Gustavo Bou's goal lifts New England Revolution over Montreal Impact

Updated: May 17, 2023, 05:15 am

Gustavo Bou scored in the 56th minute and Matt Turner had two saves to lead the New England Revolution to a 1-0 victory over the Montreal Impact on Thursday night in the MLS is Back Tournament at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando, Fla.

Clement Diop finished with three saves for Montreal, which was outshot, 19-7 while suffering its MLS first loss under Thierry Henry.

New England (1-1-1) dominated the first half of the Group C opener with a handful of scoring opportunities while outshooting the Impact, 10-3, but still went into intermission scoreless.

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Diop had a pair of saves in the first half, including a diving fingertip deflection of a Carles Gil shot from the left side of the 6-yard box in the 19th minute that just went wide of the far post. But the biggest save of the opening half was made by Montreal defender Luis Binks on Bou's curling shot from outside the left side of the box to the middle of the goal in the 40th minute after Bou made his way past Diop at the edge of the penalty box.

Bou also missed a right-footed chip shot from the top of the box over Diop that sailed to the left of the goal.

Turner didn't have to make his first save until the 50th minute when Maxi Urruti took a pass from Samuel Piette the middle of the box and fired a point-blank right-footed shot that Turner saved with his right leg.

Bou then gave New England a 1-0 lead six minutes later when he took a nice entry pass from Gil, side-stepped defender Rod Fanni at the top of the box and then blasted a left-footed shot into the top left corner of the net for his first goal of the season.

Montreal nearly tied it in the sixth minute of stoppage time on a curling strike by midfielder Ballou Tabla from about five yards beyond the left side of the box that a diving Turner deflected past the far post.

Montreal faces rival Toronto FC in its second of three Group C matches on Wednesday night while New England takes on D.C. United on Thursday night.