MONTREAL – Fafa Picault may not have celebrated his goal, but make no mistake: he was pleased with it.
Picault intercepted a backpass by Montreal right back Chris Duvall and fired home a low blast past Evan Bush in the 43rd minute to draw Philadelphia even before the half, but the Union ultimately suffered a 2-1 loss at Stade Saputo.
"It was good to get back on the scoresheet, obviously," Picault said. "I think I hadn't finished a few opportunities in the last two games so getting back definitely adds to the confidence. Of course it's not the result I wanted or any of us wanted, so we've just got to leave that behind us and look for Saturday's game."
After failing to convert a wonderful scoring opportunity just two minutes in, Picault made no mistake with his shot past Bush on the equalizer. Picault, who now has five goals on the year, was adamant on finishing after missing in the early going.
"There were a few interceptions that I had in the middle of the field," said Picault. "Another one earlier before that and I missed a goal. Maybe I had a pass to Ilsinho instead, so that one I just tried to jump on it again and make sure I finished it."
Picault brushed through Union captain Haris Medunjanin's handslap after scoring the Union's goal, but Picault said that had more to do with the circumstance and timing of the tally.
"I guess the result is what's the most frustrating," Picault said. "We had a good momentum going and I thought we would have got a second and third goal, easily, but unfortunately it went the other way."
The narrow loss dropped Philadelphia to ninth place in the Eastern Conference, one point behind Montreal, heading into their next game at Columbus (7:30 pm ET; MLS LIVE) on Saturday .
"I thought we were in the game, pushed the tempo in the second half, but overall weren't sharp enough on the ball in terms of keeping possession, and Montreal punished us in the second half," said Union head coach Jim Curtin. "We kind of were backpedaling on both goals and then gave them a little too much time and space."
