MONTREAL — MMA star Georges St-Pierre was in the house on Saturday evening at Stade Saputo, but it was the Montreal Impact, and not Toronto FC, who tapped out.
With the memory of last October’s humiliating playoff loss still fresh, TFC strong-armed the Impact into submission via a 2-0 win, both goals coming off the majestic foot of Sebastian Giovinco before a sellout crowd of 20, 801.
Hometown hero St-Pierre was stationed behind the net at the East end of the stadium, waiting to ring the club’s giant ceremonial bell after every Montreal goal. He was never called into action, though—the Reds’ defence did a great job of neutralizing Didier Drogba and Ignacio Piatti, ensuring that the bell tolled for the Impact.
How did the Reds do it? How did they shut down one of the best attacking units in MLS? Toronto coach Greg Vanney had a simple answer.
“We pulled it off with team defending,” Vanney said. “I thought we very disciplined, very organized defensively.”
He later added: “I’m very happy and pleased with where we are [in the season]… I thought the performance today was maybe our best that we’ve had in two years,” Vanney boldy proclaimed.
For TFC, this game wasn’t about gaining revenge over last year’s humiliating playoff exit—that will only come once they do the same to the Impact. Instead, this was about shutting out the best team in the Eastern Conference, and building upon the solid defensive foundation established by the Reds early on this MLS campaign.
It’s now five goals conceded and three clean sheets, and 11 points from seven road games to start the season for Toronto— an excellent return for a side that coughed up a league-high 58 goals a year ago. It’s early days, of course, and it would be premature to categorically state their defensive woes are firmly behind them after only seven matches. Still, the signs are pretty encouraging.
Captain Michael Bradley echoed his coach’s sentiments, calling Saturday’s result a great team effort.
“We made the game very hard on their big, attacking players. We found good moments with the ball and were able to put together some good plays going the other way. [It was] a win that every guy here should be proud of, and we can use to build upon,” Bradley said.
TFC’s captain also heaped praise upon Vanney for the club’s strong start to the campaign.
“Greg deserves all the credit in the world. He’s sets the tone with how hard he works, how thorough he is,” Bradley offered.
Vanney made one line-up change from last week, replacing Josh Williams in the centre of defence with Damien Perquis. Vanney also deployed a diamond-shaped midfield, with Bradley at the base, Will Johnson and Marky Delgado out wide, and Jonathan Osorio just in behind forwards Giovinco and Jozy Altidore.
The new-look midfield caused problems for Montreal at both ends of the field, with Bradley deployed almost as the third centre back and Osorio buzzing with attacking verve and linking up effectively with Giovinco and Altidore. Giovinco will garner the headlines because of his two goals. But Johnson, Altidore and Osorio were industrious, doing a lot of dirty work in supporting roles.
Osorio had a glorious chance to open the scoring in the 28th minute. Giovinco worked the ball into the box, and Altidore laid a great pass for Osorio. The Canadian adroitly sidestepped one Montreal player but saw his shot from eight yards out pushed wide by goalkeeper Evan Bush.
The breakthrough came with five minutes left in the half after Altidore showed off some nifty footwork to drive into the penalty area before being brought down by Impact defender Victor Cabrera. Giovinco stepped up to the spot, driving his penalty inside the lower corner past Bush.
Kept quiet for most of the match, Drogba and Piatti started to come alive at around the 60-minute mark as Montreal began to swarm and pin TFC deep inside their end. The Reds held firm, though, withstanding a 10-minute period of relentless pressure by the Impact.
Toronto put the game away in the 81st minute. Johnson played a ball out wide to Giovinco who took a touch into the box before finishing exquisitely just inside the far post. The Italian has now scored six of Toronto’s eight goals this season.
“Sebastian can come up with things that, in my opinion, nobody else can come up with in this league. Tonight he was huge in getting that second goal,” Vanney said.
NOTES: Toronto leads the all-time MLS series against Montreal with six wins and three draws in 12 meetings. These teams will face off two more times in MLS this season: Aug. 27 in Toronto and Oct. 16 in Montreal. They’ll also meet each other in the two-legged semifinals of the Amway Canadian Championship… TFC completes its eight-game road stretch to begin the season on May 1 at Portland before finally playing its home opener on May 7 vs. Dallas… The Impact visit New York City FC on April 27, and then hosts Colorado on April 30… Montreal played its previous two home matches this season at Olympic Stadium.
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