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The Great White North

 Posted by on April 26, 2013 at 9:55 pm  Chicago Fire, MLS, Montreal Impact
Apr 262013
 

The Chicago Fire (2-4-1) take on the Montreal Impact (4-1-1) tomorrow at Stade Saputo in Montreal.  Both teams are coming off home games to Columbus.

Chicago are headed, for the first time this year to the Great White North to take on Montreal and are looking for a second win in a row.  The question is now if Chicago can play consistently moving forward in the season.  Assistant Coach Mike Matkovich brings this point to light, “Now the key is moving to Montreal, the consistency, can we put it together game in and game out and can you play like that on the road?”

The struggles finding consistency at the back are likely to make a reappearance with Wells Thompson, who in my opinion has done well at the right back position, will be serving his suspension for his tackle in last week’s game against the Columbus Crew.

With Arne Fredrich still out, the question arises, who will be playing at right back for the Men in Red?  There seem to be two logical possibilities in Logan Pause and Mike Videira.  Taking Pause out of the midfield however may be a tactical mistake that Chicago would be best to avoid as he has been a strong point in the Chicago midfield in the last two games.  If it’s up to me, Videira gets the start especially after he looked good in the position in Kansas City.

Montreal are sitting third in the Eastern conference with two games in hand to Sporting KC and one game in hand to the Houston Dynamo, the two teams above them.  When asked about coming off of the home win to Columbus Coach Matkovich was already looking forward, “Montreal is off to a great start so you have to give them some credit where they’re at right now.  We went out there last year and got a point out of it… it’s going to be a difficult game they have some good players, they are very dynamic… Hopefully we can get up there and get some points out of it that will be the key at the end of the day.”

Chicago are hoping for a point, Montreal look to continue their dominance in the conference.  It will be a tight game, and I predict a 1-1 score line.  See if I’m right and catch the match on NBC Sports.

Sporting Dominates MLS Table Toppers

 Posted by on March 31, 2013 at 11:06 am  MLS, Montreal Impact, Sporting KC, United States
Mar 312013
 

Coming in Sporting had yet to have a complete game. That all changed as Claudio Bieler and Graham Zusi found the back of the net in a dominating from beginning to in.

Bieler showed early on that his salary is worth it as he accepted an excellent pass from Benny Feilhaber and put it away to the extreme delight of all those fans present at a sold-out Sporting Park.

From that moment on it was obvious who was the better side as constantly Sporting controlled possession of the ball, attacked when able, and when dispossessed of the ball they immediately went after it not giving Montreal a moment to be able to breath.

It wasn’t until 10 minutes remained that the second goal would be scored by Zusi who had the knowledge and steadfastness to stay on his feet amongst the contact to put the ball in the net.

It was immediately after the Impact Marco Schallibaum was ejected, completely confirming the failure of Montreal in their Kansas City visit.

For both sides it is a welcome site that more home fixtures are to follow and now it would seem that both sides would be glad of it. Sporting KC to keep their form, Montreal to be in friendly confines that will allow for an easier route in their good early season form.

Montreal Impact vs Toronto FC – 03162013

 Posted by on March 16, 2013 at 7:21 am  Canada, MLS, Montreal Impact, Toronto FC
Mar 162013
 

Venue: Olympic Stadium, Montreal, ON, Canada

When: Saturday March 16th, 2013 4:00 PM Eastern

TV Coverage: TSN

Competition: League Match (MLS)

Comments: Twitter Stream

Game Day Travel: Red Patch Boys

 

Predictions:

Although there will be some players that I can see starting this game to give other guys a break a lot of them are coming off injury and may be used as subs.  Also, we seem to be getting a settled back four and starting XI so there is a lot to be said for consistency.  This will be a very important game for us, for the longest time we have had Montreal’s number in CL qualification and the local Canadian championship but now they are quite a gifted team with tons of talent as well as coming off an away win.  If we can get something out of this game it would be huge for us.  However, I’m going to say that this will be a draw.

