Draining win over Montreal still worth three points, despite frustrations

Matches like last night's are draining: We grabbed three points, but we didn't look entirely comfortable. We probably held the better of the chances, but if it weren't for a few choice moments, it could've been quite different. Again, margins, you know?

Let's talk specifics. With a midfield of Kyle Beckerman, Jonny Steele, Will Johnson and Luis Gil, we were always likely to struggle to create in the same way that a midfield of Javier Morales, Ned Grabavoy and Sebastian Velasquez would. Will Johnson's only just really coming back from injury, Jonny Steele's still adapting to our system a bit, and Luis Gil is still learning to inject himself into the match a bit.

Further, we faced a Montreal side that was difficult to break down. At times, they relied on two banks of four to handle the defending, and they were well-organized in it. This stifled things a bit, no doubt. On top of that, add in a Montreal side searching for its first MLS win, and you've got a recipe for disaster, which was thankfully averted.

The movement of our players up top wasn't bad, but Espindola and Paulo Jr. were constantly looking to run at the defense, and the lack of balance which resulted left us searching. Again, I am convinced that the two are, at this time, a bit too similar to play together on a regular, first-choice basis.

It is no coincidence that we looked brighter with Javier Morales and Ned Grabavoy on the pitch, but they both took to injury — Javi with what seemed to be a hamstring strain, Ned with a potentially broken rib or two — and that certainly didn't help things. Let's hope both of them recover soon. While we have good depth in the midfield, it's never encouraging to be thrown into a situation where that depth becomes necessary and not luxurious.

It is perhaps telling, though, that despite not looking our best, we created chance after chance after chance. Fabian Espindola had yet another chance to level the goalscoring record, but he was stymied by another quality keeper in Donovan Ricketts. Sound familiar?

This is the sort of match we played plenty of last year, but crucially, we didn't concede a goal, and we did score one. We can worry about our performance all day long, but every side has bad performances. Not every side wins during those, though, and that's a bright spot no doubt. So if you're feeling discouraged about last night — which didn't feel much like a victory and didn't feel much like a loss — keep your head up. We've had these performances before, but we didn't always come out the victors. We have, and that's an improvement in my book.

With a short turnaround against Colorado, it'll be interesting to see how the lineup develops. It may still be too soon for Will Johnson to play another 90 minutes, Jonny Steele hasn't set the world alight, and we're struggling with injury. We've got options, though, and I'm assuming we intend to use them.

Just a couple days until that now, so I'll likely talk to that on tomorrow's post, go over some tactical musings, and continue ever forward.

Just remember: A win is a win (is a win.) We're sitting atop the Western Conference, and we're second in the league (surely Sporting will hit a road bump!), and we're just getting started. Don't fret.