L’Impact Est En Feu ! Bring on the Semi-Finals and the CONCACAF !

By: Marco Stucazzo | September 29th, 2008

Wow !!!!

L’Impact’s on serious fire ! after playing 4 games in less than 10 days L’Impact managed to qualify for the USL First Division semifinals thanks to a 3-1 win (4-3 on aggregate goals) over the Seattle Sounders on Sunday at Saputo Stadium. It was the second and decisive match of their home-and-away aggregate goal quarterfinal series. Midfielder Antonio Ribeiro scored the game-winning goal at the 90th minute of play.

Check out the highlights here!

L’Impact is playing the USL playoffs and the CONCACAF Champions League all at the same time and doing great. After disposing of Joe Public and drawing Mexican powerhous FC Atlante, l’Impact had enough gas in the the tank to give the USL championship a serious run for it’s money.

Sunday’s game against Seattle was one for the ages; 3 red cards, 4 goals and a missed Penalty and all of that in the 2nd half ! Antonio Ribeiro scored the winning goal in stoppage time Seattle missed a Penalty that could have brought the game back at 2-2 late in the 2nd half. The Sounders striker nailed the 1st but had to retake it after a Seattle player had ran into the box a little to early for the refs liking ;

Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar is a good player, but on the second penalty kick I just decided to stand him up and to react,” said Matt Jordan. “I don’t know if he saw me and if that made a difference in the play but I’m just glad that he missed. Again, the guys were unbelievable tonight. We had a never-die attitude and that shows a lot of heart from us as a team.”

Midfielder Antonio Ribeiro entered the game for the Impact in the 88th minute and scored the series-winner less than two minutes later. On the play, midfielder Joey Gjertsen took a well-placed shot from about 35 metres out, hitting the crossbar, but leaving an easy tap into an empty net for Ribeiro, who was all alone in the goalmouth.

“Once again today we showed all the quality we have on the bench,” explained team captain Mauro Biello. “Seattle is a very good team with a lot of strong players technically. We beat one of the best teams in the league.”

“In the second half, I think they sat back a little bit too much because of the fatigue,” said David Testo. “We had more legs and we took advantage of it. It’s an amazing win for us. We had a really strong finish to the regular season finishing in third place and we’re trying to keep that momentum going in the playoffs.”

The Impact will now face the Vancouver Whitecaps in the semifinals. Last night in Minnesota, the Thunder rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win the return match 4-3, but the Whitecaps still advanced 6-5 on total goals.

Montreal has a rough week ahead of them; a Champions League game in Honduras on Wednesday, then Friday night the USL Semi-Final kicks off against Vancouver and the return game on the west coast is on Sunday and finally L’Impact is leaving from Vancouver to Trinidad and Tobago for Wednesday’s Joe Public meeting. Heavy schedule but L’Impact has managed so far !

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