MLS Season Preview: Montreal Impact
With the MLS season set to begin on Friday, theScore runs down everything you need to know about each team heading into the league's 20th campaign. Here, we take a look at the Montreal Impact.
Heading into their fourth season in MLS, the powers that be know the Montreal Impact are in desperate need of a good campaign - or at least one that gives the club's supporters legitimate hope heading into the future.
"The buzz is not there anymore," owner Tony Saputo said in February. "Not only for the CONCACAF game [against Pachuca], I can say the buzz for the Impact is not there. That worries me a lot."
Finishing dead last, as Montreal did last season, can have the effect.
Maybe the exhilarating finish to their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal tie against the aforementioned Mexican side helped to remedy that somewhat. It should have.
Welcome to Montreal, Cameron Porter. Hopefully for the 21-year-old, his teammates and the fans, it isn't all downhill from here.
2014 season: 10th in Eastern Conference
| Record | GF | GA |
|---|---|---|
| 6-18-10 (28 points) | 38 | 58 |
Playoffs: Did not qualify
Head Coach: Frank Klopas
Stadium: Saputo Stadium
Season Opener: Saturday, March 7: D.C. United vs. Montreal Impact (RFK Stadium) - 3 PM EST
Key Arrivals
Laurent Ciman (Standard Liege), Marco Donadel (free transfer), Nigel Reo-Coker (waiver draft), Bakary Soumare (re-entry draft), Dominic Oduro (Toronto FC)
Key Departures
Marco Di Vaio (retirement), Matteo Ferrari (free agent), Troy Perkins (Seattle Sounders), Felipe (New York Red Bulls)
Player to Watch: Ignacio Piatti
The Argentine playmaker hit the ground running after arriving at the club from San Lorenzo last August, scoring four goals and adding an assist in just six matches to close out the campaign.
With all-time leading goal scorer Marco Di Vaio hanging up his boots and no proven replacement brought in to help offset the loss of the Italian, much of the attacking burden will fall on Piatti, the club's only Designated Player.
If the 30-year-old, who just celebrated his birthday last month, is unable to shoulder the weight of being the team's main source of guile and creativity up front, it's going to be another difficult year for Montreal.
Keep an eye on: Laurent Ciman
Projected Starting XI
(4-2-3-1) Evan Bush; Donny Toia, Laurent Ciman, Bakare Soumare, Hassoun Camara; Nigel Reo-Coker, Marco Donadel; Justin Mapp, Ignacio Piatti, Andres Romero; Jack McInerny
Season in a Sentence
After a modest offseason in which the team failed to address the massive hole left in attack by the retirement of Di Vaio, it's difficult to envision a scenario in which Frank Klopas gets this excited during the MLS season:
(Courtesy: Yahoo)