SoccerHeartbreak for Impact

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Commanding lead vanished

After going a goal down in the first 15 minutes, the Impact fought back to lead Santos Laguna 2-1 at halftime of the second leg of their CONCACAF Champions League quarter-final in Torreon, Mexico. They led the Mexicans 4-1 on aggregate, and even if they conceded three second half goals, Montreal would still advance to the semifinals by virtue of having scored two goals away from home. Santos needed to score four goals in the second half to win the tie 5-4.

Even as late as the 90th minute, it seemed an impossible task. Santos had clawed back two goals and led 3-2 on the night, but they still trailed the Impact 4-3 on aggregate.

The game should have been over.

When Montreal intercepted the ball, they should have moved it into the Santos half and kept possession, or at least knocked it out for a throw in. That would have relieved the pressure on their goal, and it would have allowed their defenders to push out of the 18-yard box. If the other team doesn’t have the ball, they can’t score, can they?

But Montreal failed to do that, and time and time again, they gifted the ball back to Santos.

Darwin Quintero had a phenomenal second half for Santos, and he tormented the Impact by running at their defenders every time he picked up the ball. He deserved the two goals he scored in extra time to give Santos a 5-2 victory, 5-4 on aggregate, sending the Mexicans through to the semifinals. Montreal, on the other hand, is left to rue what might have been.

Collapse shouldn't overshadow season

It would be easy to describe Montreal’s demise as a monumental collapse, because it was. When you lead a game by two goals in the 90th minute and end up losing, there is no other way to describe it. They clutched defeat from the jaws of victory.

But I don’t want to do that. As I said before, it’s easy to be negative. I would rather focus on the tremendous performances I’ve seen from so many different players on the Impact roster throughout this tournament. Guys like Nevio Pizzolitto, Sandro Grande, Matt Jordan and Cedric Joqueviel.

Others too, like David Testo, Joey Gjertsen, Leo Di Lorenzo and Eduardo Sebrango. In fairness, I could list just about every Impact player and point to a major contribution that he made to allow Montreal to reach the quarter-final stage. Tony Donatelli hardly played last night, yet it was his goals that saw Montreal succeed in the group stage of the competition.

It will be of no consolation to the Montreal players, however. They will know how close they came to reaching the semifinals, and no amount of back-patting is going to make the pain of losing go away.

'They'll measure up just fine'

You learn a great deal about yourself when you lose big games. One of my favourite quotes, from Martin Luther King Jr., sums it up best, "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

This is a challenging time for the Montreal Impact. How the players respond to this will say more about them, as individuals and as a team, than how they respond to winning games.

From what I’ve seen of them over the last year, I think they’ll measure up just fine.

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