NYCFC suffered a tough defeat on the road, falling 2-1 to the Montreal Impact at Exploria Stadium in Orlando.

Keaton Parks opened the scoring for the Boys In Blue in the 29th minute before Mason Toye levelled from the penalty spot in the 43rd minute. Romell Quioto broke the deadlock with a 73rd minute strike as Montreal won consecutive games for the first time all year.

Story of the match

Just two minutes into the contest, Montreal had the first chance as Emanuel Maciel sent an overhead through pass to Quioto, who beat goalkeeper Luis Barraza at his far post, but the goal was disallowed for offsides.

After weathering the early storm from the Impact, NYCFC soon began to apply their own pressure and it resulted in the opening goal as Ismael Tajouri-Shradi sent a cutback pass to the penalty spot and Parks met it at the edge of the box to beat James Pantemis with a low shot towards the far post.

Montreal was soon level from the penalty spot after Sebastian Ibeagha took down Djordje Mihailovic inside the box and Toye made no mistake, beating Barraza to make it a 1-1 game going into halftime. 

The Impact took the lead after Mihailovic found his way to the halfway line and rolled a through ball into the path of Quioto and the Honduran beat Barraza to the ball, a simple tap-in past a scrambling Boys In Blue defense giving Montreal a 2-1 edge.

NYCFC began playing as they did when they had the early lead and substitute Gudmundur Thorarinsson sent in a cross from the left flank that found Valentin Castellanos, but he headed over the bar. Bjorn Johnsen put home his own rebound, but was ruled offsides. 

Thiago Andrade fell to his feet after Pantemis grabbed the ball from his feet. Referee Marco DeOliveira went to VAR and confirmed offsides rather than a penalty and the Impact had their first winning streak of the season.

Man of the Match: Djordje Mihailovic

He was at the heart of everything Montreal did well, notching an assist for a third consecutive game. It's performances like these that show why the Impact paid Chicago as much as they did for him.

Takeaways

Impact rounding into form

Now on a five-match unbeaten run, Wilfred Nancy will fancy his side to continue their good play on a more consistent basis. With Quioyo, Toye and Mihailovic all performing at a high level at the same time, this could be a very dangerous club going forward.

Boys In Blue let one get away

Conversely, NYCFC failed to build off of the momentum they gained after their miraculous victory over D.C. United, the better side for the majority of this match, they mostly failed to convert when they had the opportunities to do so.