MONTREAL – The Montreal Impact’s third season in MLS has been like one long cycle of grieving, of having to come to terms with the fact that the campaign was always destined to fail, because the team was never quite good enough.
Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the Portland Timbers at Stade Saputo may very well have brought about the point of acceptance; acceptance of the fact that the Montreal is not going to make the playoffs this year.
The Impact needed to rack up as many points as they could in their five games in July in order to get themselves into a position where they could at least contend for a playoff spot. But they failed to accumulate any at all, having lost each of their five games.
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Though the Impact never lost by a lopsided margin in July, they were, nevertheless, outplayed by superior opponents, with the exception of Chivas USA.
The gap in quality between the Impact and the Timbers was apparent. Away from home, Portland controlled the midfield, restricted Montreal to only three shots on target the entire game, and proved a constant threat going forward.
The opening 45 minutes was reminiscent of the Impact’s first half of the season last year, where they ceded possession and wouldn’t necessarily be playing very well, but then, out of nowhere, they would break out on a quick counterattack and score. The Impact scored two goals in this very manner against the Timbers, but you can’t always be so clinical; usually you need to create three or four chances just to score one. The Impact simply don’t create nearly enough chances in games, which is why they have the worst attacking record in the league and mostly why they won’t make the playoffs.
The quality of Diego Valeri’s strike in the 82nd minute, which gave the Timbers the win on the night said a lot. How many times has Felipe been in similar situations and not been able to convert? The Timbers have that extra bit of quality that the Impact do not and the same is also true for many other teams who are in a playoff spot or who are seriously vying for one.
With coach Frank Klopas having to serve a one-game suspension for arguing with the referees following the Impact’s 3-1 loss to Real Salt Lake last Thursday, assistant coach Mauro Biello managed Montreal on the sidelines on Sunday and he didn’t make any excuses for the loss. He admitted that the Timbers were the better of two sides.
"They were very good in possession. They caused us a lot of problems with their wide play and we had difficulty neutralizing Valeri and (Darlington) Nagbe," Biello said in the post-game news conference.
"Then we got the ball and we weren’t good enough. And I looked at the stats sheet to see how many duels we won and lost, and we lost 70 percent."
Barring a miracle, the playoffs are out of reach for Montreal.
Nick Sabetti is a Montreal-based writer. Follow him on Twitter.