 

Injuries:

(Last update: Mar. 14)

 

Toronto FC:

  • Danny Koevermans (L ACL repair)
  • D. Henry (R Hamstring strain)
  • Luis Silva (R Hamstring strain) **Questionable**
  • Julio Cesar (L Calf strain)
  • T. Morgan (R ankle sprain)
  • Matt Stinson (L Hamstring strain) **Questionable**
  • Justin Braun (Concussion)

Montreal Impact:

  • Nelson Rivas (L knee surgery)
  • Sinisa Ubiparipovic (R calf strain)

 

Predicted Starting XI:

abEqZaman4 Montreal Impact vs Toronto FC 03162013

 

Sources:

 

Post:

 

Pre:

MLS Weekend Wrap-Up: “It’s the San Jose Earthquakes Supporter’s Shield To Lose” Edition

 Posted by on September 3, 2012 at 2:29 am  Chicago Fire, Chivas USA, Colorado Rapids, Columbus Crew, DC United, FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo, Los Angeles Galaxy, MLS, Montreal Impact, New England Revolution, New York Red Bulls, Philadelphia Union, Portland Timbers, Real Salt Lake, San Jose Earthquakes, Sporting KC, Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps
Sep 032012
 

Portland vs. Colorado

The Portland Timbers won back-to-back matches for the first time this season and finally escaped the Western Conference basement in a 1-0 victory over the Colorado Rapids. Read more about this match on the GFT Portland Timbers blog.

New England vs. Philadelphia

It was the second 0-0 draw in a row for the Union, who had more opportunities against the Revolution but couldn’t convert. The Union had the two best chances of the match when Amobi Okugo’s header hit the crossbar, and Andre Hoppenot’s breakaway opportunity was parried away by New England’s Matt Reis. With Saer Sene out for the rest of the season, Jay Heaps will have his work cut out for him trying to find someone on the Revolution to score goals.

Columbus Crew vs. Montreal Impact

The Columbus Crew won the battle between two of MLS’ hottest teams thanks to a late goal from Edgar Renteria to defeat the Montreal Impact 2-1. Here’s the recap from our Columbus Crew blogger.

Sporting KC vs. Toronto

It wasn’t the prettiest match, but Sporting KC came through with two second half goals from Paulo Nagamura and Oriol Rossell to defeat Toronto FC 2-1. Here’s more thoughts on this match from our Sporting KC blogger.

Real Salt Lake vs. DC United

There was a lightning start to this match in Sandy, Utah and I mean literally as two lightning strikes in the fourth minute of play led to a weather delay of 1 hour and 24 minutes. Real Salt Lake’s Will Johnson got the lone goal of the match early in the second half when Paulo Jr.’s cross was deflected and Johnson split two defenders and put the ball away past keeper Bill Hamid. Kwame Watson-Siriboe had a goal in the 61st minute but it was waved off when Watson-Siriboe was called for handling. Things got chippy between both sides in the second half and four yellow cards were handed out in the last twenty minutes. The win kept Real Salt Lake in 2nd position in the Western Conference with 46 points. The loss pushed DC United into 6th place in the Eastern Conference with 41 points. They trail the Columbus Crew by 1 point for the 5th and final playoff spot.

Los Angeles vs. Vancouver

Los Angeles got a spectacular goal from Juninho and yet another direct free kick goal from David Beckham to deal the Vancouver Whitecaps its 4th straight defeat. Here’s the full recap from our Los Angeles Galaxy blogger.

Chicago vs. Houston

The Chicago Fire used a first-minute goal from Patrick Nyarko to jumpstart themselves to a 3-1 victory over the Houston Dynamo. The Dynamo were playing their 2nd match in 3 days and it showed. The Fire meanwhile were well rested after coming off a 10 day break. Daniel Paladini and Alex rounded out the scoring for the Fire while Brian Ching got the lone goal for the Dynamo. The victory lifted the Fire into 3rd place (44 points) in the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of the Dynamo. The Dynamo, on the other hand, are struggling at the wrong time and are now winless in their last six matches.

FC Dallas vs. Seattle

Steve Zakuani made his first MLS start since breaking his leg 500 days ago and got an assist to help the Seattle Sounders remain undefeated at FC Dallas with a 1-1 draw. Zakuani blew past FC Dallas fullback Zach Loyd and sent a cross to the back post which connected with Mauro Rosales for the match’s opening goal. FC Dallas equalized in the 32nd minute when Loyd redeemed himself with a cross in front of goal which Blas Perez controlled and sent to Jackson who knocked it in the back of the net. The draw wasn’t good enough for a FC Dallas club (33 points) trying to gain ground on the struggling Vancouver Whitecaps (37 points) for the 5th Western Conference playoff spot. The draw also kept Seattle in the 3rd playoff spot with 44 points, trailing only Real Salt Lake (46 points) and the San Jose Earthquakes (53 points).

