BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. – The Montreal Impact found their pace in the second half and never looked back.
Ignacio Piatti scored from just outside the box in the first minute of stoppage time to give the Impact a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Fire on Saturday after Didier Drogba scored in the 56th
minute to start their rally.
“In the second half, we played with more rhythm and created more chances,” said Drogba. “We wanted to pull off a great result here.We wanted to win. We’re top of the conference, and we have to show more ambition on the road. This win does us a lot of good.”
Piatti took a pass from Dominic Oduro near the top left corner of the box and bent a perfectly placed ball just inside the top right corner of the goal.
“It feels really good to win like that, credit to Didier and Nacho,” said Montreal midfielder Harry Shipp, who was raised near Chicago and came up through the Fire’s development team before being traded to the Impact in the off-season.
“They made special plays and their quality gives the whole team a lot of confidence. It felt like we had the quality to score the winning goal. We’re happy to come back to Montreal with the three points.”
Piatti’s fourth goal of the season was nearly identical to the goal from Kennedy Igboananike that gave Chicago (1-2-3) a 1-0 lead in the 29th minute. Igboananike gathered Gilberto’s pass just inside
the top left corner of the box. He turned and placed the ball into the top-right corner as well for his third goal.
The Impact (4-2-0) tied it in the 56th minute when Drogba, who entered six minutes earlier, back-footed a cross from Oduro. Oduro had stolen the ball after a week kick from Fire keeper Matt Lampson. It was Drogba’s first goal.
*With files from The Canadian Press
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