Final result – Montreal Impact 2 – New England Revolution 1
It felt really good to finally be back watching MLS action, even if it was well below freezing on the way to the stadium. I’d also like to thank 1642 for inviting us up to their beautiful city. If security had let us join you after the match, I would have loved to meet your people and have fun messing with each other over our maple syrup rivalry (you read that right).
13th minute – “Oh cool, another short corner kick” quickly turned in to a loud, frenzied celebration thanks to Teal Bunbury’s sweet strike off of the cross in to the bottom left hand side of the net. If more of this is in store for this year, I am all for it. What a rush to open up the year.
37th minute – Quioto draws the Impact back level. This is why I love football more than any other sport. The pure elation felt after scoring first can turn to utter heart break in minutes. Roller coaster emotions along with some good back and forth gives you a formula for people to have fun and bond.
80th minute – Urruti puts the Impact ahead for good with a cheeky little chip over an out of position Matt Turner. Does it excuse the defense for collapsing around him? No, but he was also out of position and got burned. This being only the first game of the season, I’m willing to forgive a blunder or 2, but with the rest of the league looking to capitalize on them, you have to do what it takes to make sure they don’t happen.
How it could have been different – We had a goal called back due to offsides that I want to take another look at to see if that really was the correct call, the review came after the ref was talking to the Impact goal keeper, so I’m kind of curious what brought him over to the review screen.
There was a header that completely fooled the goalie and do you know what happened? IT BOUNCED RIGHT OFF OF THE POST AND NOBODY REBOUNDED IT!!!!!!! Oh my shorts was that disheartening. We were all ready to celebrate, but instead we were left feeling like somebody stole our last slice of pizza after a long day at work.
What I disliked – THAT REFEREE!!!!!! Chances are I am being a big “homer” here, but those calls were NOT going our way at all. It felt like every time Montreal looked at their own shoe laces, they’d fall down and the ref would call a foul. We had a player get tripped pretty badly around midfield and nothing happened. I don’t mind losing, but when it looks like the game is being that poorly called, it’s just heartbreaking.