USL - Montreal Impact Scoring Drought Continues in 1-0 Loss to Puerto Rico Islanders
The Montreal Impact are trying to find the light at the end of the tunnel. Today was not the day.
With coach Marc Dos Santos serving his one game, league imposed suspension after being ejected during Wednesday night's nil-nil contest in Rochester, it was assistant coach Andrea Di Pietrantonio at the helm.
Unfortunately for the Impact, despite dominating the first half, and trying desperately in the second, it would be a penalty kick goal by the Islanders' Christian Arrieta at the 45th minute that would extend their winless and scoreless streak to 5 games.
“We certainly deserved better today,” said Di Pietrantonio. "We made a defensive error and they made us pay for it by scoring on a penalty. When you don’t score goals, a situation like this one is even more painful. We are currently lacking confidence in front of the net. We will have to go over the positive things we did today for the next match.”
The defensive error Di Pietrantonio was referring to was a play that saw veteran defender, Adam Braz bring down an Islander player while inside the box. The play not only gave the islanders the eventual winning goal, but garnered Braz a yellow card, his fifth of the season, meaning he will serve an automatic game suspension upon the Impact's next contest.
Forward Roberto Brown was issued a red card at the end of the match following an argument with the referee.
The Impact tried to get the equalizer before the final whistle and had an opportunity at the 67th minute when forward Eduardo Sebrango took a shot from inside the six-yard area after weaving his way through the Islanders defense, but Islanders 'keeper Bill Gaudette stopped the weak shot by diving to the ground. In the 85th minute, Defender Nevio Pizzolitto deflected a header from a Ciaran O’Brien free kick but Gaudette made the save by again diving on the ground to his left.
When the final whistle blew, you saw the elation from the Islanders' players, as they knew that with this win, they now moved in to sole possession of first place in the USL division one standings.
When asked if the players could take comfort in the fact that, at the same time last year they had 3 points less than they do now after 15 games, Di Pietrantonio replied, "No, I don't think anyone is taking comfort in it, we are trying to play every game to win and right now, our only goal is to find a way to win, but we know that last year we also had a slow start and then came on strong in the second half, so we know it's possible."
You will recall that last year, the Impact stumbled out of the gate, only to have an unprecedented run in the CONCACAF and USL. Hopefully for the team, they can use this fact to rally around in order to turn this season with its share of on and off field woes around.
That light at the end of the tunnel could very well present itself during the Impact's next game on Wednesday, July 22nd when the last place Cleveland City Stars come to visit.
pic by photos pépé
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