San Jose vs. Chivas USA

The San Jose Earthquakes continued their stellar play at Buck Shaw Stadium scoring 3 of their 4 goals on direct free kicks to crush Chivas USA 4-0. Victor Bernardez’s free kick got things started for the Earthquakes and Simon Dawkins added a goal in the run of play to give his team a 2-0 lead going into the half. Chivas USA were in decent attacking form throughout the match but just couldn’t make good when it counted. The Earthquakes Ramiro Corrales capped off his team’s rout with two free kick goals in the 2nd half. The victory puts San Jose in sole possession of first place in the race for the Supporter’s Shield. The loss continued a trend of bad form for Chivas USA, who have given up 18 goals over the last 5 matches.

UPCOMING MLS ACTION: 

MLSScheduleSept1 MLS Weekend Wrap Up: Its the San Jose Earthquakes Supporters Shield To Lose Edition

MLSScheduleSept2 MLS Weekend Wrap Up: Its the San Jose Earthquakes Supporters Shield To Lose Edition

 

 

 

Montreal keeping the playoff dreams alive

 Posted by on August 28, 2012 at 10:50 pm  MLS, Montreal Impact
Aug 282012
 

Don’t underestimate your enemy. I hope is something Ben Olsen learned last Saturday.

He decided to rest important players like De Rosario, Pontius and Boskovic that night because, I guess, substitutes are enough to beat an expansion team.

Well, obviously things didn’t turn up as expected.

Bernier GoalCelebration vsDC Montreal keeping the playoff dreams alive

Bernier and Warner. Courtesy of impactmontreal.com

Impact played another strong game at home. Montreal controlled the midfield while defenders were sharp all 90 min.

Again the Warner-Bernier duo was close to perfect, this allowed to have more presence in the midfield and create more chances overall.

We didn’t start the game well. Sometimes we seemed to be more concerned about not losing the game keeping a harmless, low paced possession. This reminded me when we played against TFC in the Canadian Championship -bad memories-. Later on, around minute 22, Bernier made a great accurate pass in the box to Di Vaio and goal!

Great classy finishing by the Italian and yes, first shot of the game first goal. Deserved? Hard to tell because DC United didn’t do much before that either.

Montreal, again in the situation of do or die, didn’t risk much in the attack focusing a lot on having a flawless defense and tying to preserve the lead at all cost. This style has benefited Montreal lately because our all-around midfielders can pretty much attack and defend at any time -thanks Jesse- and all of the sudden in the second half Collen Warner had a clear run for the ball in the box, after another top class pass from Bernier, but received a clear contact from the central defender getting the penalty shot called from the referee. This was probably a non-existent call in Serie A, but MLS has been consistent on this particular type of play and Hassun Camara or Matteo Ferrari know something about it.

The rest of the game was an open 2-0 typical scenario where Montreal counter attacked a low paced DC United in several occasions and after three or four attempts the third goal arrived. Patrice Bernier, who outclassed the opponents all game, made a 70 meters run to kill Hamid with a shot to the near post. Thanks Patrice!, thanks.

These are some enjoyable times in Montreal, specially while the playoffs hopes are alive.

Now, the next opponent is the red hot Columbus Crew and Federico Higuain. I’ve been saying this before the game with San Jose and here I go again. If we win this match we have a great chance to make the playoffs.

Here are the highlights from the game:

MLS Weekend Wrap-Up: “The Sounders put MLS on Notice” Edition

 Posted by on August 27, 2012 at 12:00 pm  Chicago Fire, Chivas USA, Colorado Rapids, Columbus Crew, DC United, FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo, Los Angeles Galaxy, MLS, Montreal Impact, New England Revolution, New York Red Bulls, Philadelphia Union, Portland Timbers, Real Salt Lake, San Jose Earthquakes, Seattle Sounders, Sporting KC, Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps
Aug 272012
 

Philadelphia v Real Salt Lake 

Poor NBC Sports. This match was a stinker. Real Salt Lake was pretty tired from playing in the CONCACF Champions League earlier in the week and the Philadelphia Union are never a guarantee to play any form of attractive soccer. The match ended in a 0-0 draw. Man of the Match went to the MLS video crew who somehow were able to fill up a highlight video over 4 minutes long.

