Attention to detail bears fruit for Impact
Team remains undefeated in Montreal after 2-0 victory over Portland Saturday
Attention to detail has been a key for the Impact during its inaugural season in Major League Soccer.
During a 10-day break before Saturday’s game against the Portland Timbers at Olympic Stadium, the focus was on becoming tighter as a defensive unit, getting sharper offensively and also learning how to preserve a lead.
The Impact was impressive in all those aspects while extending its home unbeaten streak to three games with a 2-0 victory over the Timbers in front of 19,223 fans.
“We’ve felt all along the team is coming together in a good way,” head coach Jesse Marsch said. “We know we can still get better, but I’m sure today – and no disrespect to Portland because they do a have a good team despite their slow start – was a pretty good performance and a dominant performance from start to finish.”
Striker Bernardo Corradi scored for the third time in as many games and midfielder Sinisa Ubiparipovic came off the bench to notch his second of the season as the Impact won for the second time at home, to go along with a tie, while improving to 2-5-2 in the Eastern Conference. Both goals came in the final 15 minutes of the game. Corradi scored on a penalty in the 76th minute and Ubiparipovic in the 84th.
Goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts posted the Impact’s first shutout with four saves against a Timbers attack neutralized by the Impact’s emphasis on team defence.
“I had an easy day today,” said Ricketts, who has played every minute of the nine games this season. “The guys in front of me worked hard and they earned me a clean sheet today, so I say thanks to my teammates.”
The Timbers are far from one of the best squads in the 19-team league, mired in last place in the Western Conference with a 2-5-1 record and winless on the road. But the Impact gave no quarter, winning its second straight home game following a 2-1 win over Toronto FC on April 7.
Saturday marked the third time the Impact has scored twice in a game and the club refused to let the lead slip, as it has done three times this season, resulting in a loss and two ties.
“The group, just as in the beginningof theseasonwhen the goals weren’t coming, I didn’t overemphasize scoring goals and taking chances. I knew that part would come,” Marsch said. “Now, at this point in the year when we haven’t had shutouts, I tried not to over emphasize getting shutouts.
“It’s more about every guy and the whole group understanding how to move this thing along so we become more complete,” the coach added. “I felt like (today) on that end was pretty good.
“And that lesson of how to now deal with a lead has been delivered and received in a good way. When we got the lead, it was like we’ve been here before, we know how to handle this. we killed the game at different moments. We kept the ball at different moments and we still had opportunities to increase the lead, which we wound up doing.
“Being an expansion team, there’s a thousand lessons that you go through. We’re not done with that one because there’s still going to be moments where we get leads and it’s going to be crazy and our way of going through it will still need to be worked on,” the coach added. “But the maturity of our team is still coming across, the development of a commonality of who we are and what we’re about is coming around, so that’s good.”
The Impact won a seasonhigh 56.3 per cent of duels, including 59 per cent in the second half. The Impact also held a total pass advantage of 440-176 and enjoyed 54 per cent of the ball possession.
The Impact did fail to find the back of the net on several good chances in the first half, but it wasn’t the case through the remaining 45 minutes.
Corradi took the penalty after Portland defender Steven Smith was called for a handball violation on shot taken by Italian countryman Matteo Ferrari off a rebound. The call didn’t come without some controversy and confusion, as referee Jorge Gonzalez appeared uncertain about the violation, even though he initially pointed to the penalty spot. The referee first consulted with the near-side linesman and then with the fourth official on the sideline at midfield before making the final call. Corradi drilled a rising shot past Portland backup ’keeper Joe Bendik for his second penalty-kick goal of the season.
“I didn’t have a real clear look at it,” Marsch said. “I was told from upstairs that it should have been a red card (on Smith) as well.
“The ref, I’m pretty sure that when he went to the linesman and when he went to the fourth official that they both said red card, and in the end he choose to do something else,” the coach added. “But really, I can’t comment on it because I didn’t see it really clearly.”
Timbers forward Kris Boyd, who was left frustrated by Montreal’s defensive play, said Gonzalez made “a horrendous decision.”
“For him to go and check with this linesman to make a decision and he didn’t give him a decision, then go to his fourth official and they couldn’t make a decision, and then give the penalty … it may have been a penalty, but he’s still got to be clear in his mind before he does anything,” Boyd said.
“It took three men to make the decision, and I don’t think they got the right decision.”
Ubiparipovic made it 2-0 in the 84th minute when he converted a pass from captain Davy Arnaud before beating Bendik off a dash down the right flank.
Bendik was pressed into service in the 67th minute after Troy Perkins, who made his eighth start for Portland, was forced to leave with a facial injury.
The Impact hosts Toronto Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Olympic Stadium in the opening leg of a home-and-away, aggregate-goal series in the Amway Canadian Championship.