Philadelphia Union vs. Montreal Impact | MLS Match Preview

PHILADELPHIA UNION vs. MONTREAL IMPACT
PPL PARK, Chester, Pa.
August 31, 2013 (WEEK 27, MLS Game #244)
7:30 pm ET (TCN-Phi; TVA)

A pair of clubs coming off five-goal outbursts – in opposite directions – meet Saturday evening when Philadelphia Union play host to the Montréal Impact at PPL Park. Union are coming off a 5-1 loss at New England last weekend, while the Impact defeated the Houston Dynamo 5-0. When the teams met earlier this year, the Impact scored five goals in a win in Québec. Both teams hold places in the top five in the Eastern Conference entering the weekend, with the Impact atop the division and holding the second-best record in MLS.

REFEREE: Edvin Jurisevic. AR1 (bench): Adam Wienckowski; AR2 (opposite): Kevin Klinger; 4th: Sorin Stoica
Jurisevic MLS Career: 63 games; FC/gm: 22.8; Y/gm: 3.6; R: 8; pens: 9

DISABLED LIST: PHI -- Greg Jordan
SUSPENDED: PHI -- Amobi Okugo (through Sept. 8) ... MTL -- Marco Schallibaum (head coach; through Sept. 1)

WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: PHI -- Danny Cruz, Sheanon Williams ... MTL -- Patrice Bernier, Matteo Ferrari
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: PHI -- Brian Carroll, Raymon Gaddis, Michael Farfan, Jeff Parke, Conor Casey ... MTL -- Hassoun Camara, Felipe Martins, Jeb Brovsky, Davy Arnaud, Marco Di Vaio
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none

HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (3 meetings): Union 1 win, 5 goals ... Impact 2 wins, 8 goals ... Ties 0
AT PHILADELPHIA (1 meeting): Union 1 win, 2 goals ... Impact 0 wins, 1 goal ... Ties 0

LAST MATCH
5/25: MTL 5, PHI 3 (Di Vaio 2, 28, 32; Wenger 74; Smith 94+ -- McInerney 5; Hoppenot 69; Le Toux 85)

The Impact opened the scoring just two minutes into the contest after Andrew Wenger cut the ball back for Marco Di Vaio, who put it past Zac MacMath first-time with his left foot.

But three minutes later, Union equalized when Jeb Brovsky only half-cleared a cross and it fell for Michael Farfan, who found Jack McInerney unmarked for the equalizer.

Yet before the match was much more than a half-hour old, Di Vaio had a hat trick. In the 28th minute, on a quick transition, Justin Mapp cut inside from the right and lobbed a through ball for Di Vaio, who adroitly lifted his finish past the ‘keeper.

PHI-MTL Preview: Hackworth
It was 3-1 four minutes later thanks when Andres Romero broke down Sheanon Williams on the left flank and sent in a low cross for Di Vaio, who coolly sidefooted the ball in at the back post to complete his triple.

Union pulled a goal back in the 65th minute when Antoine Hoppenot dribbled his way down the right touchline and sent in a cross that sailed past goalkeeper Troy Perkins into the goal.

The Impact restored their lead in the 74th minute when Wenger redirected Felipe’s corner past MacMath with a glancing header. But Union were back within in one in the 85th minute as Sebastien Le Toux latched onto a bouncing ball at the edge of the box and unleashed a left-footed attempt that went through a maze of legs and past a diving Perkins.

Blake Smith sealed the result on a breakaway in stoppage time, slotting home from inside the box after he was set free by a ball from Patrice Bernier.

MONTREAL IMPACT (4-1-3-2): Troy Perkins - Jeb Brovsky (Karl Ouimette 77), Alessandro Nesta, Matteo Ferrari, Dennis Iapichino - Patrice Bernier - Justin Mapp, Felipe Martins, Andres Romero (Blake Smith 61) - Andrew Wenger, Marco Di Vaio (Sinisa Ubiparipovic 85).

PHILADELPHIA UNION (4-1-3-2): Zac MacMath - Sheanon Williams, Jeff Parke, Amobi Okugo, Raymon Gaddis - Brian Carroll - Danny Cruz (Conor Casey 60), Jose Kleberson (Antoine Hoppenot 65), Michael Farfan (Keon Daniel 78) - Sebastien Le Toux, Jack McInerney.

