’A little bit of magic’ carries the day
Patient Whitecaps come from behind in second half to edge Impact 2-1 for season’s first road win
MONTREAL — Sometimes the soccer gods work in mysterious ways.
A week ago, the Vancouver Whitecaps were the dominant team at Portland — at least through the second half — and outshot the Timbers, yet lost.
Saturday afternoon at Saputo Stadium, the Caps appeared to be reeling late in the second half against the Montreal Impact. But a late goal by Cristian Techera, coming on a blitzing counter-attack, carried the visitors to a come-from-behind 2-1 victory before 19,597 spectators.
“It happens. Sometimes you play very well and you lose,” said defender Kendall Waston, the Vancouver captain. “At the end, football gives you back the good things that you do.
“We’re playing good. We feel good,” added the 6-foot-5, 215-pound Costa Rican native. “Winning helps you believe what you’re doing.”
The victory nudged the Caps closer to .500, improving their record to 3-4-1. More importantly, it was the team’s first victory on the road this season in its fourth attempt. Vancouver won only four of 17 road games last year.
The Impact, playing only its third game at home dropped to 1-3-4 and is 10th in the Eastern Conference, ahead of only Philadelphia.
“Any points on the road is big,” said Caps head coach Carl Robinson, whose team travels to Denver next Friday to take on the Colorado Rapids, their third of four straight weeks on the road.
“I think some of our football was outstanding. We maintained our focus, our discipline, and then got back into the game and obviously got the winner with a little bit of magic.”
With the Impact pressing from the 74th minute, and after 18-year-old midfielder Ballou Jean-Yves Tabla twice came close to providing the home side with the lead, it was Vancouver instead that delivered the final dagger.
Techera took a pass on the right flank from Andrew Jacobson. He then avoided a sliding tackle from Impact defender Laurent Ciman and beat Montreal goalkeeper Evan Bush with a low shot to the far side for his second goal this season.
“I’m happy for him. He’s playing with confidence at the moment, which is really important for players,” Robinson said.
The Impact lost striker Matteo Mancosu in the fourth minute with a stretch muscle in his lower body following a left-footed shot. This might have altered Montreal’s strategy, although Mancosu was replaced by Anthony Jackson-Hamel, the 23-year-old from Quebec City who had scored three goals over the last two games in only 37 minutes.
The Impact opened the scoring in the ninth on a goal by Marco Donadel, his first of the season.
Tabla began the ball-control sequence with a pretty individual run down the right side. Following a number of passes, Ignacio Piatti sent a pass back to Donadel, Montreal captain Patrice Bernier craftily avoiding an interruption. Donadel’s shot from distance found the back of the net, low to the right of Caps goalkeeper David Ousted.
But the visitors remained patient, never losing their composure and started to dictate the pace.
“We knew their strengths and weaknesses. We stayed patient. We knew the game wasn’t ending at that moment,” Waston said. “We had faith that, at any moment, we’d get the chances we needed to score.”
The tying goal came in the 29th. A free-kick by Christian Bolanos was headed away by Ciman. But the ball went directly to Jacobson. His right-footed volley from just outside the box left Bush with little chance.
It was Jacobson’s first goal of the season.
“I knew I wouldn’t have time to take it down,” explained the California native. “I just wanted to get a decent connection on it.”