MONTREAL – Impact supporters remember their team’s last game against Columbus well.
On June 6, the Montreal Impact beat the Columbus Crew 2-1 at MAPFRE Stadium. Goals from Maxim Tissot and Andres Romero snapped the mother of all road winless streaks: 25 games, from which they took a mere seven points.
That night, Montreal didn’t put together their best attacking performance of the MLS season, but it certainly was their most no-nonsense one. While they didn’t shoot much, they shot efficiently: Six of their nine shots made it on target.
Last Saturday, on the other hand, they shot 25 times, put 10 on target and scored once in a 2-1 home loss to New York City FC.
Lessons from June 6 can be applied at Stade Saputo this Saturday with the Crew in town. Impact head coach Frank Klopas has emphasized the need to move on, to believe that “if it doesn’t go in, the next one is,” and says he saw that very attitude in his troops this week.
“We've had a very good week of training, two very good, hard sessions,” Klopas told reporters on Friday morning. “Being sharp, being good with the ball, decision-making, really high intensity, try to duplicate a lot of the scenarios that they’re going to face in the game over and over again so it’s kind of [second nature].”
Then again, Montreal are at home. The onus is on them to entertain, to take the game to Columbus – in theory, at least.
“We had a lot of shots against New York City, but at the end of the day, I don’t think we shot enough,” forward Jack McInerney said. “We had a lot of opportunities where some people took too many people on or decided to make that extra pass. This weekend, we’ve just got to make sure that we take advantage of the opportunities we create.”
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The Impact’s objective this weekend is twofold: restricting their wastefulness in front of goal and, at the other end of the field, repeating their attitude from their previous encounter with Columbus – no defensive lapses and a collective effort.
After the loss to NYCFC, goalkeeper Evan Bushtook the blame, arguing that his individual mistakes had cost the team points. On Friday, Bush was adamant that it is not happening again this weekend.
“Anytime you have a rough game, you look to rebound,” Bush said. “It’s always been something that I’ve kind of prided myself on, never having two poor performances in a row. I’m confident going into the game.”
Added center back Laurent Ciman: “There’s no need to tell him anything. He knows what he did well and what he didn’t do well. He’s a professional through and through. He’s the first to get here and the last to leave. He's a great professional. He admitted that he made mistakes, but I don’t think we can hold them against him. He also pulled off some great saves when we needed them.”
