PACHUCA, Mexico – There was no discussing individual performances thoroughly on Tuesday night.
When MLSsoccer.com asked head coach Frank Klopas for an assessment of defender Laurent Ciman’s fine performance in Montreal’s 2-2 tie at Pachuca in the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal first leg, Klopas' answer lasted seven seconds -- and all seven of them were about the full team, not just Ciman.
The message was no different in the mixed zone later on. It was all about the team. Even for Dilly Duka, who had a career night with his first two-goal performance as a professional.
“I’m soaking it in now, but during the game, I tell you, I didn’t care who scored,” Duka told reporters. “We were celebrating, that was a team out there. We were defending and attacking together. I really didn’t think about it. I was just like, 'Get through the half, get through 90 minutes.'”
Get through they did, and no heads were hanging in shame at blowing a two-goal lead. Montreal faced a tough first competitive game of the season against an in-form Pachuca. Wave after wave of attack tested Montreal’s brand new backline. But they still got a result.
Bakary Soumare and Ciman, both in their first competitive game for the Impact, made several crucial interventions in the back, and while Ciman wasn’t too pleased at the mishap that presented Ariel Nahuelpán with the equalizer – or at the foul that led to Heriberto Olvera’s free-kick goal – the team can be pleased with the away goals they picked up at the other end to bring back to next week's return leg in Montreal.
“It’s a good result away from home, but we took avoidable goals,” Ciman said. “I didn’t know much about the referees, but I saw that it was worse than in Belgium. It’s a shame, because we had the game in our hands, and we could have gone back to Montreal with a clean sheet. But I think we can be satisfied with our first game. We played well as a team.”
Montreal’s response after Nahuelpán’s equalizer perhaps best epitomizes how things have changed at the club since late 2014. It may have been difficult fitness-wise to keep going, but the Impact gave it their all anyway, and Klopas introduced fresh legs at key moments.
Would that have happened in 2014? Likely not. The Impact seemed to lose their heads when they conceded last year. In Pachuca, on Tuesday, no one threw the gameplan out of the window.
“We had to show enough experience to calm things down, calm them down,” Hassoun Camara, who came off the bench in the second half, said. “They were going to push. We knew that scenario would play out. Coming on, I tried to break their rhythm down and manage the latter stages of the game the way we wanted to.”
