Poor defence has Impact reeling
After woeful loss, Montreal looks to get back on track
MONTREAL— The Montreal Impact seek to rebound from their worst defeat of the season when they face D.C. United on Wednesday night at Saputo Stadium.
Coach Mauro Biello apologized to the fans after Montreal’s 3-0 loss at home on Saturday night to the Chicago Fire, the last-place team in Major League Soccer who had not won an away game since July 2014.
His squad held a players-only meeting on Monday to thrash out what has gone wrong with a side that has lost its past two games by a combined 6-1. Montreal (8-7-9) is fifth in the Eastern Conference, five points ahead of sixth-place D.C. (6-8-19).
“Sometimes when there are recurring themes over a couple of weeks or a couple of months, where the same mistakes are being made, you need to look at and address certain things,” said goalkeeper Evan Bush. “But you don’t want to dwell too much on that game because we’ve had good performances this year.
“The shameful part was that a lot of the bad performances have been at home, for whatever reason. Maybe we think it’s going to come a bit easier at home.”
The Impact are 6-3-3 at home this season, but Bush found similarities to their 2-0 loss to Toronto FC on April 23, a 3-1 setback to New York City on July 17 and the Chicago fiasco, which saw them booed off the field.
“A lot of that was because we put so much into the attack at home and teams countered us,” he said. “The games we lost, pretty much all the goals they scored were in transition.
“Even off our own set pieces, like the first goal against Chicago (which came after a Montreal corner kick). We feel we’re on top of the game and we’re about to score a goal and, out of nothing, teams are coming down and getting good chances. We need to find ways to push the game at home but keep ourselves protected in dangerous areas.”
It will be the second meeting within a month for D.C., which is 1-0-3 since their 1-1 draw on July 31 in Washington. That game saw Hernan Bernardello tie the game in the 86th minute, with Montreal down a man after Didier Drogba was sent off in the 81st for kneeing an opponent.
“It wasn’t one of our better performances,” said Bush.
“It was hot, humid, tough conditions, but we found a way to get a point down a man.
D.C. is coming off a 2-2 draw at home with the New York Red Bulls. They are1-4-6 on the road. Biello said that while beating a team that stays back takes patience, it is not the kind of listless, passive patience his club showed against the Fire.
“It doesn’t mean moving the ball slowly at the back,” he said. “Move it quickly, but recognize the moment when to go.”
Mostly, the Impact want to put the sour taste of the Chicago loss behind them as quickly as possible. There were no bright spots in that game. The defence, midfield and the attack all struggled.
They had hoped to start a run of three games in eight days with a clear win over Chicago to begin the buildup to a showdown Saturday with rival Toronto FC at BMO Field.
Left back Ambroise Oyongo will return from a one-game suspension, but he will leave again next week to play a pair of qualifying matches for Cameroon in the African Cup of Nations.