Montreal Impact Get First Win Of Season Against Philadelphia Union
By Jared Book
Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
The Montreal Impact had a start to the 2014 season they would like to forget, but were using their first game at Saputo Stadium as a chance to start fresh. They ended up beating the Philadelphia Union 1-0 to earn their first win of the season.
Felipe scored the game’s only goal when he put a rebound past Philadelphia goalkeeper Zac MacMath after Impact captain Patrice Bernier stole the ball and fired a shot on goal. It was Felipe’s second goal of the season in a rainy day in Montreal.
“The group has been working really hard and it really felt that we had a home field advantage in the game. We fed off their energy,” said Impact head coach Frank Klopas. It was his first win as the Impact’s head coach.
“I’m really happy for the guys because once again, they put the work in at training and had the right attitude coming into this game.”
Impact goalkeeper Troy Perkins had another fantastic game, stopping former teammate Andrew Wenger a couple of times in the game’s first half. The other part of the trade, Jack McInerney also had a few scoring chances but neither was able to score against their former team. It was Perkin’s 200th career MLS game and 50th with the Impact.
“We are very pleased to get this win. The conditions weren’t ideal, and coming from our difficult start, it was good to push through,” said Patrice Bernier. “Now we finally got to see what happens when we put the same level of effort in the game as when we train.”
“It’s something to build on,” said Jeb Brovsky. “This is something that shows we’ve been working hard in training. One nil victories are hard to come by, but you have to win those games and we did.”
Impact defender Hassoun Camara was given a yellow card in the 37th minute and will miss their next MLS game with an automatic suspension due to yellow card accumulation.
The Impact play their next game on the road in the Amway Canadian Championship on May 7 against the winner of Ottawa Fury FC and FC Edmonton. Their next MLS game is May 10 against Sporting Kansas City at Saputo Stadium.