused on them. They’re two of the best players in the league. It was tough in this game. You can see the chances they created and the goals they scored from came from barely nothing.”
Ignacio Piatti scored for Montreal (9-13-1), which was eliminated from the Canadian Championship with a 2-0 semifinal loss in Vancouver on Wednesday in what turned out to be a disappointing week. They also learned on Thursday a deal to bring in French striker Jimmy Briand had fallen through.
The Atlanta game ended a gruelling run of seven games in 22 days in which the Impact went 2-2-1 in league play and 1-1 in the Canadian Championship.
Coach Rémi Garde, who served a one-game suspension and was replaced by goalkeeping coach Joel Bats, said the heavy schedule left his team short of energy and preparation to face a talented opponent like Atlanta. They look forward to having a full week to get ready for a visit from D.C. United next week.
“It’s been hard for us, but I think that we played a good game in Portland (a 2-2 draw last week) and we won a lot of games at home,” said striker Matteo Mancosu. “Now we have time to recover a bit.”