With a goal from Gustavo Bou, the New England Revolution defeated the Montreal Impact 1-0 on Thursday in a match of the MLS restart tournament, which started with a protest in which French coach Thierry Henry knelt in memory of George Floyd.

The Argentine Bou, former player of River Plate and Racing, decided the first match between both teams in Group C of the special 'MLS is Back' tournament with a spectacular shot from outside the box in the 56th minute at the Disney World sports complex (Orlando), without spectators.

As it happened in the first two matches of this tournament, with which the Major League Soccer (MLS) resumed its activities after the coronavirus break, the match began with a demonstration of solidarity from the teams with the anti-racist movement 'Black Lives Matter'.

When they stepped onto the field, the players knelt on the grass and raised their fists in the air, just like the members of the benches did.

Once the game started, Henry, wearing a black shirt with the slogan 'Black Lives Matter', continued with the protest by kneeling for eight minutes and 46 seconds, a symbolic figure of the demonstrations for the murder of the Afro-American George Floyd by a white police officer in May.

Eight minutes and 46 seconds is the time the Minneapolis agent brutally immobilized Floyd on the ground with a knee on his neck until he lost consciousness and died shortly afterwards on May 25th.

Henry, who took charge of the Montreal Impact this season, couldn't achieve victory in his team's debut in the tournament, which has a format similar to the World Cup and its group stage matches will count towards the MLS regular season classification.

After wasting two clear opportunities in the first half, Bou scored the winning goal by receiving a pass from the right by Spanish player Carles Gil, cutting past the defender to set up the ball on his left foot and shoot past the goalkeeper.

Henry's players were unable to recover from the blow and barely threatened the opposing goal. Their Argentine striker Maximiliano Urruti had one of the few chances in a play in which he was assisted while running into the box, but his shot hit the goalkeeper's body.

With this result, New England provisionally leads Group C, whose first matchday will be completed with the Sunday match between Toronto FC and DC United.

On Thursday, the MLS reconfigured the tournament's groups after the withdrawal of a second team, Nashville SC, due to the coronavirus contagion of nine players. Last Monday, FC Dallas withdrew from the competition after 10 of its players tested positive for COVID-19.

Line-ups:

Montreal Impact: Clément Diop - Samuel Piette (Lassi Lappalainen, 84), Rudy Camacho, Rod Fanni, Luis Binks, Jukka Raitala - Orji Okwonkwo (Zachary Brault-Guillard), Victor Wanyama, Saphir Taïder - Bojan Krkic (Romell Quioto, 57) and Maximiliano Urruti (Ballou Tabla, 75). DT: Thierry Henry.

Yellow cards: Binks (72)

New England Revolution: Matt Turner - Brandon Bye, Michael Mancienne (Henry Kessler, 67), Antonio Mlinar Delamea, Alexander Büttner (DeJuan Jones, 82) - Scott Caldwell, Kelyn Rowe - Carles Gil, Gustavo Bou, Cristian Penilla (Tajon Buchanan, 86) - Adam Buksa (Teal Bunbury, 86). DT: Bruce Arena.

Yellow cards: Mancienne (61)

Goals: Bou (56). AFP