Saturday's loss to Toronto FC was yet another case of what-could-have-been for the Montreal Impact.
Last Wednesday in Vancouver, a red card to Victor Cabrera in the 30th minute prompted Impact head coach Frank Klopas to comment that their 2-0 loss in the second leg of the Amway Canadian Championship final had actually been “two different games” – with the sending-off as the turning point.
This time, though, center back Laurent Ciman's ejection for two bookable offenses wasn’t such a point of discussion. Missed chances could have swung the game Montreal’s way. Instead, they suffered a 2-1 loss to their rivals at BMO Field, an enduring house of horrors for l'Impact.
“Even early on, in the beginning, I felt that we had the better of the chances in the first 30 minutes,” head coach Frank Klopas told reporters on Saturday. “Clearly, we should have been up by one or two, but that’s easier said than done, I guess. The good thing is that we had crystal-clear chances, with Dom [Oduro] and the other two chances. Then, I think we made two mistakes, and you pay for it.
“It’s very difficult on the road to do that.”
Two fine chances went begging each side of Michael Bradley’s opener. Left midfielder Maxim Tissot skied a chance that came off of Josh Williams’ foot 21 minutes in, while Johan Venegas wasted an exceptional opportunity after goalkeeper Chris Konopka’s desperate pawed clearance off the goal line, created by an excellent cross from Tissot to Dominic Oduro.
Oduro had missed a glorious chance himself seven minutes in, picking Williams’ pocket, rounding Konopka and shooting wide – a miss that the Ghanaian took full responsibility for.
“I had a chance, the goalie was coming, 1-v-1,” Oduro said. “I knew I could beat him, because my momentum was really good. I cut it to the right. The angle that I thought I had was really narrow, or rather the goal was away from the angle that I thought I had. … It was just miscalculation on my part.”
Klopas was pleased with his team’s effort, mentality and character after Ciman’s ejection. But time is ticking with a tough stretch coming up.
International absences and injuries leave Montreal depleted on Sept. 5 at home to the Chicago Fire – though Designated Players Didier Drogba and Ignacio Piatti could yet return on that day – and two daunting West Coast dates await the following week, the LA Galaxy and the San Jose Earthquakes.
Thanks to the yellow-card accumulation penalty triggered by his first caution of the day, the influential Ciman will be suspended for both.
“For a couple of months, we’ve been telling ourselves that it’s okay, we’ve got games in hand,” Maxim Tissot said. “But we’ve got to win those. We're on a bad run. We have to snap that against Chicago on the 5th. We’ve got no choice.”
