BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. – There is no sugarcoating the Montreal Impact’s performance against the Chicago Fire on Saturday.
Many things went wrong in the Impact’s 3-0 defeat to the Fire at Toyota Park. For a start, while they conceded three, it could have been more – Montreal goalkeeper Evan Bush made a whopping eight saves.
Head coach Frank Klopas, when asked about his team’s defensive performance, gave a short, direct answer.
“We give up three goals,” Klopas told reporters. “What do you want me to say? We were playing shorthanded for the whole game. The overall team performance was poor.”
Montreal, it is true, played with 10 men from the 37th minute on, but no one in Impact camp used this as an excuse.
Midfielder Marco Donadel picked up a second yellow card for a needless foul on Matt Polster in the Fire’s half. Donadel has now been shown five yellow cards in five MLS appearances this season.
Klopas, typically reluctant to single players out when addressing the media, took exception when a reporter asked him whether it was becoming difficult to justify Donadel’s inclusion in the starting lineup.
“The performance tonight, you point him out. Point the whole team out, or point me out. I’m the coach, it’s my responsibility,” Klopas said. “But the other games, you didn’t talk about Donadel. You single him out. Yeah, he's a very good player. All players can have off games. The whole team's going to have off games.”
Early discipline, said Ambroise Oyongo, was a crucial factor in the loss.
“We got yellow cards, and we had to be cautious,” Oyongo said. “Some players had to refrain from going into actions like they didn’t have a card. Then we got the red, and it was tough for us 10-v-11. It was really tough. We had to double the efforts, we did, but it didn't go as we wanted.”
Oyongo started at left midfield on Saturday, while Donny Toia returned to left back and Nigel Reo-Coker to right back. Reo-Coker picked up a third-minute yellow card as Chicago tried to exploit his flank over and over.
Klopas thought about switching things around – and he did take Jack McInerney off at halftime, resting him for next Wednesday’s date against Vancouver (8 pm ET, TSN1/TSN5 in Canada, MLS LIVE in US).
But given the way the game was going, he decided against wholesale changes.
“I thought about [moving Oyongo to fullback],” Klopas said. “Nigel was carrying a yellow, too. I moved [Oyongo] to the other side. He could have helped us a little bit more with the pace they had with [Joevin] Jones getting forward. I switched Dilly [Duka to the other side].
“But it was one of those nights where, I think, you have to take a hard look at everything, and we have to learn from it and move on.”
