The following is a press release from the Montreal Impact:
Montreal Impact Beats Crew SC in Columbus
First road win of the season for the Bleu-blanc-noir
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Montreal Impact topped the Columbus Crew SC by a 2-1 score on Saturday night at MAPFRE Stadium, for its first road win of the season. Maxim Tissot and Andrés Romero scored in the win, a first ever in Columbus since joining MLS.
The game’s first goal came in the 55th minute when Romero tried to chip the defender towards Maxim Tissot. The attempt was headed down by a Columbus player, before striker Jack McInerney outworked his markers to lunge at the loose ball, forcing goalkeeper Steve Clark into a save. Tissot pounced on the rebound for his first of the season.
“It’s been a lot of time talking about getting that first win on the road, so we are really pleased,” said Maxim Tissot. “We stayed focused the entire game and stuck to the game plan tonight.”
The Argentine then doubled the Impact’s lead when a give and go with Ignacio Piatti on a two-on-one counter attack left Romero in alone on goal, placing the ball low past Clark in the 79th minute.
Federico Higuain got one back in the 91st minute, but the Impact shut the door the rest of the way.
“We beat a very good team tonight. As a team we played a good game,” said Impact head coach Frank Klopas. “We had to rotate some players and we are still dealing with injuries. I’m proud of the group’s performance.”
“We started to control the game a little better in the second half,” said Marco Donadel. “We respect this team, with a number of good players, so we decided to play a little more defensively to start the game and then we found chances.”
As has become tradition in recent weeks, Impact goalkeeper Evan Bush made a couple of stellar stops, including a late first half parry a over the bar as Waylon Francis found a free header at the back post in the final minute. Bush did the same again to Kei Kamara in the final two minutes of the second half.
Kamara was causing some havoc in the box in the first half, especially early on, when his header off of a corner kick sailed just over the bar in the game’s first 10 minutes.
The best chance of the first half fell to Piatti in the 38th minute. After Romero intercepted the ball at half field, he curled a long ball behind the backline that found his fellow Argentine on the run. Nacho faked inside, went the other way and fired a low shot that was stopped by Clark.
IMFC played a much better second half and created a number of chances in the final third, including a one-time volley from Romero that banged off the woodwork to the right of Clark.
The Impact will play a second straight game on the road next Saturday, at 7pm, against New York City FC at Yankee Stadium (TVA Sports, TSN Radio 690).
LINEUPS
MTL – GK-Evan Bush; D-Nigel Reo-Coker, Laurent Ciman, Wandrille Lefèvre, Donny Toia; M-Eric Alexander (Calum Mallace 68′), Marco Donadel (Patrice Bernier 80′), Maxim Tissot (Victor Cabrera 82′), Ignacio Piatti, Andrés Romero; F-Jack McInerney
Subs not used: GK-Eric Kronberg; D-Bakary Soumare; F-Anthony Jackson-Hamel, Romario Williams
CLB – GK-Steve Clark; D-Hector Jimenez, Michael Parkhurst, Tyson Wahl, Waylon Francis; M-Ethan Finlay (Ben Speas 68′), Tony Tchani, Mohammed Saeid (Aaron Schoenfeld 80′), Kristinn Steindorsson (Justin Meram 64′), Federico Higuain; F-Kei Kamara
Subs not used: G-Brad Stuver; D-Emanuel Pogatetz, Chad Barson; M-Kevan George
GOALS
MTL – Tissot 55′
MTL – Romero (Piatti) 79′
CLB – Higuain 90+1′
CAUTIONS
MTL – Donadel 75′
MTL – Romero 78′
MTL – Toia 88′
MTL – McInerney 90+3′
