Wanyama and Montreal Impact showed they can respond - Henry

Kiplagat Sang

•
Wanyama and Montreal Impact showed they can respond - Henry image

Thierry Henry praised Victor Wanyama and his Montreal Impact teammates after a 1-0 victory against D.C. United that ensured they remain in with a chance to qualify for the next phase of the MLS is Back Tournament.

Saphir Taider, who has scored three goals in the last two matches, gave Montreal Impact a win that they desperately needed in order to keep a place in the competition.

With the win, Montreal Impact finished third in the group after previous losses to New England Revolution and Toronto FC.

“Today [Tuesday], or this morning, they showed me that they can respond,” Henry said during the post-match conference.

“It wasn’t pleasant, it wasn’t pretty in the second half, but we [hung] in there, stayed tight and we got the result we needed.”

By virtue of finishing third, Wanyama and co. are in contention for one of the four third-place positions that advance to the Round of 16.

“Hopefully, we can carry on in this tournament, but if we don’t, just look at the league. It was very important for us to be back in the mix in the Eastern Conference,” Henry added.

The Frenchman remained adamant they had a good game against Toronto despite losing 4-3.

“First and foremost, it was pretty against Toronto and we lost right? Very pretty against Toronto. We bossed them, but we lost,” Henry stated.

“Today, I thought we had control of the ball for the first-half, second-half it was a bit more difficult, they wanted to come back into the game. But we won, so that’s the most important thing in the game.”

Wanyama was lucky to avoid an injury after a first-half tackle by Felipe Martins and the Brazilian was booked for the foul, but the Kenya skipper insisted he deserved a bigger punishment.

“He [Martins] was not near the ball and I think it was a dangerous tackle. I think he’s lucky to stay on the pitch. I’m lucky that I’m okay,” Wanyama said.

Senegalese goalkeeper Clement Diop spoke about the game where he made key saves to ensure Montreal Impact avoided a third straight loss.

“I made two kick saves, but the most important was the team,” Diop said.

“I’m sure Remy [Vercoutre, Impact goalkeeper coach] won’t be happy with the first one because I’m pretty sure he’d tell me to put my hands on it, but the most important is to make the save and the team scored a goal.

“We won because we scored a goal, not because I made saves. We don’t win if we don’t score.”

Wanyama has been involved in each of the group matches for Montreal Impact.

Meanwhile, the former Southampton star competed against Diop and Luis Binks for the club's man of the match award and ended up getting 48% of the votes. Diop was second with 29% while the Englishman was third with just 22%.

 

 

Kiplagat Sang