Montreal v DC United

The Montreal Impact continue to be one of the hottest teams in MLS right now after registering their 5th win in a row, defeating DC United 3-0. Troy Perkins registered his second shutout in his third game with the team and Marco Di Vaio gave the Impact the lead for good in the 24th minute, getting his 3rd goal of the season. Patrice Bernier continued his fantastic season scoring two second half goals to seal the victory. DC United coach Ben Olson received a bit of criticism after the match after deciding to sub out star players, Dwayne DeRosario and Chris Pontius in the first half. The Impact are now only 1 point out of the 5th Eastern Conference playoff spot.

Columbus v New England

This was an absolute goalfest with Columbus defeating New England 4-3. Read the entire match recap from GFT Columbus Crew blogger, Adam Uthe.

Houston v Toronto FC

Houston Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear could not have been happy on Saturday night after seeing his team dominate a good portion of the match only to allow Toronto FC to equalize in the 85th minute. The Dynamo took the lead in the 21st minute when Will Bruin chipped the ball over a charging Freddy Hall. After a stellar first half, the Dynamo couldn’t maintain the same level of energy. Toronto finally took advantage of  some sluggish play from the Houston backline after Terry Dunfield made a run through box and connected with a Darren O’Dea cross to steal a point for his team.

San Jose v Colorado

The Earthquakes got two goals each from Simon Dawkins and Alan Gordon to demolish the Colorado Rapids 4-1 and extend their home winning streak to 14 games. Gordon continued his stellar play which resulted in a call up to the United States National Team earlier this month. He now has a career-high 11 goals. San Jose remains the top team in MLS with a 15-6-5 (50 points) record. For the Rapids, at least they were able to pad on more air miles to their account. It was a truly dismal effort, even with it being on the road, for the Rapids.

Vancouver v Portland

The Portland Timbers finally got their first win under Gavin Wilkinson (0-5-2 in the previous 7 matches) and also went to the top of the Cascadia Cup standings after beating the Vancouver Whitecaps 2-1 Saturday night. Darlington Nagbe became the first Timbers player to get a goal in three games in a row and Franck Songo’o scored his first career MLS goal off a free kick to lead the Timbers. The Vancouver Whitecaps continued their struggles on the road this season and are now in the midst of a six match winless streak on the road. Read more about this match on the GFT Portland Timbers blog.

Seattle v Chivas USA

The Seattle Sounders put on a goal-scoring clinic and thoroughly embarrassed Chivas USA in a 6-2 drubbing at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA. Fredy Montero’s first MLS hat-trick propelled the Sounders to an easy victory and their fourth in five matches. The Sounders are now 2nd in the Western Conference standings and their recent form has put the rest of the league on notice as one of the teams to beat in the MLS Cup Playoffs. Despite some promising trades and signings this summer (Danny Califf, Juan Agudelo, Shalrie Joseph) and having one of the top goalkeepers in MLS, Chivas USA can’t seem to right the ship and there’s no doubt that Robin Fraser is on the hot seat.

FC Dallas v Los Angeles

Galaxy take sole possession of the Western Conference’s fourth position by punishing FC Dallas mistakes to win 2-0. Read more about this game from our LA Galaxy blogger, Vincent LaRosa.

Sporting KC v New York

As if Sporting KC’s 1-1 draw to the New York Red Bulls wasn’t disappointing enough, Coach Peter Vermes also had to deal with the news that Teal Bunbury would miss the remainder of the season with a torn ACL injury. Read more about this match from Sporting KC blogger, Brian Sanders.

UPCOMING MLS ACTION:

schedule1 MLS Weekend Wrap Up: The Sounders put MLS on Notice Edition

schedule2 MLS Weekend Wrap Up: The Sounders put MLS on Notice Edition

schedule3 MLS Weekend Wrap Up: The Sounders put MLS on Notice Edition

schedule4 MLS Weekend Wrap Up: The Sounders put MLS on Notice Edition

 

 

Di Vaio scores and Montreal beat the leaders.

 Posted by on July 29, 2012 at 4:38 am  MLS, Montreal Impact
Jul 292012
 



Quick magic passes, that made our night. That’s why Felipe won the man of the match tonight because he was part of the magic touch on every goal. 

428898 10151108118740979 432358179 n Di Vaio scores and Montreal beat the leaders.
Felipe, big roll tonight.







That is the difference between the games we dominated at the beginning of the season and the ones we dominate now, a nice chemistry based on quick passing. This has been gaining momentum and we all like what we see on the field.


