The Union's Jack McInerney sees red after an altercation with Nelson Rivas (Getty Images)
Unfortunately the story of this match isn't going to end up being the Impact's continued dominance at Stade Saputo, or Felipe's gorgeous second half goal. It's not going to be the Union's missed chances either. It's going to be about two stupid choices made by players who should know better, and the Disciplinary Committee will surely have something to say about one of them.
The last time the Union met the Impact in Philly it was a close, physical affair, and it wasn't much different last night in Montreal. However, the Union did some really nice things in the first half and probably were unlucky to not have netted at least one goal. Lionard Pajoy nearly put Philly out in front in the 21st minute after Carlos Valdes dumped the ball to him after the Colombian had made a brilliant full field run. Pajoy sliced through the last of Montreal's defense, but his shot hit the far post and bounced out of trouble. Then in the 28th minute Jack McInerney headed a free kick into the ground in front of the Montreal goal, but Donovan Ricketts was on his game and managed to keep it out.
The Impact seemed to have trouble getting their attack going through much of the first half. They were missing DP striker Marco Di Vaio, who was in Italy facing charges over the match fixing issues there. Andrew Wenger stepped into that role, and got the Impact on the board right before halftime. In the 44th minute Patrice Bernier sent a cross into Wenger off of a corner kick and the rookie headed an expert shot into the goal to give the Impact a 1-0 lead going to the break.
The Union nearly equalized early on in the second half as Michael Farfan nodded a Sheanon Williams cross just wide of the post, but the big story of the half came in the 69th minute. Philadelphia's Antoine Hoppenot went up for a header with Montreal's Nelson Rivas. Hoppenot tossed the Impact defender to the ground as the two landed, and Rivas took exception. He walked up to the Philly forward and sent him crashing to the ground with a nasty head-butt. At that point Jack McInerney came rushing to his teammate's defense with a punch/shove from behind on Rivas. Both Rivas and McInerney were shown the red card, McInerney's seeming to be for retaliation.
The match did open up a little with the 10 on 10 action, but Montreal iced it in the 78th minute. Felipe took a cross from Hassoun Camara and whipped in a goal that you'll most likely see a few times on this weeks highlight reel, and Montreal took a 2-0 lead. In the 83rd minute Michael Farfan had a shot saved, but it fell to Valdes, who had a great look at the open net. Unfortunately for the Union, the ball came in at a bad angle and Valdes had to lift his leg rather high to get it, tapping the the shot wide of the near post, sealing the 2-0 win for the Impact at full time.
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