Puerto Rico Islanders News Release – www.prislandersfc.com
Sunday, October 4, 2009
BAYAMON, PR — The Puerto Rico Islanders’ season came to an end on Sunday night when they were defeated by the Montreal Impact 2-1 in the second game of the semifinal series of USL-1, falling 4-2 on aggregate.
Montreal started the scoring early in the game when Peter Byers scored at the three minute mark to give Montreal a 1-0 lead and a 3-1 lead in the semifinals series between these two clubs.
Even though the Islanders were trailing, their game plan did not change. The Islanders stayed with their aggressive attacking style during most of the first half.
Puerto Rico had several chances to tie the game in the first half, but Montreal would not let them.
During the first 10 minutes of the second half, the Islanders kept putting a lot of pressure on goalie Matt Jordan and the Impact defense, but the entire Montreal defense was very effective, negating the Islanders chances.
The Impact were able all game long to neutralize any strategies the Islanders were throwing at them with counter attacks and good ball control. It did not faze the Impact to play in Puerto Rico, where the host team had only lost once all year.
At the 75th minute mark, it was evident that the Islanders season was in jeopardy. The Impact was playing with poise and was giving the Islanders offense a lot of problems to generate anything.
Things got very interesting at the 86 minute mark, when Joshua Hansen converted on a penalty kick to tie the game at 1-1 and cut the series lead to 3-2.
The Islanders had several more chances late in the game but could not convert.
Goalkeeper Bill Gaudette played another excellent game, but it was not enough for the Islanders to advance to the finals for the second straight year.
The Impact defeated the Islanders for the second straight game 2-1 giving Montreal a trip to the finals of the USL-1.
Although Puerto Rico’s USL-1 season has come to a close, the 2009 campaign still features one remaining match as they are set to host the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer October 20 in their final CONCACAF Champions League group match.
