Impact needs to work on defence
Loss to Red Bulls drops team to fifth in Eastern Conference standings
“De-fence! De-fence!”
That’s a chant Impact fans might want to start more often at Saputo Stadium to go along with “Allez Montréal” and their other favourite songs to sing during games.
Scoring goals hasn’t been a problem for the Impact this season, but stopping them has.
Coach Mauro Biello put in a two-striker lineup with Didier Drogba and Matteo Mancosu to start Saturday night’s Major League Soccer game against the Red Bulls in New York and it paid early dividends.
In the 21st minute, Marco Donadel found Mancosu with a long ball down the right sideline that the Italian striker caught up to and then ran into the box before stopping suddenly and making a gorgeous left-footed pass to Ignacio Piatti. The Argentinian midfielder made no mistake, one-timing the ball with the inside of his right foot to beat Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles for his team-leading 13th goal of the season.
It was a great start for the Impact, who headed into the game with a 2-3-6 road record. Goalkeeper Robles wasn’t happy with his Red Bulls teammates and started screaming at his defenders.
But only one minute later, Bradley Wright-Phillips tied it up for New York and then he put the Red Bulls ahead with his second goal of the game in the 41st minute.
Sean Davis made it 3-1 for the Red Bulls in the 46th minute, with three minutes of added time to the first half, and when the Impact’s Ambroise Oyongo took a red card in the 48th minute this one was over. Oyongo was chasing a loose ball when he slid into the feet of Davis, who went down awkwardly.
The loss dropped the Impact into fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings with a 8-6-9 record, five points behind first-place New York City FC with Montreal holding two games in hand.
“In the first part of the game, we did what we had to do, denying them space and countering, but we lost our focus afterwards,” Impact head coach Mauro Biello said on the team’s website after the game. “Some calls didn’t go our way, but we can’t concede the goals that we conceded, and we have to address that.”
The Impact has scored 38 goals in 23 games, five goals less than the Red Bulls, who lead the Eastern Conference in scoring and have played two more games than Montreal.
But the Impact has also given up 34 goals, one more than the Red Bulls, who are in second place in the conference with a 10-9-6 record.
Impact goalkeeper Evan Bush made four saves during the game, one more than Robles.
“We conceded goals too easily, and we committed too many individual mistakes,” defender Laurent Ciman said on the team’s website. “We have to move on as quickly as possible and get back to work in training ahead of next Saturday’s game, addressing the mistakes that we made.”
The Impact will be back in action Saturday night at Saputo Stadium against the Chicago Fire, who are in last place in the 10-team Eastern Conference with a 4-11-7 record. Biello is well aware that his team’s defence needs to improve and the coach worked on it in practice last week. Obviously, more work needs to be done.
Impact technical director Adam Braz also knows the defence needs work and said so during a one-on-one interview last week, noting his biggest concern was “the number of goals we concede.”
“We’re very strong going forward in the attacking phase and we’ve shown the ability to score plenty of goals and play exciting soccer, which is great,” Braz said. “But I think we also have to understand that defensively we need to be strong, have a good mentality collectively and individually and try to concede less goals and less chances. And I think if we can add that to our game down the stretch we’ll be a very strong team.”
So the Impact knows what it needs to do — now it’s just a case of doing it.
The top six teams in each conference make the playoffs in MLS and the Impact is six points ahead of sixth-place D.C. United. There are 11 games remaining in the regular season for the Impact to fix its defensive problems before the playoffs begin.
Drogba wasn’t happy with the officiating Saturday night and argued with referee Chris Penso after Oyongo was given the red card. Drogba also wasn’t happy with some of the abuse he took from Red Bulls defenders, including when Aurélian Collin — who had picked up a yellow card earlier — tripped him in the penalty area during the 43rd minute but no call was made.
“We made technical mistakes tonight, but the fouls that I suffered have to be pointed out,” Drogba said on the team’s website. “These decisions don’t wipe out our faults today, but they had a big influence on the game.”
It’s easy to blame the officials after a loss, but the Impact players have to look in the mirror now and be aware of what needs to be worked on this week in practice.
De-fence! De-fence!