Montreal Impact, NYCFC play to scoreless draw at Yankee Stadium

Updated: May 17, 2023, 05:24 am

Evan Bush made four saves and the visiting Montreal Impact clamped down defensively to earn a 0-0 tie over struggling New York City FC on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

With chunks of turf coming up on the pitch, Bush recorded his first shutout of this season and 34th of his career and helped Montreal improve to 2-2-1 on its season-opening road trip. Bush also rebounded from allowing seven goals in last week's 7-1 loss at Sporting Kansas City, the worst loss in team history as the Impact played their first 0-0 game since June 18, 2016, against the Columbus Crew.

Montreal picked up the point in a game when they were short-handed for the final 25 minutes after Maximiliano Urruti picked up a red card and was ejected for fouling Maxime Chanot in the box.

Chanot appeared to injure his left knee on the play, but after remaining down he stayed in the game.

Despite playing with the extra man for the rest of the match, NYCFC (0-1-4) did not muster another shot on goal and it settled for its second scoreless draw of the season and heard some boos from fans at the final whistle.

NYCFC remained one of two winless teams in the Eastern Conference in a game when only four of its 13 shots were on target and they controlled possession for nearly 66 percent of the match.

Before playing with the man advantage, NYCFC nearly scored in the 64th minute but a goal by Ismael Tajouri-Shradi was nullified because of an offsides call.

Despite holding possession for nearly 70 percent of the first half, NYCFC was unable to score on its seven shots. In the opening minutes, Alexandru Mitrita went wide to the left on a free kick and was stopped on a breakaway.

Bush made a save on a header by Valentin Castellanos in the 11th minute. Later, Sebastien Ibeagha's header went just wide right in the 43rd minute.

Montreal mustered two shots and did not put a shot on target until goalkeeper Sean Johnson stopped Saphir Taider's header from about six yards out in the final minute.

Taider's header was the lone shot on target for Johnson.