Clear 13 oC
| Montreal Impact vs. Atlanta Silverbacks - July 17, 2011 @ Saputo Stadium |
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| Written by Carey |
| Tuesday, 19 July 2011 00:32 |
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The year before the Impact make the jump to the MLS has been a disaster so far and we are half way through. Over the course of the first 15 games the team has a terrible 2-8-5 record. They find themselves out of playoff contention in 7th place out of 8 teams. The first 6 teams will take part in the playoffs. Meaning that only two teams in the league won’t be in the playoffs. If the Impact are one of them that would be rather embarrassing, no? Not acceptable for an organization that has always fielded competitive teams. I don’t know what the explanation is for the very poor start. Chemistry? Players that come in to play the Impact are pumped up and want to make an impression on them in the hopes that the team will offer them a contract when they are making up their MLS squad? The fact that no player on the team has a contract for next season making their futures uncertain? Whatever it is it led to the coach, Marc Dos Santos, resigning his position on June 29th. This forced Sporting Director Nick De Santis to assume the interim coaching duties for the rest of the season. What I’m sure De Santis and the fans know is that the team is having trouble scoring goals. Over the course of the first 15 games the team only scored 12 goals which is less than a goal a game and even in a low scoring sport like soccer this is problematic. Something had to be done. What was done was that a few players like Richard Pelletier (injured most of the season), Idress Ech Chergui and Kevin Hatchi were released and players like Ian Westlake (played 2nd and 3rd division in England), striker Marco Terminesi and, you guessed it, Eduardo Sebrango were brought in to change things up a bit. Now some may be wondering what they possibly could be thinking of by bringing the old guy Sebrango back into the fold, but against the Silverbacks he showed that whomever asked him to return was brilliant. Eduardo Sebrango, at age 38, played the entire game on this hot and humid afternoon and was one of the few Impact players who looked like he was comfortable out there and was putting some thought into what he was doing. Even at his age he is in great shape, so it really should not be surprising that he was able to contribute in such a large fashion. While the Impact have had trouble scoring goals this season, it was two defensive lapses (to put it mildly) that led to the two Atlanta goals both by imposing (6’3”) striker Matt Horth (as a result he was named NASL offensive player of the week).
For a team that has trouble scoring and needs to win some games to get into the playoffs, the Impact were going about things in an odd way. They once again left Horth (at his size it is not like he could sneak around unseen!) alone in the 28th minute, but this time Bush saved their bacon with a sparkling diving save. Bush would have a legitimate case, in my opinion, for suing his teammate for non-support. They were not scoring goals nor were they marking the Silverback players very well and the visitors could easily have been up by three goals at this point due to some lax marking by the Impact. The Impact were looking quite disorganized in both ends of the field. While their marking left something to be desired, on offence they weren’t clicking either. Either missing their intended targets with passes or waiting a touch too long in their attempts to move the ball to a teammate, the Impact offence was nothing to write home about. One of their only good chances of the 1st half involved Sebrango and like many a good striker he made it count. With only 3 minutes to go until the halftime break, the Impact finally struck for a goal. Fellow striker Mignane Diouf found his teammate inside the 18 yard box with a cross and Sebrango did not hesitate to power a volley past keeper Jimmy Maurer. 1-1 and the Impact must have felt lucky going into the halftime break tied. In the 2nd half the Impact were a little better offensively and I do mean a little better. Most of the possession of the ball and offensive push was due to the fact that in the 64th minute they allowed Atlanta to go up by one goal again. Once again Horth was left completely alone and there was no excuse as no less than three Impact defenders were in the area. The Impact fullbacks were horribly guilty of ball watching rather than picking up the man in the 6 yard box. Midfielder Raphael Cox using his eyes spied his teammate totally unmarked and lofted a cross to him from the left wing that Horth just had to direct into the net with his head. Horth leads his team in scoring with 6 goals and is tied for 3rd overall in the league. Pretty impressive for a 22-year-old rookie. 2-1 Atlanta. Now the desperate for points Impact had to gamble and push players forward to try for an equalizer. It might leave them exposed in the back against a counterattack, but they had not choice. De Santis brought in fresh offensive players like Anthony Le Gall, Ali Gerba and Marco Terminesi to lead the charge. Terminesi was brought in for captain and center fullback Pizzolitto, which meant that De Santis was taking away one fullback and adding a striker (he was now playing 3-4-3). The coach’s gamble was creating chances, but his players could not cash in. The best were a breakaway by Gerba in the 79th minute that he inexplicably tried to be fancy with and surprise Saurer by chipping it over him which ended up just missing the net by a few feet and in the 83rd minute when sub Terminesi headed a Le Gall cross that was just wide of the net. Close only gets you points in horseshoes.
In injury time with under 1 minute remaining in the added on time, Le Gall came over to the left side to take a corner. He quickly played it in short to the near post about five feet off the ground. I have to believe that it was a set play as Sebrango broke for that exact spot and headed the ball into the Silverback net. 2-2! And that is how the game would end. The two goals gave Sebrango 100 career goals in the NASL and he was, of course, named the Setanta Man of the Match. More importantly he single-handedly allowed his team to pick up at least a point that they so dearly need if they have any aspirations of making a playoff run. The Impact’s next home game is against the Puerto Rico Islanders on Sunday, July 31st @ 2:30 p.m. Game Stats: |
One of the top strikers to ever play for the Montreal Impact is Eduardo Sebrango. A consummate professional and a talented goal scorer throughout his career, Sebrango decided at the end of last season to call it a career. It was understandable as he is now in his late 30s (getting up in years for a professional athlete, especially a soccer player) and was not playing very many minutes. I’m sure it was with a heavy heart that those involved with the Impact accepted the fact that Sebrango would not play for the team during the 2011 NASL season.
Playing in his first game for the Impact was English midfielder Ian Westlake. As a player who has suited up for Leeds United, the English U21 national squad and Ipswich Town he should have know better than to turn the ball over cheaply just at the Impact were trying to venture forward. The turnover left the Impact outmanned and exposed. Several Silverbacks dashed forward in attack. Fullback Tyler Ruthven crossed the ball in from the right side while avoided a desperation lunge by Westlake and it found Horth, who managed to get away from his marker Nevio Pizzolitto, in close on Impact keeper Evan Bush. Bush had no chance on the Horth deflection that rang in off the post. 1-0 Atlanta and we were only 17 minutes in.
It looked like the Impact were going to go down to defeat at home at the hands of the last placed squad when Sebrango demonstrated he still had a little magic in his 38-year-old legs.