The Montreal Impact got a glimpse of what life might be like when Didier Drogba hangs up his boots.
With the Ivorian legend sidelined by suspension for Saturday night's matchup with the Houston Dynamo at Stade Saputo, Matteo Mancosu got his chance and came through by scoring a 76th minute beauty to lead the home side to a 1-0 win.
The Impact struggled for much of the night, as Houston enjoyed the better of the chances – but it was the Italian on loan from Bologna that proved the difference as he expertly brought down aMarco Donadel pass at the top of the box, and in one motion swiveled to strike the ball across his body past a diving Joe WIllis.
With the loss, the Dynamo extend their winless streak to five and are still winless at Stade Saputo all-time. With the win, Montreal stays on pace with Toronto FC and remains in third place in the Eastern Conference.
Montreal Impact (8-5-9, 33 points) vs. Houston Dynamo (4-10-8, 20 points)
MLS Regular Season
August 6, 2016 – Stade Saputo – Montreal, Quebec
Attendance: 20,801
Scoring Summary:
MON: Matteo Mancosu 2 (Marco Donadel 1) 76
Houston Dynamo: Joe Willis; Sheanon Williams, David Horst, Jalil Anibaba, Abdoulie Mansally; Collen Warner; Andrew Wenger (Mauro Manotas 74), Ricardo Clark © (Eric Alexander, 54), Cristian Maidana, Boniek GarcÃa (Rob Lovejoy 85); Will Bruin
Unused Substitutes: Calle Brown, Zach Steinberger, Christian Lucatero
TOTAL SHOTS: 10 (Will Bruin 4); SHOTS ON GOAL: 5 (Will Bruin 2); FOULS: 15 (Ricardo Clark 5); OFFSIDES: 0; CORNER KICKS: 4 (Cristian Maidana 4); SAVES: 3
Montreal Impact: Evan Bush; Hassoun Camara, Victor Cabrera, Laurent Ciman, Ambroise Oyongo; Marco Donadel (Calum Mallace 81); Harry Shipp (Michael Salazar 61), Patrice Bernier (Dominic Oduro 69), Hernán Bernardello, Ignacio Piatti ©; Matteo Mancosu
Unused Substitutes: Eric Kronberg, Donny Toia, Wandrille Lefevre, Kyle Bekker
TOTAL SHOTS: 20 (Matteo Mancosu 8); SHOTS ON GOAL: 4 (Matteo Mancosu 3); FOULS: 8 (Ignacio Piatti and Michael Salazar tied with 3); OFFSIDES: 1 (Matteo Mancosu); CORNER KICKS: 6 (Ambroise Oyongo and Hernán Bernardello tied with 2); SAVES: 5
Misconduct Summary:
HOU: David Horst (caution) 41
HOU: Sheanon Williams (caution) 61
MON: Hernán Bernardello (caution) 86
Referee: Marcos de Oliveira
Assistant Referees: Frank Anderson, Anthony Vasoli
Fourth Official: Robert Sibiga
