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July 2 - Virginia Beach vs. Montreal [R]


DJT

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The Impact's undefeated streak is over: 2-1 for Virginia Beach in ET after they tied the match in the 90th minute. The Impact are in a bit of a slump now as they are winless in 4 matches (almost 3 weeks).

From the Montreal Impact:

IMPACT LOSES 2-1 IN OT

VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia, July 2, 2004 — The Montreal Impact’s undefeated streak was stopped at 12 games, Friday, following a 2-1 overtime loss to the Mariners at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex. Carlos Garcia scored at the 9th minute of the first overtime period to send the Montreal squad to its very first loss this season. Garcia scored on a controversial play, after Hamisi Amani-Dove, who seemed to be in offside position, passed the ball back to him.

"Amani-Dove was on the goal line, so he must have been offside since everyone else was further up," said Adam Braz who, back from an elbow injury, played his first game since May 16. "But it wasn’t called."

Sandro Grande, on a penalty kick at the 52nd minute of play, drew first blood for the Impact, but Dante Washington replied at the 90th minute for the Mariners.

The Impact was one man down for the entire second half and overtime period, after defender Nevio Pizzolitto was ejected at the 43rd minute of play. Following a free kick in the Richmond offensive third of the field, he received a red card — and an automatic one-game suspension — for coming into contact, elbows up, with Kevin Knott.

"It’s very disappointing to lose a game like this," added Braz. "We battled and even though we were a man down, we gave it a maximum effort. But we came up on the short end."

"It’s difficult to swallow because we scored the goal we needed to get the win," said Impact head coach Nick DeSantis. "But we knew we would suffer after that. We defended well in spite of our fatigue, we only missed the win by a few seconds."

The Montreal squad, until now the only undefeated team in the league this season, will therefore have missed the A-League record by one game. The Rochester Rhinos played 13 straight games without a loss in 1998. DeSantis’ squad will nonetheless have established a new club record on its way to its best-ever start to a season. The old club record was seven games without a loss.

Grande’s PK was awarded after Joel Bailey made a run on the left wing and was brought down in the penalty area by Joe Morelli.

The Mariners forced overtime, however, following Washington’s 8th goal of the season. Kevin Knott’s header forced Impact goalkeeper Greg Sutton to make a diving save to his right, but Washington was right on the spot to take the rebound.

In Eastern Conference standings, the Impact (8-1-4) remains tied with the Atlanta Silverbacks (9-3-1) in second place, three points away from the first-place Rochester Rhinos (10-2-1).

The Montreal players will have a chance to return to their winning ways as early as Saturday evening, as they will be in Richmond to face the Kickers (7:00 pm).

-30-

SOURCE:

bcomm

INFO:

Stéphane Banfi

514-328-3668 (ext. 27)

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