This Wednesday was Quebec's national holiday, but only the Torontonians celebrated at BMO Field – again.
There are some BMO Field moments that the Montreal Impact can look back on happily – mostly in cup competitions –, but their archrivals’ stadium remains a mystery in league play. With this Wednesday’s 3-1 loss to Toronto FC, Montreal are now 0-2-3 there in MLS, having scored five goals and conceded eight.
It had started well, on the scoreboard at least. In the 19th minute, Ambroise Oyongo scored his first MLS goal after Montreal applied their gameplan: playing quick, switching the point of attack into wide areas. But while the Impact did get into good positions later on, turnovers or profligacy hurt them.
“There were some good actions like that, but I think that, overall, we weren’t good enough with the ball in moments when we turned it over and forced it,” head coach Frank Klopas told reporters postgame. “The ball wasn’t secure, and our lines were too stretched. They found balls in between our pockets, and they were able to turn in transition. It really hurt us. More than anything, we hurt ourselves with the mistakes we made.”
Otherwise, the first half was all TFC. Beautifully led by their DP trio of Sebastian Giovinco, Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore, the Reds threatened when attacking at speed. Of their 11 attempts that half, six were on target.
“They were on top of the game,” goalkeeper Evan Bush said. “We got our goal kind of out of nothing, against the run of play, off of one of their set pieces. Even at that, we weren't creating chances. We kind of just got that goal out of nothing, and they just kept pressing and pressing. Unfortunately, we couldn't calm the storm. If we would have gotten to halftime at 1-0, I think it would have been a little bit different. But they got that goal out of a good run, a good ball, and they came into the second half and took advantage of the space again.”
In the second half, TFC placed only two more shots on target. But both were goals.
“In the first half, we gave them a bit of space, but we were still rather compact,” team captain Patrice Bernier said. “When we were deep in our zone, we didn’t give them too much, other than when they countered on our attacks. Second half, we were scattered, we just ran after the ball. And, as if we were a bull, they slowly stuck the dagger in, and it finished 3-1.”
