May 28, 2004 A-League Montreal Impact vs Toronto Lynx
From the Montreal Gazette:
Impact's offence erupts
Dominate play in air to score 4 times Impact 4, Lynx 1. First-half fluke goal ends goalie Sutton's shutout streak at 424 minutes
Pat Hickey
The Gazette
May 29, 2004
Goalkeeper Greg Sutton's shutout streak came to an end, but the Impact remained unbeaten as it crushed the Toronto Lynx 4-1 in the first game of a home-and-away series that concludes tonight in Toronto.
"It's tough when you give up a goal on a fluke, but the guys came up big tonight," said Sutton, who suffered from some bad luck in the 28th minute. Ali Gerba, who played for the Impact last season as Ali Ngon, was credited with a goal as his header hit the post, came out and bounced in off Sutton.
"They had a crossing play and he flicked it," Sutton said. "I couldn't dive because it would have taken me out of the play. When I heard it hit the post, I turned and it bounced off my shoulder."
The goal came after Sutton and the Impact started the season with a string of 424 scoreless minutes.
Sutton atoned for that miscue midway through the second half when he made a diving stop on a howitzer from Gerba and his teammates dominated play in the air to score a season-high four goals.
Patrick Leduc had a hand in the first three goals as he set up Nevio Pizzolitto for the game's first goal off a free kick in the 25th minute and then combined with Joel Bailey for what proved to be the winner on a similar play in the 48th minute.
"Technically, we made a lot of mistakes but we were able to take advantage of our set pieces," Leduc said. "The guys did a good job of getting in position."
"Pat did a good job of getting those passes in there," said Pizzolitto, who is coming off abdominal surgery. He's still not 100 per cent and while he played the full 90 minutes last night, he won't play in the rematch.
The Impact enjoyed success even when Leduc wasn't able to find someone in scoring position. His free kick in the 69th minute came back out from a scramble in front of the net, but defender Mauricio Vincello scored on a 30-yard screamer along the ground.
Ze Roberto completed the scoring with yet another header, converting a free kick from Nikola Budalic in the 89th minute. Vincello and Budalic are both former Lynx players.
"If we had played a better game technically, we would have dominated them even further, but what you saw tonight was a strong effort from everyone," said coach Nick DeSantis, whose team improved its record to 4-0-1. "I was particularly happy the way the some of the guys like Nicky (Budalic), Freddy Commodore and Darko (Kolic) came off the bench and made things happen."
The rivalry between the two teams is bitter and hard feelings were evident throughout the game. Toronto was handed five of seven yellow cards with Toronto's Adrian Serioux being ejected in the final minute when he was handed two cautions.
As time ran out, DeSantis became involved in a shoving match with Toronto coach Duncan Wilde.
"I just went over to shake his hand," DeSantis explained. "That's okay, it will make (today's) game more interesting."
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