Montreal Impact rout Toronto FC, score all goals in first half

The win means Montreal will take on Columbus Crew in the semi-finals, with a decider to come against either DC United or New York Red Bulls.

Bernier, whose wife had thrashed the club (and former coach Frank Klopas) in a public post for his lack of playing time over the summer, scored the club’s first playoff goal in the 18th minute.

“It’s a little bit of shell-shock and I think that translated into performance all around the field”, he added. The superb Ignacio Piatti slipped a ball through for Canadian global Patrice Bernier and he slotted home.

“At certain times of the game we did well”, said Bernier.

We had players on our team who were trying to find the game, to fight through with the other team on their back and get back in.

“That’s a killer goal, for sure”, said Vanney. Johan Venegas limited influence on Sunday may tempt Biello to persist with a 4-3-3 that enables Piatti space to exploit from a deeper position, whilst removing his defensive duties to press Bradley and Cheyrou out of possession.

There was plenty of drama on Wednesday night as the playoffs got underway on TSN2 with the first two Knockout Round matches. This may force Nigel Reo-Coker or Marco Donadel to shift over to the flanks to protect their full-backs from being exploited against the clever Italian, as he was the catalyst behind several TFC moves on Sunday, and created Altidore’s opener. “Scoring the first goal and helping give the team a few momentum in a game like this, you can’t ask for anything more“. “It’s always tricky, because that was a league game, and the other team was upset with the result”.

In the 33rd minute, Toronto ‘keeper Chris Konopka rolled the ball out to Ahmed Kantari who tried to feed it back across goal to Josh Williams.

Toronto had waited nine years for a taste of the MLS play-offs, after two Drogba goals confined them to a 2-1 defeat to the Impact on the final day of the regular season and a third-place finish. He scored a goal and got an exceptional assist.