Matteo Mancosu scored twice. Roger Espinoza and Osvaldo Alonso traded hard tackles. Some home fans were disappointed. Others were left stunned by the achievement of what had previously seemed impossible.
Designated Players delivered, goalkeepers came up big, and Thursday night ended with both the Montreal Impact and Seattle Sounders booking dates for their respective conference semifinals in the Audi 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs.
Let's start in Washington, D.C.:
Rope-a-Dope
The Montreal Impact are not dummies. They watched the tapes and dissected the chalkboards and came to understand -- clearly pretty well -- what D.C. United were about. And because of that they were able to walk out of RFK Stadium with a dominant and mostly unexpected 4-2 win.
We examined the nature of the goals in the video above, and it's simply factual that punishing sleepy defenders is how most goals are scored. Lesser noted was and will be exactly how Montreal shut D.C. down through the middle of the field for 90 minutes, before United finally got a couple of consolation goals in second-half stoppage.
- Stay compact and keep the fullbacks tight
- Keep one of the central midfielders connected to the central defense
- When in doubt, foul
This is the map of fouls committed by the Impact in the game's first 75 minutes:
Notice how many of those are around the center circle? That's right where Luciano Acosta and Jared Jeffrey have been setting up shop for the past three months, and that's right where they'd been able to find the time to release wingers Patrick Nyarko and Lloyd Sam into the channels through opposing backlines.
The Impact midfield never gave those guys the opportunity to pick their heads up and find those runners, as they stayed close enough to either force a square pass or -- when in doubt -- take the foul.
For comparison's sake, here's D.C.'s map:
This isn't to say that the Impact didn't deserve to win -- they clearly did. And it's kind of ironic that they did it with a good helping of strategic fouling, which was a calling card of D.C.'s from 2011 through 2015. There is nothing wrong with that and the impetus was on United to adjust to the tactics of their opposition and the way the game was being whistled.
They never did.
With that as the case in one direction, it was only a matter of time until Montreal punished D.C. going the other way. Their first goal came from a corner after a midfield turnover the sort of which is death against any good transition team; the second after Ignacio Piatti got into isolation on the left flank and whipped in a cross. These were the two things that certain writers said United specifically had to avoid.
And these were the two things that set the game-state. With Montreal up two they were allowed to counterpunch for the rest of the evening, and when they can do that they are rampant moving forward.
Thus, they advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals, where they'll play the New York Red Bulls at Stade Saputo on Sunday (3 pm ET; ESPN in the US | TSNGo in Canada).
The Late-Arriving Hero
Nelson Valdez took 30 shots in the regular season and put just 11 of them on goal across 900 minutes. He scored zero goals.
In 11 minutes on Thursday night Valdez took one shot, scored one goal and propelled the Sounders -- who were largely outplayed -- into the Western Conference semifinals with a 1-0 win.
It was Seattle's only shot on goal of the night.
There's not a ton to analyze from Seattle's attack beyond that. Sporting's midfield largely corralled playmaker Nicolas Lodeiro and the backline was mistake-free for the vast, vast majority of the night, while the aggressive pressure of wingers Espinoza and Graham Zusi kept the Sounders fullbacks pinned.
Defensively, however, there were worries. Stefan Frei had to be a monster for most of the night:
Frei really did have a monster of a game.https://t.co/AT7JEsKPWW
— Matthew Doyle (@MLSAnalyst) October 28, 2016
It's nice to have a goalkeeper who can do that, but nicer still is denying opponents the chance to force your 'keeper into those types of saves. Seattle couldn't manage as much because they let Benny Feilhaber rip them to shreds from Zone 14, and his map of Opta events there is revealing:
For reference, Red = Bad and Everything Else = Good. These are Feilhaber's chances created, his interceptions, recoveries, successful dribbles and shots on target. He did it all, repeatedly slipping past both Alonso and Erik Friberg on and off the ball, and if there had been a finisher on the field for Sporting this one could've gotten lopsided even without Frei's heroics.
But there wasn't. And more good news for Seattle is that, with Mauro Diaz injured, Dallas have no No. 10 even close to Feilhaber's league. That means when the two teams play on Sunday (9:30 pm ET; FS1 in the US | TSN2 in Canada) the Sounders shouldn't spend so much time on the back foot, and Frei shouldn't have to repeat his heroics.
Valdez may very well have to, though. And so far that's fine, because it seems like the postseason version of Nelson Valdez is a much, much better finisher than the one who laces 'em up from March through mid-October.
A few more things to ponder...
3. I don't put all that much stock into the goals Montreal conceded after going up 4-0, though it's got to be at least a little bit noteworthy that the first came off thundering header from a pinpoint cross. This is the exact type of play that the Impact have always struggled with.
That said, I thought Laurent Ciman was very good and Victor Cabrera had his best game of the year, particularly when defending 1v1 in space.
2. "Get the ball off your foot" is the first, last and only commandment for the Montreal backline. Good practice for when the Red Bulls are in town, though the RBNY press can smother the midfield as well as the backline -- which makes it very hard to build any sort of rhythm or tempo. And the Montreal midfield is not the type that can chase the game all day.
1. Alvaro Fernandez wasn't great for Seattle, but he had his moments and if he's out with hamstring strain (he was subbed off late clutching the back of his leg) that's a real blow for the Sounders. The number of attackers Brian Schmetzer trusts seems to be small already, and now it may have shrunk by one.
