Seattle Will Be Sleepless Tonight as Impact Defeat the Sounders 3-1 and Advance to USL Semi-Finals!!
It was a case of "kick, or get off the pitch" for the Montreal Impact on this grey, overcast afternoon at Saputo Stadium. At least as far as the USL playoffs was concerned. The Impact, who were defeated less than 48 hours earlier by the Sounders 2-1 in Seattle, were back at home to play the second of a home and home aggregate goals playoff series. A 1-0 win and the game would go to overtime, a win by a 2 goal margin and the season of wonder continues. A loss or a tie meant the end of the road towards the USL championship.
After a very aggressive and emotional first game, and after Coach Limniatis' "We need a positive outcome in Seattle for the pressure to be on them when we come home" plan didn't go quite as he planned, the stage was set and the Impact were expected to come out strong. With the presence of Nevio Pizzolitto, Sandro Grande, David Testo and Peter Byers, all players that didn't make the Seattle trip, one would have hoped that this would be the spark that would set the Impact offense afire.
But in what has to be the most exciting game in Impact history, a game that started out as a sleeper throughout the entire first half, the Impact and Sounders made this a contest that will be talked about for a long time and ended with the Impact surely causing Seattle to be sleepless tonight.
Seattle, the defending USL division 1 champions, who coincidentally, were playing their last season in the USL as they were stepping up to the USL in 2009-2010, had other plans, however, wanting to go out on a high note and attempt to repeat a championship during their swansong year. The Impact did NOT come out in flying fashion and truth be told, the first shot on either goal only came at the 36th minute of play and that was on Montreal's only real chance of the first half. In typical Joey Gjertsen style, after receiving a pass from midfield off the foot of Sandro Grande, Gjertsen deftly zig-zagged into the box beating his man and then passed off to Peter Byers who let a bullet rip that was deflected by a Sounder defender slightly wide of the goal.
The Sounders appeared to be playing for the tie, not taking any defensive chances, and seemingly slowing down the play any time they had ball possession. If the first half was an indication, the game was going according to plan, while the Impact seemed unable to pick up their game to the point where they were able to mount any kind of sustained pressure.
One aspect of the game that was sustained, and this throughout the entire contest, was the officiating of 1st ref Mauricio Navaro, who made it known that there would be no shenanigans tolerated, telling assorted fallen players, seemingly minutes from death, writhing in pain, to get up and play on, which they miraculously did on every single occasion. Navaro also handed out cautions with one of them going to Leonardo Di Lorenzo for, in my opinion, not so much for his roughing infraction during a header, but more so for being guilty on two occasions earlier in the game of the aforementioned ploy of overselling a foul. David Testo also garnered a Yellow in extra time after pushing a Seattle player who was rough with Di Lorenzo yet again on a ball possession attempt. Again, Navaro restored order quickly in a situation that looked ripe for a full melee, with Adam Braz, Sandro Grande and Testo squaring off with their Seattle counterparts, prior to Navaro reaching into his pocket as if to reach for a caution. with the game and season on the line, the Impact receded.
Coach Limniatis must have surely had a few choice words concerning the rather lackluster play of his, obviously tired troop who, after all, had played 5 games in the last 8 days, including a weekend trip 3000 miles to the west. Whatever he said, it must have been awe inspiring.
Although Seattle needed only to play for a tie, it was they who made the first improvement on offense when they started the 2nd half by replacing midfielder Leighton O'brien with striker Sanna Nyassi. Nyassi had been recently acquired by the Sounders, specifically for their impending inaugural MLS season. Montreal then countered by replacing midfielder Tony Donatelli with Striker Roberto Brown.
The span of time between the 56th and 90th minute could only be described as an emotional roller-coaster ride with extreme twists and turns, not for the weak of heart.
Montreal went ahead 1-0 on a beautiful give and go between Peter Byers and David Testo inside the box after a nice Roberto Brown feed. Sounders' 'keeper, Christopher Eylander managed to get a hand on it, but the Testo laser was too much to handle and all of Saputo Stadium, press gallery included stood and cheered. Moments later however, Nyassi and perennial thorns in Montreal's side,Sebastien Le Toux and Roger Levesque took advantage of a lax Montreal defense and had their wayto within inches of Matt Jordan before the final touch went to Levesque who had no problem putting it past the Montreal goalkeeper. All of Saputo Stadium, press gallery included, were silenced by the Jubilant Seattle Sounders, celebrating in front of Jordan.
