What do Brek Shea, Jaime Castrillón, Juan Pablo Ángel and Carlos Valdés all have in common?
They've all scored a winning goal against the Impact in the last quarter of an hour.
A 2-1 defeat away at the Philadelphia Union means that the Impact have now conceded 11 goals in the last 15 minutes of games, and the most recent of these, allowed two minutes after Montreal rallied from an 82nd-minute Lionard Pajoy opener, probably stings more than all the previous ones combined.
HIGHLIGHTS: PHI 2, MTL 1
“I’ve been a part of some crazy finishes, but that one is up there with the most disappointing ones,” defender Jeb Brovsky told MLSsoccer.com on the phone after the game. “Something as simple as a long throw-in catches us at the very last minute after we worked for 90 minutes. It’s brutal and it’s hard to swallow.”
Conceding a goal emanating from a set piece is especially harsh on Montreal: not only have they been extensively working on such situations in training for some time, but on Saturday, they cut Philadelphia’s options on set plays at source, committing a mere five fouls during the game – and, crucially, none in their own defensive third.
And ironically, Montreal scored on a set piece that the Union did not properly deal with themselves, with Keon Daniel putting the ball into his own net from a corner kick.
“We work hard in training, as we’re aware of the importance of set pieces at the highest level,” center back Hassoun Camara told MLSsoccer.com. “We try to work on that, take our chances on offense and clean up at the back. There’s still much progress to be made, and we know that we struggle on situations like these, but we can always work on it much, much harder.”
Both players also expressed disappointment for goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts. The Jamaican shot stopper was smoking hot for 80 minutes and made a fine save on that man Pajoy in the 79th minute, throwing his body in front of a shot from 10 yards and then getting a leg to the follow-up.
Ricketts maybe could have done a bit better on both Philadelphia goals, but Brovsky, who collided with his ‘keeper before Pajoy’s strike from close range went in, feels it is not one man’s fault, but many.
“We’re going to look at it again and see what we can do differently,” Brovsky said. “We’re definitely sick of these results.”
