MLS Cup playoffs knockout round: Montreal Impact 3-0 Toronto FC
Toronto waited nine years to be back to the MLS playoffs and in 20 minutes Montreal Impact anhiltaed the dream with three goals.
Once again Drogba took the best of the opposing defenders and it has been the major spark for the Impact who appears to be potential outsiders for the final victory.
Reactions after the game:
interim Coach Impact – Biello:
“Didier knows how to manage himself. If I felt that he needed to come out and he was tired, I would have made that change. In the end, Nacho [Piatti] and Didier are important guys. They’re able to manage themselves. I felt that, in the middle, those guys ran a lot, and I’m going to need those guys to recover.”
Didier Drogba commented:
“It was tough to pull off such a good performance after the game a couple of days ago against the same team,” Drogba said. “It’s always tricky, because that was a league game, and the other team was upset with the result. We were expecting a reaction from Toronto. In the end, we took the game the right way.
“[Piatti and Bernier] were important to complete plays. But the whole squad enhances them. The whole squad allows us to play games like these, to score. It’s a group working. Of course, individualities are showcased, often attacking players like Nacho, like me, like Pat [Bernier] who really likes to go forward. But our full backs, our center backs, Donadel, Bush don’t get enough credit.”
Toronto Michael Bradley:
“It’s not easy to find answers. Talk doesn’t do a whole lot of good. In a perfect world [the team would come together] quickly, smoothly,” he continued. “Unfortunately, a lot of times there are going to be these steps along the way. You have to keep going. … It’s not the night to sit here and talk and make excuses, to act like anybody’s got all the answers.”
Coach Greg Vanney added
“This is a project and it’s a process, it takes time. The group has to grow together, learn to trust each other. It’s not supposed to look like it did tonight, but they have to go through these situations. Seba [Giovinco], Jozy [Altidore]. … All these guys have to get the sense now, the feel, of the playoff environment.
We had players on our team who were trying to find the game, to fight through with the other team on their back and get back in. We made the playoffs, did a lot of things this year that haven’t been done in years past, for this club, for this team. That was not a good enough. But that’s part of becoming a championship team,” Vanney added. “Countless franchises don’t win in their first year.
“For us, it has to be a learning process. We have to grow from this, we have to get better in the offseason, add some pieces, continue to grow the core of our team. We need to get better.”
