Montreal Impact beat the New England Revolution 1-0: Sanna Nyassi taking care of business

Jean Leloup 's ''Johnny Go'' exemplifies what this game meant in the context of a difficult playoff race for the Montreal Impact. It's famous lyric '' Take the money and go Johnny go'' can be translated into `` Take the 3pts and go Jesse go`` .

It was not the sexiest win for the Montreal Impact but a win is a win and getting 3 points at all cost is the only thing that matters. Getting their second win on the road, the Impact also added another notch to its own history books: 3 consecutive MLS wins.

It was a game of shaky passes and missed chances, especially for the host team. The Revolution had enough chances in the first half to score first and make the Impact open up. Two shots on the post from Chris Tierney and Saer Sane could have gone in but Troy Perkins will not mind. The midfield battle was present as usual but both teams had trouble getting clean passes and a decent flow. Although Lee Nguyen found space (mostly given away by the Impact midfield) and was dangerous a few times to find his teammates.

Taking care of business against the ''patriotic'' teams of MLS (The Union and the Revolution), Montreal consolidates 6th spot, 3 points behind DC United who have 4 games in hand.

Highlights, Quotes, Stats and More after the jump

The Montreal Impact defense stepped in as not to give too much space to the Revolution forwards but the usual scary moments in set-piece defending came back with a few scrambles in the box. Dennis Iapichino saw his solid game be shadowed by 2 flagrant handballs including one inside the box that should have been called for a PK for the Revolution. The Impact were lucky there and will enjoy any decisions going their way.

Troy Perkins made his defense feel more confortable with a few key saves and earning his first shutout/clean sheet with his new team: 5 saves for the new #1 goalkeeper. In front of him, Hassoun Camara and Matteo Ferrari combined for 27 clearances and 3 blocked shots with Jeb Brovsky continuing to become the most constant and reliable player for the Impact this season.

Then Sanna Nyassi happened. Coming in for Justin Mapp at half-time, the Gambian international displayed the qualities that MLS teams have seen in him in the past. Taking the ball away from Benny Feilhaber from outside the Impact box, Nyassi basically runs 70+ meters, nutmegs A.J. Soares and delivers a canon shot past Matt Reis: wow and wow.

Stats

Scoring Summary:

MTL - Sanna Nyassi (unassisted) 61

New England Revolution: Matt Reis, Chris Tierney, Stephen McCarthy, A.J. Soares, Kevin Alston, Lee Nguyen, Clyde Simms (Diego Fagundez 80), Benny Feilhaber (Kelyn Rowe 66), Ryan Guy, Saer Sene, Jerry Bengtson (Fernando Cardenas 62)

Substitutes Not Used: Tim Murray, Darrius Barnes, Dimitry Imbongo, Florian Lechner

Montreal Impact: Troy Perkins, Hassoun Camara, Dennis Iapichino, Matteo Ferrari, Jeb Brovsky, Patrice Bernier, Collen Warner, Justin Mapp (Sanna Nyassi 46), Felipe Martins, Davy Arnaud © (Lamar Neagle 86), Marco Di Vaio (Andrew Wenger 76)

Substitutes Not Used: Evan Bush, Karl Ouimette, Shavar Thomas, Sinisa Ubiparipvic

Attendance: 12,857 (Gillette Stadium)

Highlights

Montreal Quotes of the game

Montreal Impact head coach, Jesse Marsch

About the team effort

I think it was a workman-like performance. The guys dug in, they stayed disciplined, they bend a little bit but they don't break. Maybe we get a little bit fortunate with a couple of calls, but in the end, I think that we made our breaks this game and dug in and stuck together.

Praising Sanna Nyassi's work

I think Sanna's (Nyassi) in a confident place for sure. He understands we have a lot of confidence in him even though we've been using him from the bench. When he comes into the game he provides a real spark to the game and he's a threat, a real threat. We're pleased with where we are as a team. We're not too high right now. We're going to keep going and keep working and keep pushing this thing and see where it ends up.

Looking ahead of the game vs the San Jose EarthQuakes

I think that'll be an amazing test for our group to play against a team like that (San Jose). That's a team that never quits. They compete like hell all over the field and they make it hard on whoever they play against, so it's going be a really big challenge and I think we're excited for it.

Assessing Troy Perkins' work

I think what you saw is, again a goalie that is very sure in how he makes his plays. I don't think we need to talk about anything else right now but Troy (Perkins). We're happy to have him here. We think he makes us a better team. I think he makes a really big save on the header and bails us out. And for the most part he was very sharp on the night.

Maybe, but more than anything its continuing to move along. And if you have a confident goalie behind you and if you have confidence in him, then I think that gives our center backs, specifically, a lot of confidence that they can be aggressive to make plays.

Talking ahout the standings in the East

I think we're three (points behind) because Chicago won. Chicago goes to 38 (points) and D.C. (United) is at 36 (points). You know the table is so hard to interpret with the games in hand, which is almost good for us, because we can just focus on one game at a time and we don't have to look and worry and everything else. It's just one game at a time, and we keep moving ourselves along and we'll see where it all ends up.

Montreal Impact midfielder Hassoun Camara

About the game in general and overall defensive performance

We were very happy about our game. It was a difficult step to come to this field. We had to be ready physically and mentally to fight against this team, because they have very good players. We are very happy to go from here with the three points.

We knew Jerry (Bengtson) is a very good forward, so Matteo (Ferrari) and I had to be ready for him. We knew he would give us some problems, but we think the whole team did a good job. We had to be smart collectively, and this is what we did.

We played very well, because we played together and we want to fight for each other. We did a good job about that, and I'm happy. We have to do the same thing in our next game against San Jose.

About Nyassi's goal and performance

It was incredible. Sanna (Nyassi) is a very, very good player, and he is very important for us. When he goes on the field, he doesn't think. He goes on to help us, and this is what he did. It was one of the best goals of the year, and I hope he has goal of the week, because he deserves it.

Praising the group

We didn't need this to be confident. We know that we have good players. We have a very good group, we have to be smart, and we know where we want to go. I think that we can do well. It is the first year. Some people say we're an expansion team, but we know where we are and where we want to go. We'll keep going.

Montreal Impact forward Sanna Nyassi

I think it was about good defending, we made some good saves, and then we tried to counter. I picked the guy's pocket, ran through the defense, beat the guy and took a shot.

It's all about whenever you have a good game, you keep it going. Be consistent with your performance, and then I think that gave me a lot of confidence. I want to keep that going.

It's about teamwork. My teammates help me a lot. They make sure they communicate with me. It's about being in good spots when I have the ball so I can a lot of options. That's really helping me too.