MONTREAL—If this seems eerily familiar, it should. We’ve been here before.
The Montreal Impact ran out 2-0 winners over Alajuelense on Wednesday night in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League semifinal before a big crowd at Olympic Stadium.
In 2008-09, in the inaugural Champions League tournament, the Impact also earned a 2-0 win in the first leg at the Big O—back then they were in the quarterfinals and the opponent was Santos Laguna. Montreal was in a very good position to move on to the next round, but they ended up losing the return match in Mexico and were eliminated.
The Impact will try to avoid repeating history when they travel to Costa Rica on April 7 for the decisive leg versus Alajuelense.
Here are my three takeaways from Wednesday’s game.
Porter gamble paid off
Two weeks ago it was a Cameron Porter goal deep into injury time of the second leg quarterfinal versus Mexican outfit Pachuca that allowed the Impact to advance on the away goals rule. Montreal coach Frank Klopas took a gamble on Wednesday in starting Porter, who has only made two substitute appearances since being drafted by the Impact in January, instead of the more experienced forward Jack McInerney.
The rookie repaid Klopas’ faith with a splendid and mature performance—the Princeton product held up the ball effectively, displayed some expert dribbling skills in tight spaces, and looked dangerous as the front-man in Montreal’s 4-2-3-1 formation.
“I thought he had a very good game. He gave their back line a lot of problems, and they had to deal with him. He was constantly putting pressure on them, he held up balls and he gave as opportunity to come out when we were deep,” Impact assistant coach Mauri Biello said of Porter.
Biello downplayed suggestions that starting the rookie in such an important game was a gamble, stating the young forward has looked solid in training sessions and pre-season action.
But make no mistake—this was a gamble. And it paid off, as Porter’s work rate and movement off the ball was fantastic. He looks to be a budding young star in MLS. Montreal veteran Patrice Bernier compared him to former Impact great Eddie Sebrango. He’s far from the finished product, but he shows promise.
Perfect execution of game plan
Head coach Frank Klopas was suspended for this game (he earned a red card in the second leg against Pachuca) and wasn’t allowed to sit on the bench with his team.
But Klopas drew up a smart game plan that was perfectly executed by his side: storm the Costa Ricans early, grab the lead, and then shut them down.
Klopas did his homework and knew that Alajuelense wasn’t a quick team, and that it prefers to build out of the back. Montreal responded by pressing them high up the field, and showing great intensity in marking them in the centre of the park, forcing them to the flanks.
Alajuelense was unable to deal with Montreal’s pace, especially the speedy Dominic Oduro down the right flank. It was the former TFC man who, in the 10th minute, made a probing run down the wing and delivered a low pass into the middle of the box. Porter played a great dummy, confounding the Alajuelense defence, and Ignacio Piatti slammed it home.
Five minutes later, Victor Cabrera scored to make it 2-0 for Montreal. After that, Montreal focused on defensive organization and simply killed off the game.
“In the second half, the message was to keep playing, but everything we did was calculated,” Biello said. “We didn’t want to get caught on a counter and concede a goal. It was important to manage the game well. We even created many opportunities to score the third. Alas, we couldn’t. But the idea was to manage the game well.”
Oduro more effective on the wing
Playing Oduro out wide, as opposed to deploying him as the leader striker (like Montreal did in the second leg vs Pachuca) proved to be smart tactical change.
Oduro has speed to burn, but he doesn’t have the greatest touch. He’s also not a clinical finisher—he had one very good scoring chance against Alajuelense, but he ballooned his shot over the crossbar despite having a clear sight on goal.
He’s far more effective on the wing, where he uses his speed to stretch the play and drag defenders towards him and act as a decoy, thus opening up valuable space for his teammates to exploit.
Alajuelense simply couldn’t keep up with Oduro, and were outplayed and overawed by a vibrant Montreal side that was ruthless in exploiting the Costa Ricans’ high defensive line.
“Dominic has a lot of pace, and for us he keeps the defence honest by getting in behind (them) and we wanted to use that as part of our plan to see if we could quickly transition with Dominic out wide and in behind. By doing so, you create more space for Piatti underneath,” Biello explained.
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