MONTREAL - The Montreal Impact (3-1-1) lost for the first time this season in Reserve League action, falling to Toronto FC (3-0-1) by a 5-0 score on Wednesday afternoon, at the Claude-Robillard sports complex.
Toronto opened the scoring in the 3rd minute when defender Ashtone Morgan played a cross into the box from the left flank to forward Danny Koevermans. The Dutchman’s well-placed header from the short post beat Impact goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau to the far corner.
In the 19th minute, TFC doubled its lead on a second goal by Koevermans. Following a cross by Justin Braun into the box, the TFC striker pounced on his own rebound from in close after his initial shot went off the bar.
TFC went up 3-0 in the 27th minute when Kyle Bekker converted a free-kick from 20 yards out after it deflected off of the wall and caught Crépeau going the opposite side, diving towards his left.
Former Impact striker Justin Braun made it four goals for TFC in the 58th minute when he headed in a cross from trialist Alvaro Rey Vazquez inside the six-yard-box.
TFC midfielder Reggie Lambe, dribbling down the right flank, cut back inside the box to shake off his defender and curled the ball just inside the far post in the 73rd minute to score the fifth and last goal of the game.
“It’s the second game in a row in Reserve League play that we struggled in the first half,” explained Impact assistant coach Philippe Eullaffroy, who managed the bench Wednesday. “The players have to understand that they must play collectively. They are on the field to win as a team and not to worry about their individual play. I don’t think it was a very interesting game neither for us, nor for them in that regard. The second half was much better.”
The Impact’s best scoring chance came in the 25th minute. Forward Andrew Wenger fought off two TFC defenders and settled the ball before firing a shot from just outside the box that was stopped by TFC keeper Quillan Roberts, diving to his left, to keep his clean sheet.
Koevermans came close to getting his hat trick in the 42nd minute when his shot banged off the opposite side of the frame.
Lineups
MTL: GK – Maxime Crépeau; D – Maxim Tissot, Calum Mallace, Wandrille Lefèvre, Karl W. Ouimette; M – Maxi Rodriguez (Dominique Morin* 78’), Davy Arnaud (Jérémy Gagnon-Laparé* 63’), Blake Smith (Yacine Ait-Slimane* 63’), Sinisa Ubiparipovic, Zakaria Messoudi; F – Andrew Wenger (Charles Joly* 63’)
Substitutes not used: GK – Evan Bush; Jems Geffard
TFC: GK – Quillan Roberts; D – Ashtone Morgan, Gale Agbossoumonde, Darel Russel (Emery Welshman 63’), Eli Roubos, Reggie Lambe, Kyle Bekker, Manny Aparicio, Alvaro Rey Vazquez* (Chris Manella* 73’); F – Justin Braun, Danny Koevermans (Mark Kaye 60’)
Academy players
*Trialist
