Montreal Impact head coach Thierry Henry did not think that his squad deserved to lose on Sunday night.
“We need to learn, as quickly as possible because there’s been a lot lately, how to manage our moments,” Henry said following his team’s 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Union.
The Frenchman was referencing an action from Impact leading goalscorer Romell Quioto which would have tied the game up at the 86th minute. Amar Sejdic sent a long through ball for the Honduran who decided to try and chip Union goalkeeper Andre Blake and missed the target.
“We had a one-on-one, an opportunity to come back into the game, and once again we don’t understand moments,” Henry said. “Instead of burying the goal, some people think about trying to be pretty. You have to score there, it’s not about being pretty.”
“You have to be more aggressive in terms of finishing and not try to be pretty. But having said that, the team didn’t give up, they came back into it and again I’ll say it: I don’t think we deserve to lose today but we did,” Henry continued.
The Frenchman acknowledged that playing Columbus Crew SC, who at the time were atop the Supporters’ Shield standings, and the second-placed Union in the same week wasn’t an easy task. Henry did think that the Impact will have Sunday’s result in the back of their minds.
“We could have gone out, logically I think, with a draw but unfortunately it’s not the case,” Henry said. “Now, going to Columbus and then Philadelphia wasn’t easy. We could have pulled a coup, where four points against the both of them isn’t bad. Now, when you look at the game we played you can say that it was a missed opportunity tonight.”
Nevertheless, Henry had a lot of respect towards his opponents saying that the Union were “a very, very, very, good team,” and “that’s why they’re at the top at the minute.” On Philadelphia’s end, head coach Jim Curtin also had respect towards the Impact.
“[It's] a Montreal team that for me has been on the unlucky side of a lot of results and is a real quality team,” Curtin said. “Thierry has them playing very good soccer, they're disciplined, they're tough to break down, they play the right way. I thought they made us very uncomfortable, especially in the first half and it really disrupted us. A very good opponent that I'm sure we'll probably see down the road in the playoffs.”
Going into the home stretch of games before the start of the 2020 MLS Playoffs, the Impact sit eighth. Montreal will play two important games against two direct opponents starting Wednesday night against the New England Revolution and Saturday against Inter Miami CF. Samuel Piette believed that the Impact will need to start grinding for points in every way possible starting right now.
“I don’t really care how goals are scored, as long as we score them.” Piette said. “Obviously we try to do something pretty tactically on the pitch, but at some point it won’t be pretty.”
Piette cited the Impact’s 2-1 win over the Crew on Wednesday as an example for where the team’s mindset should be in the upcoming playoff push.
“I think we couldn’t make two passes in a row but we were solid at the back and sometimes that’s what it takes,” Piette said. “Sometimes you just gotta get the job done, it doesn’t matter how, and on Romell’s chance that was one of those times.”