Then it got sick.
At the 73rd minute, after complete ball control by Adam Braz, deep in Sounders territory, Roger Levesque took Braz down and received a red card for his attack. With Seattle one man down for the remainder of the game, the Impact took their free kick off the foot of Sandro Grande who managed to get the ball in a scrum inside the Sounders' box which went off a few bodies before Mauro Biello, a late substitution passed it to another set of fresh legs belonging to Rocco Placentino who found the back of the net and the crowd went wild once again. The Impact was up 2-1 in the game and tied for aggregate goals, which, with an extra man on the field meant that overtime was imminent.
Hold that thought.
At the 78th, on a free kick of their own, Matt Jordan made his biggest leaping stop of the night, saving a sure goal and an end to the Impact's post season. But in all the excitement, referee Navaro had his hand in the air and at the end of it was a red card! Adam Braz apparently had pulled down a Sounders player. Not only were the sides now even at 10, but the Sounders would get a penalty kick a mere few yards in front of Jordan. Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar was the designated kicker and caught Jordan going the wrong way and the soft, floating kick sailed gingerly into the goal. Tie game.
Not quite.
The play was called back as a Seattle player entered the penalty area before the kick was off and the goal did not count. In the ensuing do-over, Jordan stayed to the centre and Alcaraz-Cuellar chose the same side except this time it rang off the right post and out of play. Instant, collective elation spouted forth as all in attendance now knew that if one was a betting man, overtime was now a certainty.
One would lose...but the story has an incredible happy ending!
In the 87th minute, Antonio Ribeiro came intoi the game, replacing Peter Byers and it took him approximately 4 minutes to make his presence felt. Joey Gjertsen let a curving, dipping ball rip from the 30 yard mark which beat Eylander but went off the crossbar and then off Eylander's back and while the Sounders defenders were tripping over themselves to get to the ball, Ribeiro crashed the net, found the ball and punted it to its deepest depth. By this time, most of the crowd needed oxygen or defibrillators but this was a good thing.
While the remaining few minutes seemed like an eternity, they eventually arrived with the Refs final whistle and simultaneously, the Seattle players fell to the floor and the Impact were celebrating their hard fought and well earned playoff victory.
Kudos to Technical manager Nick De Santis and coach Limniatis who's collective decisions to make the decisive game be at home and for the choice of players they took out west as well as Limniatis' bench management throughout the game including 5 substitutions in the second half. All these elements came together and made them look like geniuses.
Game Notes:
- The Impact played its 11th game in 30 days but more importantly, this was their 5th game in the last eight days.
- Defender Stefano Pesoli sat out this game due to a one-game suspension as a result of his ejection during Friday’s game after receiving two cautions.
- Sounders Defender Kevin Sakuda also served a one-game suspension following a straight red card during the same game.
- This was the third time that both clubs met in the playoffs. The Impact won the championship final in 2004, 2-0. The following season, the Impact lost to the Sounders 4-3 the semifinal series on aggregate goals.
- USL round 2 matches to be decided once the final scores are tallied across the league, but I'm thinking with the score presently 3-1 in Vancouver's favor at the time of this article, we will be meeting the Whitecaps.
• Wednesday, October 1 – IMPACT @ CD Olimpia – @ Honduras
- Live at 10 pm: bold TV, CBCSports.ca
- Tape delayed: CBC (midnight)
• Wednesday, October 8 – IMPACT @ Joe Public – @ Trinidad & Tobago
- Live at 8 pm: bold TV, CBCSports.ca
- Tape delayed: CBC (midnight)
• Tuesday, October 21 – CD Olimpia @ IMPACT
- Live at 8 pm: Radio-Canada.ca/sports, bold TV, CBCSports.ca, CKAC Sports
- Tape delayed: Radio-Canada (11:45 pm), CBC (midnight)
• Tuesday, October 28 – IMPACT @ Atlante FC – @ Mexico
- Live at 10 pm: bold TV, CBCSports.ca
- Tape delayed CBC (midnight)
Bookmark
Email this
Trackback(0)
TrackBack URI for this entryComments (0)
Write comment
This content has been locked. You can no longer post any comments.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
