Frank Klopas has had enough.
The Impact head coach has lamented the refereeing already this season – the first leg of the Amway Canadian Championship at Toronto FC and Montreal’s 4-1 loss at the Colorado Rapids come to mind.
But an apparent handball by A.J. Cochran in the 88th minute of Montreal’s 3-2 loss at the Houston Dynamo this Saturday was the proverbial straw.
“At the end of the day, again, we have a clear penalty, in the end of the game,” Klopas told reporters postgame. “With this referee [Fotis Bazakos], I don’t know if it’s because he’s Greek and I’m Greek, but we never get any calls. Something has to change. We need to start getting some calls. I’m not saying to give us calls, but it’s clearly a 100 percent PK that’s not given and the league’s got to do something about that. It’s embarrassing.”
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Montreal have drawn one penalty kick this season, on June 11 at home to D.C. United, and Patrice Bernier missed it. By comparison, two seasons ago, in 2012, the Impact attempted a league-leading 9 penalty kicks, all converted.
“Another day, we scored two goals again, we should have walked away with a result, but let me just say: clear handball in the end,” Klopas continued. “I’m disappointed with the refs that we, us, the Montreal Impact, we never get any calls. It’s a joke.”
Yes, Montreal scored two goals, and fine ones at that. Felipe and Dilly Duka combined smartly late in the first half, while Ignacio Piatti is now the Impact’s fourth-best goalscorer in the league – four games into his MLS career.
Yet Montreal, now 0-10-3 on the road this season, are still without a win in Houston despite five attempts. At the other end of the field, Montreal struggled to carry their defensive momentum – lapse of concentration on Giles Barnes’ opener aside – from the first half to the second.
Matteo Ferrari’s exit from the game due to heat-induced breathing issues might have been a factor, a reporter asked Klopas postgame. Klopas dismissed the theory, but defender Wandrille Lefèvre conceded that players like Ferrari and Bernier – currently on international duty with Canada – would have been useful.
“Veterans that have been around the block, that can calm things down or anticipate things happening like the pressure put on us after goals and so forth, they certainly would have helped in circumstances like these,” Lefèvre told reporters.
