Former Chelsea star Didier Drogba kept up his incredible scoring record as Montreal Impact cruised past Toronto FC 3-0 to advance to the conference semi-finals (overall quarter-finals) of the MLS Cup on Thursday.
Drogba bagged his 12th goal in 12 games since signing for Montreal in July after finally calling time on his career with Chelsea in the English Premier League.
The 37-year-old scored Montreal’s third with a straightforward tap-in at the far post on 39 minutes to effectively seal victory in the all-Canada clash.
It capped a superb week for Drogba, who on Wednesday was named the MLS Player of the Month for a second straight month in recognition of his goalscoring form for Impact, whose fortunes have been transformed since his arrival.
Montreal had been battling for a play-off berth when Drogba arrived but made it into the post-season thanks to the Ivorian’s goals.
He had scored twice in for the Impact against Toronto on Sunday, ensuring Montreal finished as third seed in the Eastern Conference.
On Thursday Montreal wasted no time in asserting their superiority over Toronto once more, taking the lead on 18 minutes after a superbly worked counter-attack.
Ignacio Piatti burst clear from deep before releasing Patrice Bernier, who timed his run to perfection to go through on goal.
The veteran Canada international picked his spot before calmly finishing beneath advancing Toronto goalkeeper Chris Konopka.
Piatti doubled the Montreal lead on 33 minutes, gathering the ball on the edge of the area, holding off his marker and firing a low shot into the bottom right-hand corner of the goal.
Victory was all but assured six minutes before half-time when Drogba scored, sweeping home at the back post after Bernier crossed from the right flank.
Steven Gerrard meanwhile called for the Los Angeles Galaxy to toughen up their defence after his debut season in Major League Soccer was brought to an abrupt end with a 3-2 defeat to the Seattle Sounders.
The star-studded defending champions – whose $19.5 million (Dh71.6m) payroll is the second highest in MLS history – were bundled out of the play-offs on Wednesday after an error-strewn performance at CenturyLink Field.
Former Liverpool and England captain Gerrard said the Galaxy's season had come unstuck through a tendency to give away cheap goals to the opposition, placing too high a burden on the team's potent attack.
“For us it just seems like we’ve got to score three or four goals to get over the line to win games, and that’s what we’ve got to analyse over the winter,” said Gerrard, a high-profile signing for the Galaxy in July.
“I know (coach) Bruce (Arena) quite well now having got used to him and I’m sure that’s where he’ll be analysing.
“We’ve got to stop this team conceding goals because we know we’re capable of scoring anywhere in the league.
“I’ve been in this game long enough to know that if you’re going to be successful you can’t keep conceding goals.”
All three of Seattle’s goals on Wednesday came from defensive blunders by the Galaxy, leaving Arena seething with anger after the match.
“Our play in front of our goal defensively was atrocious,” the former United States coach said.
“We just giftwrapped those three goals. Give them credit – they jumped on the mistakes, but we were shockingly poor.
“If you’re going to give away goals like that, you don’t deserve to win, that’s for sure.”
In the other two MLS first round contests, DC United advanced past New England Revolution 2-1 and the Portland Timbers edged Sporting Kansas City 7-6 on penalties after a 2-2 draw.
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