It was another disappointment in a 2014 MLS season full of them for the Montreal Impact. Stuck at the bottom of the Eastern Conference five points behind 9th-place Houston, Montreal could’ve only expected so much against the 2nd-place team in the Western Conference. Real Salt Lake didn’t disappoint.
Luke Mulholland opened the scoring for Real Salt Lake just three minutes into the game. Montreal showed signs of fight with Hassoun Camara equalizing in the 31st minute. Whatever hopes Montreal had of holding on for a point took a hit when the referee sent off Issey Nakajima-Farran in the 65th minute. Olmes Garcia scored in the 70th minute and stoppage time to see off the Impact.
“It changed the game,” Real Salt Lake coach Jeff Cassar said of the red card. “We felt that they were going to be creating chances no matter what, which they were, but I think it deflated them a little bit. It’s a team that’s not getting the results they want. Then it happens, chins go down and the energy level drops a bit. (Montreal) has to make a change, tactically, and that gives us that extra spark that we needed a little bit. We took advantage of it.”
It could’ve been much worse for Montreal, getting 8 saves from goalkeeper Evan Bush. Real Salt Lake led 22 to 8 on shots, putting 11 of those on frame to Montreal’s 2. Real Salt Lake also led 5 to 0 on corner kicks.
“It was good up to that call – to the red card,” Montreal Impact coach Frank Klopas said. “That changed everything. Then, I don’t know what else can go wrong. With us it just seems like everything goes wrong with us. We had a chance to go on a breakaway, both players go down, both players have studs up and we get the red card. That changed everything. Other than that, I thought we had the game in control. We had better chances the first half. We gave up a fast goal; obviously we came back and scored a nice goal. [We had] some other very good opportunities. We didn’t [score], but I thought we were managing the game and could have gotten a result out of it. The red card changed everything.”
