Dynamically Impacted

Last night we celebrated a superb first match of the 2013 MLS Playoffs in which Seattle and Colorado offered beautiful footballing art as Seattle moved on to meet their archrivals, Portland Timbers. Quite the opposite happened tonight as the Houston Dynamo FC welcomed the Montreal Impact FC in their orange-clad house. This match was not close although Houston played well and Montreal showed glimpses of their brilliance.

As typical, both teams started off hot but very early on it became clear that Houston had control of the game and Montreal did not. Houston played a well-rounded game from the opening whistle. The team had a good understanding of their strategy in defense, midfield, and attack. Montreal seemed to be quite dangerous on a few occasions in the attacking third but their defense and even the midfield struggled to find a rhythm. The defense, in particular, seemed uncoordinated at best. It appeared that Andrew Wenger was going to serve as a lynchpin for Marco Di Vaio but that certainly did not happen as Di Vaio, a reliable prolific scorer, often found himself waiting for passes or having to crawl back to the center line to get a couple of good touches on the ball. In defense, Camara and Rivas struggled.

The Houston mastermind, Dominic Kinnear, knows exactly which buttons to push once his team makes the playoffs. Truthfully, the Dynamo cannot boast with their performance during the long stretch of the 2013 season, but once in the playoffs they turn on a different switch and all of a sudden they look like potential contenders for the MLS Cup. Brad Davis was his usual self; simply playing a superbly reliable match all 90+ minutes. Boniek Garcia who is quickly becoming a venerated personality in Honduras, whose national team he helped greatly to become a participant at next year’s FIFA World Cup in Brazil, was excellent covering great ground and interchanging positions with Will Bruin and Brad Davis seamlessly. Barnes Giles, played a solid game all around. A great source of hope for the Dynamo is Will Bruin who seems to have re-found his scoring boots at the right time. He was excellent both in terms of skill and work ethic. Houston goalkeeper Tally Hall deserves praise, as he was simply fabulous. The composed keeper was probably their most consistent player all season long and he just informed the rest of MLS that he’s serious about his job.

The match was unfortunately very rough on the part of the Impact players. A few of them seemed relentless about taking down the Houston players. It made for an ugly match on more than one occasion. The referee Mark Geiger did a fine job, but there’s only so much a man can do. Nelson Rivas, who had a sub-par performance in the center defense for Montreal was cautioned repeatedly and ended up seeing yellow twice, immediately followed by red. The Impact was basically done by that point anyhow, but the sending off of Rivas really seems to have been the nail in the coffin. The saddest part is that for about 10 minutes prior to that Montreal was finally getting some fluidity to their attack with a couple of subs that had come in. Sadly the end of the match is marred by yet another tantrum by some Montreal Impact players. Montreal’s Andres Romero kicked Seattle’s Kofi Sarkodie while down after the whistle, followed by the traditional shoving which quickly escalated to serious pushing and shoving, even chocking and scratching by the famous Marco Di Vaio. This was simply horrible and unacceptable. Referee Mark Geiger correctly red-carded both Romero and Di Vaio leaving only eight Montreal footballers on the pitch. The game ended soon after with Houston moving on based on their excellent 3 – 0 win, but even more importantly with great dignity.

What might one say about this childish outburst on the part of the Montreal players?! Sad! Unfortunately, some of us who have followed the Montreal Impact for many years through the USL and NASL, this does not surprise us. Such reaction by a losing Montreal Impact side has become expected. Even one of the color commentators called them ‘sore losers’ and they certainly came across that way. Now, before too many accusations fly about, please take note that this writer does not believe all Montrealers, nor even the Montreal Impact to be sore losers but something must be addressed in the organization in order to change this club attitude when faced with a loss. This experience was especially disappointing considering that the Montreal Impact have played a superb season all year long. Needless to say, the Impact are a serious organization and they will address this matter responsibly.

The first two elimination matches of this year’s playoffs are done and now we move into the weekend with great anticipation. Congratulations to Seattle and Houston and good luck to all the teams already dreaming of lifting the coveted MLS Cup.