The Montreal Impact knew that their trip to Kansas City was going to be tough on Saturday.
They were facing a Sporting Kansas City team that finished first in the Western Conference last season and are the lone MLS team left in this year's Concacaf Champions League. Adding to the Impact's struggles was the absence of star winger Ignacio Piatti due to a knee injury.
But goalkeeper Evan Bush and the rest of his team certainly didn't think it would get as ugly as it did at Children's Mercy Park. Sporting blitzed the Impact to the tune of a 7-1 win, with the home team racing out to a 7-0 lead before a late consolation goal from Saphir Taider made the scoreline less lopsided. Bush didn't mince words talking to reporters after the match.
"Usually you would think the locker room would be bad after a game like that and certainly we weren't happy, but it was such a bad beating that we're kind of in shock right now," said Bush. "We had 40 minutes to digest a defeat that bad. That [was] disgusting to be part of. Nothing we did today was good — technically, tactically, decision-making, mentality, effort — nothing was good."
Remi Garde's team weren't just without Piatti, but also did not have starting center back Zakaria Diallo after the Frenchman was shown a red card in the dying moments of the Impact's 3-1 win at Orlando City SC two weeks ago. Another missing player was Harry Novillo, who in a bizarre turn of events, was left home after he lost his passport.
None of these are excuses for a team that had started the season with two road wins in three games. They have two more games away from home before their home opener on April 13 against Columbus Crew SC.
"It's embarrassing. Seven [goals] is very embarrassing. I think it would have been much better for us if we were able to compete for 90 minutes because I don't think that guys weren't trying -- I'm not saying that. I just don't think that our level of confidence and our competitive level was at the level it needed to be and because of that we were overwhelmed all over the field."
Montreal will try and rectify their issues with a trip to face New York City FC next Saturday (1 pm ET | TVAS in Canada, MLS LIVE on ESPN+ in US).
