Sporting Kansas City Fall to Tenacious Montreal Impact Side

Montreal 2 - 0 Sporting Kansas City

Martins (30')

Bernier (64')

On Saturday, Montreal Impact visited Sporting Kansas City at Livestrong Sporting Park. Sporting, coming off a bye week, were expected to be well-rested, but Montreal had been gathering steam after a subpar start to the season. Montreal captain Davy Arnaud, who was traded from Kansas City in the expansion draft, was warmly received by the home crowd, but LSP would grow rather icy toward Arnaud and his side by the end of the match.

Sporting started the match with high intensity, pressure, and possession, but were unable to threaten Montreal goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts until the 15 minute mark. Matt Besler attempted to connect a long throw-in with a Sporting player in Montreal's penalty box, but the poor clearance fell to Graham Zusi, who deftly turned, shedding his defender, and flicked a pass to CJ Sapong, who struck a half volley towards the Montreal near post. Ricketts parried the shot away, awarding Sporting one of their 11 corner kicks on the night.

 

Sporting's next chance came at 27 minutes, when Zusi won a 50-50 ball in the middle third and fed the ball to Bobby Convey, who passed back to Zusi. Unchallenged, Zusi moved into space and took a bouncing shot from 35 yards. The shot was on target, but once again, Ricketts got a hand to it, pushing the ball out of play.

Montreal had managed to frustrate Sporting's attempts at offensive play, but they had yet to threaten Sporting's goal themselves. That would change, as would the game's momentum, at 30 minutes, when a simple one-touch pass from Justin Braun gutted a disorganized Sporting defense, and Felipe Martins found himself unmarked and closing on Sporting's penalty box. Shifting slightly left, Martins used Sporting central defender Aurélien Collin as a screen before firing a left-footed shot that curved out around Collin; Sporting goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen managed to get a few fingers to the ball, but it nevertheless buried itself in the corner of the net.

Sporting continued to pressure the Montreal defense, but missed opportunities began to pile up, including a poorly struck scissor kick shot from Kei Kamara in the 43rd minute. The teams went into the locker rooms with the visitors leading 1-0.

From the beginning of the second half, it was clear that Montreal manager Jesse Marsch had fine-tuned his side to efficiently exploit Sporting's weak points. The Montreal defense played an exceptionally high line to counter Sapong, who is a physical and technical player, but not particularly fast. Sporting manager Peter Vermes substituted him for speedy USMNT national Teal Bunbury at the 66th minute, but Sporting's wingers continued playing passes directly to Bunbury, rather than sending in through passes for him to run onto. Bunbury was bullied by Montreal central defenders Hassoun Camara and Matteo Ferrari and could not manage a single shot on goal.

Montreal's Lamar Neagle split the Sporting defense in the 63rd minute and looked to score when he was tackled from behind by Collin. The tackle, while not significant enough to merit a caution for Collin, was enough for referee Juan Guzman to run in, pointing at the penalty spot. A minute later, Patrice Bernier slotted home Montreal's second goal, sending Nielsen diving the completely wrong way after a masterful feint.

The final third of the game was dominated by Sporting, who simply could not capitalize on any of their 22 attempts on goal. Their offensive play and shape suffered most notably on the left, where Michael Harrington was filling in for starting left wingback Seth Sinovic.

Sporting completed twice as many passes as Montreal, held twice as much possession, and fielded an incredible 18 open-play crosses, but in spite of it all, their inability to adapt to Montreal's defensive strategy was too great a handicap. Montreal played a tenacious, bold, and tactically sound game that drained Sporting's resolve and left them staggering.

After the game, Sporting winger Kei Kamara summed up Sporting's difficulties best: "Montreal played well. They kind of play our game, but they played it better. They pressure, and every time we got the ball they closed us down really fast. We weren’t thinking quick enough like we usually do, and that affected us tonight. We outshot them, but that’s not what counts."

This was Sporting's second loss in a row. Their next chance to break the streak will be at Toyota Park against Chicago Fire on May 12, 2012. Sporting remain first in the Eastern Conference with a record of 7-2-0.

By Alex Gum