PHILADELPHIA UNION
Philadelphia Union went onto the road a suffered a heavy loss, falling 5-1 to the New England Revolution on Sunday evening at Gillette Stadium. Union sit in fourth place in the Eastern Conference with 38 points from 26 matches.

LAST MATCH

• The Revolution took the lead after 26 minutes. Chad Barrett found Kelyn Rowe with an inch-perfect pass in midfield, and he subsequently lashed a stellar strike from distance inside the far post.
• Highlights: NE 5, PHI 1
  Union mustered a response in the 51st minute to draw level from a well-worked team goal. A sequence of tidy touches led to a Conor Casey pass for Danny Cruz to chase behind the Revs' line, and he beat goalkeeper Matt Reis to the ball and tucked it into the vacated net.
• But after two apparent Union goals were ruled out, the Revolution scored four goals inside 15 minutes to put the match away. Just short of the hour mark, Juan Agudelo saw his blast from inside the box diverted by Union defender Amobi Okugo past his own goalkeeper.
• Rowe uncorked another fine effort from distance for his second and his side's third goal on the night, on 65 minutes, then Diego Fagundez corralled a Scott Caldwell pass and tucked away the fourth after 71 minutes. Agudelo then his scored his second goal on the night with a clever clipped finish two minutes later to complete the rout.
• Okugo completed a difficult night for Union when he was shown a second yellow card in second-half stoppage time by referee Allen Chapman.
• Union team manager John Hackworth made one change to the team that reached a scoreless draw with the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena. Michael Farfan came into the team in place of Jack McInerney.
• PHILADELPHIA UNION (4-4-1-1): Zac MacMath - Sheanon Williams, Jeff Parke, Amobi Okugo (ejected 91+), Fabinho - Sebastien Le Toux, Brian Carroll, Michael Farfan (Antoine Hoppenot 80), Keon Daniel (Michael Lahoud 27) - Danny Cruz (Jack McInerney 76) - Conor Casey.

TEAM NEWS

• Union were beaten for five goals for a second time this season in the loss in New England. The first time came in the first meeting with Montréal – who are coming off a five-goal game in their win vs. Houston, heading into the second meeting with Philadelphia.
• “A loss is a loss. At the end of the day, that’s not what we came up here to do. We have to keep it in perspective,” said Union manager John Hackworth. “We’ll do what we do after every game. Win, loss or draw; we’ll go back, look at the video, try to make a lot of corrections and get a game plan ready for next week.”
• Danny Cruz scored his third goal of the league campaign, his first since netting both goals in the 2-2 draw with Seattle on May 4.
• “We don’t have a choice but to come back tomorrow and prepare for [the next match] like you’ve seen,” Cruz said. “I’m sure you see the standings, you know where we’re at. We’re still in a position to make the playoffs and we’re still in a position to be successful.”
• Conor Casey contributed his fifth assist of the season, and has now been involved in each of Union’s last three goals. It’s one assist away from his single-season career-high set in 2010 with Colorado.
• Union were forced into a very early change when midfielder Keon Daniel had to come off before the half-hour with an ankle injury.
• “We have to stay together and get a good game plan together. Sometimes, results like this are a big wakeup call and you can react one of two ways: you can let it get you down or you can stay strong and stay together and fight harder and do well for the rest of the season, and we have to find a way to do the latter part,” said midfielder Brian Carroll. “ ... [Keon Daniel] is an important player for us and it was a big loss.”
• Michael Farfan made his first start since Aug. 3 with Jack McInerney going to the substitutes’ bench following five consecutive starts after returning from CONCACAF Gold Cup duty with the USA.
• “There’s some competition in training right now. Antoine [Hoppenot] is playing well, Jack’s playing well, Seba [Le Toux] had a good run when he was up there and he obviously creates some goal-scoring opportunities. We’ll just have to see,” Hackworth said. “ ... We made a tactical decision. It also meant that Jack didn’t have the pressure of being a starter and some of the pressure that’s been external of not scoring a goal.”
• Amobi Okugo will now miss the next two matches after he saw a red card in stoppage time; his yellow card earlier in the match put him over the limit and earned a one-match ban for caution accumulation.

