USL - Montreal Impact Roll Over Cleveland City Stars 4-1, Ending 5 Game Scoreless Drought
After a 5 game scoreless drought, one has to wonder if the Montreal Impact shoud have saved a goal or two for their next match. The 12,213 fans in attendance would disagree.
The Impact hosted the Cleveland City Stars last night and the nearly sold-out crowd definitely got their money's worth as the home team shook off the cobwebs, as well as any of the past week's distractions to trounce the Stars by a score of 4-1.
Forward Eduardo Sebrango scored the game's first goal in the 9th , ending a 468 minute scoreless streak for the team as he received a cross in the box from Pierre-Rudolph Mayard who cleanly beat his defender as he streaked down the left side of the field. Sebrandgo's first touch was initially blocked but Stars 'keeper Richard Gilstrap had no chance on Sebrango's second, sprawling effort to put his team up by one.
Former Impact player Pato Aguilera brought the excitement of the crowd and the Impact back down to earth as he stung his former team for the equalizer only 4 minutes later on basically the only Impact turnover and mistake of the night. However, it was all Impact from that point on.
Ciaran O'Brien put Montreal in the lead for good in his first start with the Impact after an excellent effort by Joey Gjertsen to keep the ball in play on a long hard cross from east to west. Gjersten made a pinpoint cross which Sebrango threaded to O'Brien who was waiting in the box which O'Brien did not hesitate on, making the score 2-1.
Gjertsen would add to the lead at the 39th after missing an earlier opportunity in point blank position and Sebrango would get his second of the match at the 63rd with Stephen deRoux and Leonardo Di Lorenzo figuring or assisting in most of the Impact goals.
The Impact, with this breakout game, wanted to make a statement in front of their hometown fans. “We wanted to absolutely win by scoring some goals and give a show to our fans,” said head coach Marc Dos Santos. “We demonstrated a lot of mobility in the offensive third, which allowed us to create various scoring occasions. In the preceding matches, we were too static offensively.”
Dos Santos also stressed the importance of keeping an even keel and not read too much into this win.“We shouldn’t get overexcited with the victory tonight,” added Dos Santos. "We need to acknowledge that when we go back to the basics and work well, we get good results. I hope the match this evening will be a turning point for our season and that it will be the start of a successful period to come.”
When asked if the Impact was planning on a second half of the season turnaround like the impressive run they went through last season, Joey Gjertsen said, "Yeah, we'ed much rather have problems in the first half than the second, so we hope to build momentum off this game going into the second part of the schedule."
This was Sebrango's 99th and 100th career goal (season and playoffs) in the USL First Division, while Mayard and deRoux each earned their first career point with the Impact.
“This was a great team effort tonight,” noted Mayard. “The result tonight was good for us. I think that the Impact is finally back after a difficult sequence. I’m happy to have helped Eduardo score tonight.”
“We shouldn’t get overexcited with the victory tonight,” added Dos Santos. "We need to acknowledge that when we go back to the basics and work well, we get good results. I hope the match this evening will be a turning point for our season and that it will be the start of a successful period to come.”
Goalkeeper Sdrjan Djekanovic, who played a third consecutive match, got his second win this season, after facing 9 shots, but was not kept as busy as his counterpart, Gilstrap, who faced 14 as the Impact dominated play from whistle to whistle.
The Impact added to their yellow card woes as Midfielder David Testo was issued a fifth caution this season. He and defender Adam Braz will serve automatic one-game suspensions next week. On the bubble are Roberto Brown, Nevio Pizzolitto and Simon Gatti who are all sitting at 4 cautions thus far. One more and they too will serve a one-game suspension as well.
The Montreal Impact will play its next game Saturday against the Aztex, in Austin, Texas(8:30 pm, USLlive.com). Austin is presently in third-last position in the USL division-1 standings, six points behing the 6th place Impact. the last time thease two teams met was also the last time the Impact socred 4 goals in a 4-0 rout over the expansion team from Texas.
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