Aug 26 Montreal Impact Defeat Nicaragua in Game 1 of the CONCACAF Preliminary Round 1-0

Your Montreal Impact, Canada's team, faced off this evening against Real Esteli, of Nicaragua for the 1st of a home and away series in the preliminary round of the CONCACAF Champions League. The road for this championship is a long one as the Impact and Real Esteli are 2 of 16 clubs taking part in these home and away series, with the quarterfinals set for February 2009. 8 teams are already seeded, putting the total of clubs to 24.

With neither team having too much intel on the other, it started out as a game of cat and mouse, but the Impact proved to be the better skilled of the 2 teams, in this contest and were able to take game one with a score of 1-0.

Although the first half was not without it's highlights,the play could only be described as tentative and contemplative by the Impact. It was quite evident to this scribe that Montreal was the better team, Real Esteli mounting nothing in the form of an offense and very nervous while defending. The Impact, on the other hand were either very nervous themselves or were perhaps showing too much respect to their rivals.

There were however some noteworthy plays including the game's 1st goal. Showing his  defensive prowess, Sandro Grande made a spectacular come from behind slide and reversal and stripped a Nicaraguan midfielder cleanly of the ball which almost culminated in a good scoring chance at the 19th minute. The Impact also produced a legitimate scoring chance at the 24th when a rather feisty Joey Gjertsen  picked the pall off a Real Esteli defender just on the 18 and promptly crossed it to a waiting Roberto Brown, but he headed it just wide. I call Gjertsen feisty because of the nifty almost patented moves he made on a few occasions, deking the Nicaraguan defenders deep in the box not once but twice bringing the sold out crowd of 13,034 to the edge of their seats, but still was unable to produce a shot on goal. Gjersten, up until that point, although he did not lack in effort, seemed to look for that perfect play, which usually resulted in a broken play and you could almost hear the crowd cry collectively "kick that ball". And kick the ball he did! In the 42nd minute, Leonardo Di Lorenzo came streaking down-field and found Gjertsen at about the 23 yard line directly facing the goal and this time he one-timed the pass with a low bullet that beat a sprawling 'keeper, Carlos Reynaldo Mendieta. 1-0 Montreal and Saputo Stadium was in utter elation.

Montreal's 'keeper Matt Jordan barely saw any action, being forced to make his only save of the game at the 27th minute. With Montreal's record of 6-0-0 when leading after the half, one would think he  wouldn't see much more either as the Impact would now revert to their defensive game and capitalize on any Real Esteli mistakes.

Unfortunately, this plan only looked good on paper as the Impact, although they managed a few chances in the half, played most of it on their heels. It was not necessarily because Real Esteli was that overpowering, I still stick to my initial claim that Montreal was by far the more talented team, but rather, the Impact got sloppy on many occasions and it Real was able to create some great scoring chances from this.

At the 73rd minute, a give-away at midfield by the Impact resulted in the most nerve-wracking 3 minutes of the game as Nicaragua converted this lapse into a shot on goal, 2 corner kicks and 3 scoring chances with one of them dribbling just off to the side of the net creating a collective gasp of 13,034 before it was all over.

The Impact were able to regroup and on a drive down-field, David Testo forced Mendieta to make an amazing save i n the 83rd that surely saved Nicaragua an all important goal in this aggregate series. In the 85th, Leonardo Di Lorenzo fed a streaking Severino Jefferson inside the box who promptly split the Nicaraguan defense, but Mendieta came up big once again.

In the post game press conference, coach Limniatis made allusions that there were many amateur moves on the field on this evening. Amateur moves made by people wearing white (Impact), red and white (Real Esteli) as well as Black and Yellow, referring to the officiating staff. Among many of his criticisms, Limniatis was not happy at all with an apparent kick on the opponent's goalie that went out of play and should have resulted in a corner kick, yet an official called the play offside, which according to the USL rules, it clearly wasn't as the player neither interfered with the 'keeper, nor was he behind the last defender when he touched the ball. Limniatis was also upset that only 3 minutes of extra time was called by the officiating staff, stating that according to rules every substitution made in the game counts for 30 seconds (there were 6 in the half) as well as the extra time that should have been alloted for the stretchers that were brought on field for injury purposes. Limniatis half jokingly said that he made sure his math was right by checking with a calculator, yet he does not know how only 3 minutes were called.

In the end, this win means that now, Nicaragua is forced to win at home and must do so by 2 goals as it is a series based on aggregate goals. The next game, which will be played September 2nd, will not be played in Nicaragua as no stadium's pitch in all of Nicaragua was up to  FIFA standards, so the game will be played in Honduras.

The Impact, however, head to Carolina to face the Railhawks on Saturday as they also resume their USL standings climb. with the win, the Impact can enter into a tie for 5th place overall. Although the game is in Carolina, it will be televised on CBC.

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