ORLANDO, Fla.- Mauro Biello insisted his Montreal Impact could take “a lot of positives” from the long trip to Florida, despite the agonizing 2-1 defeat that arrived with a dagger-like 87th-minute winner from Orlando City SC’s Cyle Larin.
The Impact head coach saw his men dominate for most of the first half and have several gilt-edged chances in the second, finishing with 15 shots, including seven on target to Orlando’s five.
But the all-important second goal did not materialize for the Impact and they were left to rue the late defensive lapse that allowed Kaká to set up a second goal of the night for Canadian striker Larin.
“We created enough chances to score that second goal for sure,” Biello insisted. “I thought we created well, we unbalanced them, and we kept possession well. I think what we lacked in the second half is that we got a little bit too open and they caught us a couple of times.
“The fans got into it, but overall I thought we controlled a good part of this game and should have probably come out of there with some points.”
Biello refused to point to the absence of big-name striker Didier Drogba for making the difference, as Ignacio Piatti continually found space to torment the Orlando backline and Dominic Oduro was only stopped by two remarkable saves from home keeper Joe Bendik.
“Didier obviously brings something to the team,” Biello added. “But the guys that played today were dangerous offensively and, if you look at the chances we created, that wasn’t the problem. We could maybe have been a little sharper in the final third, but in the midfield we were very good, and it was just disappointing to give up that goal at the end.
“There were still a lot of positives for us tonight, but in the end we have got to learn from this and we have got a game next week to recover it from.”
Arguably the turning point for the Impact was the 43rd minute free-kick that Larin headed into the back of the net for the Orlando equalizer, with Biello insisting the free kick should never have been given, sparking some angry words from several players with referee Mark Geiger at halftime.
“I think everybody in the whole stadium could see that my defender got the ball and that there was no foul,” Biello insisted. “For me, the referee makes a bad decision. We can’t control it after that, but there was some frustration from the players after that. But that is normal. When you get a call like that and it leads to a goal, there is always frustration.”
