Sanna’s Impact eliminated from Canadian Championship following 2-0 loss to Toronto FC

The Montreal Impact of Sanna Nyassi fell to Canadian rivals Toronto FC at BMO Field in Toronto, by a 2-0 score in the second leg of the semifinal series of the 2012 Amway Canadian Championship, and is subsequently eliminated from the tournament.

Toronto FC opened the scoring early off of a broken play that bounced to Reggie Lambe in the 2nd minute. His shot from inside the corner of the box deflected behind goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts to his right just inside the far post.

Then, in the 38th minute, a clearing attempt by an Impact defender deflected off of a TFC player right to Ryan Johnson, whose shot bounced around before beating Ricketts to his left. “I’d like to congratulate Aron Winter and Toronto FC, they were the better team tonight and I wish them the best moving forward,” said Impact head coach Jesse Marsch.

“As for us, we weren’t ready for that game. If you show up to a game like that, it doesn’t matter who you are, you won’t win. In the end, we just got out competed. Thankfully Donovan [Ricketts] kept us in it, but we weren’t able to score. This is a good lesson that is coming off a great win against Sporting Kansas City. Nothing is guaranteed and we have to take every opponent seriously.”

Ricketts, who was playing his 12th consecutive game over all competitions, made three key saves to keep the Impact in the game. His first came in the 28th minute, diving to his left following a left-footed half-volley by forward Ryan Johnson. The second came in the 86th minute, when he stopped Jeremy Hall from point blank range, diving to his left. The Jamaican keeper robbed Johnson again, who broke in all alone in stoppage time and fired a one-timer off of a low cross from a two on one break.

TFC played most of the game a man down, losing defender Richard Eckersley in the 16th minute when he fouled Sinisa Ubiparipovic at midfield. The Impact got a few scoring chances in the second half. In the 53rd minute, Collen Warner played a lateral ball to Davy Arnaud, whose blast from inside the box was stopped by TFC goalkeeper Milos Kocic.

Forward Sanna Nyassi beat his defender down the left flank five minutes later, and played a short cross, far post, where Bernardo Corradi’s header was scooped up by Kocic. In the 79th minute, midfielder Justin Mapp, who came on at half, fired a left-footed shot from the top of the box that hit the crossbar.

With the loss, Sanna’s Impact’s unbeaten streak ends at four games over all competition, while its shutout streak ends at 290 minutes. Including the 0-0 draw in the first leg last Wednesday in Montreal, Sanna Nyassi’s Impact is still looking for its first win against TFC in the Canadian Championship (0-6-2).

They return to Montreal to meet the LA Galaxy at Olympic Stadium. On May 19, Sanna and his Impact will play their final game at Olympic Stadium against the New York Red Bulls of Thierry Henry.

On that day, the Impact will be avenging their loss to New York on March 31. The club will play its first game at Stade Saputo, expanded to 20,341 seats, on June 16 against Amadou “Baresi” Sanyang’s former team Seattle Sounders FC.