Impact And Battery Play to 1-1 Draw in Pre-season play
The Montreal Impact, now in Carolina for the final leg of their pre-season training camp, played to a 1-1 draw against the Charleston Battery, Wednesday, at WakeMed Soccer Complex in Cary.
The Battery, a USL D2 team, struck first at the 39th minute. Tom Heinemann, with a header near the goal line, deflected a cross coming from the right flank, beating Impact ‘keeper Srdjan Djekanovic for the 1-0 lead.
With the game in its final minutes, the Impact tied the score at the 87th minute when defender Hicham Aaboubou, who moved to attacking position, took advantage of a Battery's defensive lapse to break away and beat the Charleston goalkeeper, who had come out from his goal in a fruitless effort to stop the ball.
“It was a tough match against an organized team,” said Simon Gatti, who played the 90 minutes of the game. “We made a few mistakes that hurt us but that’s why we are playing exhibition games. We are finetuning for our season.”
“We faced a team that worked hard during the entire match, so it was a good test for us,” veteran defender Adam Braz, said. Braz also played the entire game. “We had possession of the ball for most of the time, but we didn’t succeed in creating enough scoring chances. We should expect to play this type of match during the season, so it’s important to be mentally strong in order to avoid making errors.”
The Impact’s newer additions figured in the chances as Montreal had some scoring chances before halftime. Leonardo Di Lorenzo’s volley shot went just above the goal and French midfielder Philippe Billy hit the exterior of the right post. In the second half, Impact midfielder and Portuguese native Filipe Soares took a free kick less than twenty-five meters out that the Battery goalkeeper stopped by diving to his right
“There were positive aspects to the match, but we were a bit too slow to create occasions, especially in the offensive third,” explained Impact head coach Marc Dos Santos. “We will definitely need to improve this point. We realize that there is still work to do. Players are looking forward to the season, but we need to keep a good attitude to be ready.”
The Impact’s next pre-season match in North Carolina will be on Saturday against the Carolina RailHawks (USSF-D2) at 7 pm.
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