Ignacio Piatti won his first MLS Player of the Week award of the season on Tuesday, when it was announced that the Montreal midfielder was awarded the Week 10 honor by the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR) for his performance in the Impact’s comeback 4-4 draw at Columbus Crew SC.
Piatti scored a pair of goals and drew a penalty for a third to help Montreal overcome a 4-1 second-half deficit to draw Crew SC on Saturday.
The Argentine playmaker got things going in the 26th minute, scoring a beautiful goal to pull the Impact level after Kei Kamara gave Columbus the lead in the 16th. He collected a Didier Drogba pass in the left side of the area, spun toward the middle of the box and slammed a curling right-footer inside the far post to knot the game at 1-1 (watch goal).
For all of its beauty, it didn’t look like that strike would mean all that much early in the second half, as Crew SC took a 4-1 lead in the 53rd minute after Federico Higuain buried a penalty. But Montreal mounted a furious comeback, scoring three times in the final 37 minutes to earn a valuable road result.
Piatti led the charge, earning a penalty that Drogba converted in the 57th minute before scoring again to make it 4-3 in the 58th.
Montreal’s Harry Shipp started the play that led to the PK, picking out Piatti on the left side with a diagonal through ball. Piatti ran onto the ball just outside the area, holding things up in the box before being tripped up by Ethan Finlay. Drogba buried the ensuing spot kick, sending Columbus goalkeeper Steve Clark the wrong way to make it 4-2.
Piatti made it 4-3 just a minute later, collecting a Dominic Oduro cutback at the penalty spot and taking an intelligent touch past a sliding Crew SC defender before slotting his shot inside the left post (watch goal). That strike set the stage for the Impact’s dramatic equalizer, which was scored by Oduro deep into second-half stoppage time.
Montreal and Piatti will return to action on Saturday, when they’ll host the Philadelphia Union at Stade Saputo (5 pm ET; TSN4 and RDS in Canada, MLS LIVE in the US).
The MLS Player of the Week is selected each week of the regular season by a panel of journalists from NASR. The group consists of members of print, television, radio and online media.
