Preseason Game Matches Two Familiar Teams Now Playing in Different Leagues; Portland Timbers 1-0 Montreal Impact
Portland's Brian Umony holds the ball up against the Montreal defense. Photo by Brian Quarstad IMSoccer News.
For audio of comments from Montreal Impact goalkeeper Bill Gaudette scroll to bottom of article.
Casa Grande, Ariz. – The Portland Timbers notched their first MLS win Wednesday afternoon against a familiar opponent, the Montreal Impact of the NASL.
Just last season both teams were playing in the USSF D2 Pro League. This season Portland make their move up the ladder to Major League Soccer and the Montreal Impact play their final season as a D2 team in the North American Soccer League. The Impact will make the jump to MLS in 2012.
Portland fielded mainly a B-team for Wednesday’s game. Before the game, assistant coach Amos Magee said the Timbers’ starting 11 would mainly consist of players that were supposed to have played the U.S. U-18 National Team in a scrimmage last Saturday. That game was cancelled due to rain. Portland has been training at the Grande Sports World Complex for 10 days and have had several scrimmages.
Montreal’s eleven looked much more like an opening day team. It was the Impact’s first real game of the 2011 preseason. They scrimmaged their academy team but had only played and trained indoors. Montreal arrived at Casa Grande Tuesday evening, nearly two days late after the snowstorms that swept through the Midwest and Canada affected their flight out of Montreal. They managed one training session outdoors before Wednesday afternoon’s scrimmage.
The rust had to be shaken off quickly for Montreal as Portland made several quick forays into the Impact’s defensive third.
In the 7th minute the Timbers took advantage of the Impact’s early-season lack of organization. Roberto Merino of Portland hit a hard cross into the six-yard box that found the head of Eddie Johnson. The former Austin Aztex striker found his way through a crowd of defenders and nodded home for the only goal of the game.
Gaudette makes sure his defense is on the same page. Photo by Brian Quarstad.
There were several good chances for both teams. Portland seemed to have the better of play in the middle third of the field and had better chances on goal. But Montreal held their own and had moments of good play through the middle as well. The Impacts’ defense in particular seemed to get better as the game progressed. The second half insertion of new goalkeeper Bill Gaudette seemed to help gel the defense.
“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing against, we have to go out and win the game,” said Timbers head coach John Spencer. “I think it was important for the morale and the confidence to get [their] first win as an MLS team.”
“Today’s game was very positive for us as we held our own against a team headed for the MLS,” said Montreal Impact head coach Marc Dos Santos. “We left the field with our heads held high. We played a good second half and we were able to create some scoring opportunities. With games like this one, we are able to find the things that we need to work on.”
“We’re never happy when we don’t win the game,” said Bill Gaudette. “But after one training session and we come out and play a performance like that against Portland we know we have a bright future ahead of us. We still have a lot of hard work ahead of us but we’re happy where we are as of right now.”
Listen to Bill Gaudette’s comments on the game and Montreal’s performance.
Scoring Summary:
POR: Johnson (Merino), 7
Lineups:
POR: GK Brown, D Kirk, D Danso, D Horst, D Taylor (Wallace, 85), M Zizzo, M Alhassan (Marcelin, 77), M Moffat, M Merino (DeMartin, 46), F Perlaza (Umony, 62), F Johnson (Cooper, 73)
MON: GK Bush (Gaudette, 46), D Billy (Da Costa, 72), D Pizzolitto (Aaboubou, 46), D Hatchi, D Cossette (Pelletier, 46), M LeGall (Kreamalmeyer, 46), M Camara (Cardin, 87), M Ribeiro (Gatti, 59), M Di Lorenzo (Mayard, 75), F Ech-Chergui, F Gerba (Porter, 63)
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I wish Bill all of the success in the world with his new team, except when he plays against the Islanders. He isa qualty player and a nice guy.
I second that. We freaking love Bill in our home. Especially my 5 year old. But like she said after he signed for Montreal “Now we have to be against him!”
Like I explained to her “Whenever he is playing Puerto Rico or DC, we can be for him”.
I’ll have to check the audio when I get home, but I expect a lot of dead air as he carefully considers his responses.
Never get tired of Gaudette time-wasting jokes.
Funny because I did an extended audio interview with Marc Dos Santos yesterday. I told him about the Twitter jokes that were going around when it took so long to sign him. He laughed, explained the reason and then said you can always count on Bill to drag things out when you have a lead. That is not an exact quote but paraphrased.
Thanks Brian for covering the Impact game in Arizona! That proves that IMS is really THE place to look for infos on the D2 teams.
I found interesting that our subbs did a better job than our regulars. Maybe the starting eleven tooked things lightly? Anyways, it’s a good beginning for a team with so many new faces that early in its pre-season.
Haven’t been keeping up is Kirk expected to make Portlands final roster? It would be cool to see him get that second chance back in MLS as a defender.
It is taking forever for the Gaudette interview to load.
I’ve had very little internet contact Tim so don’t know what the problem might have been but just checked now and it loads instantly. Sorry if it was a problem.
Kirk is sort of on the second tier right now. I think it’s up to him if he makes the roster or not but I don’t think he’s a first team player at the moment. I thought Danso looked very good and really took control out there. Quavas had a decent game. He certainly didn’t hurt his chances. To tell you the truth I’m not really sure who’s fault the first goal was. I wasn’t watching close enough at that moment.
The Gaudette interview is really taking its time.