With fans at James Hallford Stadium seeing other teams firsts twice this season, road wins of Virginia Beach and Pueto Rico, the Silverbacks faithful witnessed another last night, and this time for the good, as the Backs handed the previously undefeated Montreal Impact their first loss of the season, 2-1.
The Backs came out swinging early with Adilson DeLima scoring a header in the 7th minute, off a Antonio de la Torre corner kick, for a 1-0 lead.
Two minutes later, Fabian Dawkins outran the Impact defense onto a longball by David Hayes, dodged around keeper Greg Sutton, who came charging out, and put the ball in the net for a 2-0 lead, sending the 1,300 plus on hand into a frenzy eruption, despite yet another rainy night.
Then Montreal woke up and started attacking like the league leaders they are. In the 29th, Patrick LeDuc sent in a corner, which Darko Kolic flicked to the far post, where Gabriel Gervais was unmarked and put it in, cutting the score to 2-1.
Fustration clearly showed in Montreal's first half play as they went to the locker room at the intermission with 3 yellows and 13 fouls committed, but they came out the second half composed and turned up the heat on the Backs.
In what seemed to be the equalizer in the 53rd, Nevio Pizzolitto's goal was disallowed as he was called offsides.
Shortly after that, Joe Barton came up big, with a diving save certain to make a highlight film, sending Kolic's charging header over the crossbar.
In the 63rd, another offside call saved the Silverbacks as Mauro Biello put the ball in the net.
All in all, with the Silverbacks sporting the league's worst defense coming into the game, this was definitely their best performance of the season, and with their total team play, moved back into 6th place, which is the final playoff spot, while improving to 7-10-3. Montreal remains in first at 10-1-5.
The Silverbacks next home game is August 12th, against the Charleston Battery, who the Backs are fighting with for the final playoff spot. The game is also is the second leg of the Southern Derby, which Charleston holds the advantage with their 2-1 win back on May 28th.
Starting Line-ups:
MON- Sutton, Braz(Fronimadis), Gervais, Pizzolitto, Vincello(Garcia-Dominguez), Gomes-Santana, LeDuc, Mert(Fukasawa), Ribeiro(Lyssand), Biello, Kolic
ATL- Barton, de la Torre(Chevalier), DeLima, Hayes, Yi, Afful, Ilarionov(McManus), Iniguez, Murriagui(Stone), Dawkins(Mattison), Rios(Peoples)
Cautions:
MON-Vincello, Braz, Ribiero, Pizzolitto
ATL-Hayes, Iniguez, McManus
Ejections: None
