Twice this week, the Impact suffered in the second half of a game.
302917256" tabindex="0">On Tuesday, in the ScotiabankCONCACAF Champions League semifinals, Montreal reached the final despite conceding four second-half goals to Alajuelense. 302917257" tabindex="0">This Saturday, in Houston, Montreal again went down after the break.
They looked good in the first half, Giles Barnes’ set-piece opener notwithstanding. But they conceded two more in the last 45 minutes, confirming a 3-0 defeat against the Houston Dynamo.
The Impact seemed hungry at first, pressing Houston deep to recover balls in their territory. But from the 55th minute on, they looked more like a team about to concede on a quick transition. And Montreal holding the ball for 66.8 percent of the encounter played straight into Houston’s hands.
“It felt like, the first half, we possessed the ball really well,” defender Donny Toia told reporters. “Then, we came out in the second half giving the ball away too easily. It's just stupid, silly mistakes that are costing us goals right now, and we’ve got to change that. It’s as simple as that.”
Montreal’s qualification for the CCL final was comforting, but the overall results are not. In all competitions, in 2015, Montreal have won one game, lost three and drawn four. They’ve scored nine goals and conceded 13.
Furthermore, Barnes’ goal in the 15th minute was the third Montreal conceded on a set play this week, after both of Pablo Gabas’ efforts in midweek.
“I have to see it again, because obviously, it was a good goal on the cross, but I think that maybe we missed an assignment a little bit, some guys being in the right spot,” head coach Frank Klopas said. “But then, we had a lot of the ball. We had some good chances. It’s just that the final opportunity to score, the final pass in the final third, just wasn’t there.”
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Klopas, who made only three changes from his starting XI in Alajuela, rued the mental mistakes at crucial points. He will have 11 days to figure out how to cut down on those: Montreal's next date is at Estadio Azteca, for the first leg of the CCL final against Club America, who drew 1-1 at Monterrey 302917258" tabindex="0">on Saturday night.
“There were moments where the decision-making – when to dribble, when to pass –, even though we had a lot of the ball and we had a lot of possession and we were in good spots, the final opportunity to make the pass or to score, we didn’t do it 302917259" tabindex="0">tonight,” Klopas said.