MONTREAL IMPACT
The Montréal Impact rolled to one of the biggest wins in their MLS history, defeating the Houston Dynamo 5-0 on Saturday evening at Stade Saputo. The Impact now lead the Eastern Conference with 41 points from 24 matches.

LAST MATCH

• The Impact took the lead in the 35th minute. Justin Mapp fed Marco Di Vaio, who danced around a defender before rocketing a shot past Dynamo goalkeeper Tally Hall into the upper corner.
• The lead was doubled just two minutes later. Mapp collected the ball before lofting a cross for Felipe who took a touch, then hit an unsaveable shot to the back post.
• It was 3-0 in the 58th minute when Hernan Bernardello hit an in-swinging corner which wasn’t cleared, and an onrushing Jeb Brovsky bundled home from almost on the goal line.
• Highlights: MTL 5, HOU 0
  In the 70th minute, Patrice Bernier and Di Vaio both beat the offside trap on a Felipe through pass, and Bernier laid the ball off for Di Vaio coolly complete his brace to make the lead 4-0.
• In stoppage time, Andrea Pisanu poked home a fifth goal on a one-on-one with Hall after put through by another piece of Felipe class.
• Impact head coach Marco Schällibaum made no changes to the team that came back for a 2-1 win against D.C. United at Stade Saputo.
• MONTREAL IMPACT (4-4-1-1): Troy Perkins - Hassoun Camara, Matteo Ferrari, Alessandro Nesta, Jeb Brovsky - Justin Mapp (Andrea Pisanu 80), Hernan Bernardello (Davy Arnaud 73), Patrice Bernier, Andres Romero - Felipe Martins - Marco Di Vaio (Daniele Paponi 88).

TEAM NEWS

While the Impact netted five goals for a second time this season in league play, it was not their season-high. They hit Toronto FC for a 6-0 defeat in the Canadian Championship. The Impact defeated Philadelphia Union 5-3 on May 25 in the first meeting this season between the clubs.

“Maybe we should get criticized more often – last time around, we won 6-0 [against Toronto FC in the Amway Canadian Championship], so it seems to be a good method,” midfielder Patrice Bernier said. “The fresher players showed that they were fresh indeed. We had to respond, and we did today. But it’s only one game.”

The five goals equaled the Impact club record in MLS play. They scored four goals twice during their inaugural league season, in wins vs. Seattle and Houston that came a week apart (June 16-23).

“I think it was a very game tonight and very well rounded. On our defensive side we were very compact and we had a lot of good offenses and through balls,” said assistant coach Mauro Biello, who handled the bench- coaching responsibilities. “We saw a bit of everything tonight. It was important for us to get back on track and build our confidence back up.”

PHI-MTL Preview: Davy Arnaud
Impact head coach Marco Schällibaum was again banned from the touchline, serving the first game of a two- match suspension following the D.C. United match, a suspension extended by MLS Commissioner Don Garber for repeated misbehavior. Schällibaum has been dismissed by a referee in three games this season and suspended by the MLS Disciplinary Committee for entering the field of play on another occasion.

After having dropped out of the top spot of the Eastern Conference for more than a month, the Impact are back atop the division, holding the second-best record in MLS. “With their quality, they’ve had that hunger to go back up there, and we have to keep that spot,” Schällibaum said. “It won’t be easy this weekend against Philadelphia and then against New England, but I’m confident.”

Said goalkeeper Troy Perkins: “You look at Salt Lake, and they have three games on us. So it’s up to us. If we get some good results, string a couple of wins together and keep performing well, I think the league and the Eastern Conference are ours to take.”

Marco Di Vaio scored two goals in a game for the second consecutive match to take over the lead in the MLS Golden Boot standings, now with 15 goals, one more than Chicago’s Mike Magee. They are Di Vaio’s first goals following a six-game goalless run from July 7-Aug. 10.

“We’ve already played well this season, but this was the first time we played well the whole 90 minutes. Today was a very big game for us, we were very concentrated, we know we have a good team and we also have something more than the other teams,” Di Vaio said.

Justin Mapp recorded a pair of assists and now has three assists in the last two matches. It was his second two-assist game this season – the first coming in the win vs. Philadelphia – and his sixth career two-assist game. “Every time he gets the ball, something's happening,” Biello said. “He’s able to go inside, he’s able to go outside, he puts defenses on their heels. He’s been really effective so far.”