It was a victory for pragmatic football, over a team that came to play, and couldn't finish. Montreal will be over-joyed at the outcome of this one. Not so, Conference leaders Columbus, who will feel their endeavours deserved more.
Had this been a boxing match, by half-time we’d have been saying, the Impact need to land a big KO punch to win, so far ahead ‘on points’ were the visitors. But that ‘big KO punch’ did arrive, on 55 mins, a 20-yarder from Harry Novillo, which he could not have struck any sweeter. The ball was in the net before Steffen could react, but no fault of the goalkeeper, whose dive was in vain.