Playoff race turned on its head as Impact lose big to D.C. United

The Montreal Impact suffered a potentially fatal blow to their playoff hopes, falling 5-0 to D.C. United on Saturday night.

After a hotly contested opening 45 minutes, the match got away from the Impact, who conceded four times in the second half en route to a lopsided defeat.

Here are three thoughts from Saturday’s match.

Playoff race blown wide open

D.C.’s victory means it is now two points behind Montreal for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Most importantly, United still has two matches left to play.

Two of United’s final five games are against the lowly Chicago Fire, so a pair of victories could catapult the team over the Impact. What’s more, Montreal has to face the Columbus Crew, solidly in the top six in the conference and its fierce rival Toronto FC over the next couple of weeks.

Unless D.C. drop points in that span, it’s advantage United in the playoff race.

Great Wall of Hamid

D.C. took the lead after 17 minutes through Luciano Acosta, but to the Impact’s credit, they responded strongly after conceding and should’ve pulled level before halftime.

Unfortunately for the visitors, United goalkeeper Bill Hamid made a number of top-drawer saves to preserve the advantage. The best opportunity of the half fell to Bacary Sagna, who fired his shot in the vicinity of Hamid’s outstretched arms.

The Impact generated a total of nine shots in the first half compared to D.C.’s three. Three of Montreal’s attempts hit the target with another two blocked in the box by an opposing defender. The visitors progressed the ball effectively, Quincy Amarikwa was stretching the back line and it appeared that United was quite relieved to hear the halftime whistle.

A quick strike after the restart from Wayne Rooney basically forced the Impact to push numbers forward, which allowed D.C. to counter into acres of open space, leading to four goals in a 30-minute span. But if not for Hamid and Montreal’s lacklustre finishing, this might’ve produced a different result.

Midfield mishaps and defensive difficulties

D.C. United lacked possession and shots, but they also had fewer turnovers. That was ultimately the difference.

The first goal was the first of many errors for Montreal. After an unfortunate bounce favoured Luciano Acosta, he darted into the box past Rudy Camacho, who — only for a split second — did not track the Argentine attacker. That extra half-step is all Acosta needed to convert his chance.

Even in a first half that Montreal dominated, there were still plenty of issues. D.C.’s pressing forced the Impact defence to play out from the back under pressure. That almost resulted in a second D.C. United goal just past the half-hour mark.

Poor positioning ended up plaguing the Impact for Rooney’s second goal. With Sagna tucked inside, Rod Fanni was forced to move closer to the right flank. Samuel Piette, as he often does, tried to recover possession and, in doing so, Rooney had the space and time to run towards a helpless Camacho before finishing beautifully.

When the Impact lose their shape, it becomes very troublesome. This occurred in defeats to Toronto FC and New York City FC on Aug. 25 and July 11, respectively.

Montreal has conceded the first goal in their last three matches, but managed to clinch a result in the previous two games. The Impact did this by remaining disciplined with their positioning and converting their opportunities.

They more or less accomplished the former task for 45 minutes. But, as the scoring chances came and went, so too did the game.

[relatedlinks]

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.