What a relief for Di Vaio and for all of us, he finally scored! and in a good way. Left foot, keeping the ball low, hard shot to the second post. It’s gonna be hard to forget, because all the team celebrated it like a championship and right after he scored he even pointed to my seat and the stadium chanted his name, unbelievable.  

563992 10151108118570979 77364824 n Di Vaio scores and Montreal beat the leaders.
Marco Di Vaio scored his first goal. Courtesy of impactmontreal.com

Now with Andrew Wenger back in the roster, Marsch can forget about the awful idea of Nyassi playing center forward, specially because he is a very decent winger in MLS and he showed it tonight. He is also a very good finisher when you have very few space to score, at least we’ve seen that in his last two goals. 


Nesta was good tonight, he fought every ball and showed his class all 90 minutes. Great partnership with Rivas who is quicker and anticipate better, leaving all the positioning on Sandro’s side.


On the Red Bulls, I really think they did a bad decision trading Dane Richards. Tonight, Sebastian Letoux disappeared all game along with Solly and Lindpierre although Impact defense deserves a lot of credit this time for that.   


I still cant believe we have all this classy players in our team. Unfortunately our road to the playoffs, at this stage, is not easy and we need to win several matches in a row specially, this is the toughest part, we can’t loose points on the road.

It’s gonna be very interesting, but we also depend that teams like Columbus, Chicago and New England don’t win their upcoming matches.

526601 10151108119415979 465250602 n Di Vaio scores and Montreal beat the leaders.
Alessandro Nesta and Thierry Henry. Courtesy of impactmontreal.com

This is what it feels being a Montreal Impact and MLS fan, lots of excitement until November. Is this what we all wanted?





Montreal Preview

 Posted by on July 4, 2012 at 1:36 pm  MLS, Montreal Impact
Jul 042012
 

It seems like just a little while ago that the expansion Impact were visiting Kansas City while dealing with a crucial Canadian Championship match against Toronto FC.
Montreal took Sporting out to the woodshed and beat them solidly with a reserve side while falling to Toronto when they put out their best.
Hope springs eternal as Sporting KC will now be facing the best that Montreal has in their first visit to the beautiful city of Montreal and their refurbished Stade Saputo.
Montreal has so far conceeded the most amout of goals of any team in Major League Soccer.
Sounds good considering the high octane style of play instituted by Peter Vermes but to take note is the fact that Montreal has scored the third most amount of goals in the league.  So they are leaky at the back but dangerous up front.
Everyone likes a high scoring game but the fact is that Sporting didnt break through against Chicago.
Here is hoping that on the 4th of July that KC is able to win in a country that America was fighting for its freedom against so many years ago.
But with all the games upcoming it will be difficult with all of the fixture congestion.
Prediction: 2-1 Montreal, not enough firepower

Another 3-0 loss for Montreal.

 Posted by on July 1, 2012 at 5:37 pm  MLS, Montreal Impact
Jul 012012
 


Can we go any worse? 

Before the game we knew we’d miss all the injured/suspended players and performance would be affected but we also wanted to experiment how deep our squad is and how dependent is the team on certain players. 

I don’t want to take away any credit to DC United, the did the right things and availed our errors wisely. I don’t know why I enjoy watching playing Boskovic, maybe because he reminds me in some way to what Fernando Redondo, Argentinian and Real Madrid legend, treated the ball and set the pace to the game. 

The truth is we thought our squad was deep and is here where we face the reality of an expansion team and the dilution of the league talent, but we will develop this subject in another post.

Can we save a player from last night? wow, not even Davy Arnaud, who always makes solid performances, was victim of the fatigue of the last few games where traveling and little rest has been the rule, especially if he plays all 90 minutes in every single match. Here I blame Marsch a little, especially when he made no substitutions in the win against Houston after winning 4-2 with 30 minutes left, he could have freshen the midfield and avoid extra tax key players like Felipe, Mapp or Arnaud. 

We also have Sinisa Ubiparipovic, very erratic last night; he couldn’t make a decent play in the entire match. I’ve always been a fan of him, he came last year and gave us sparks of magic but never forget it Montreal was still playing on 2nd division (NASL). I was very happy Jesse Marsch kept him on the team and coming off the bench he has done some good things when the team is on full potential. But there is a big difference when you want Sinisa to start the game and carry your MLS team on the shoulders. He simply hasn’t been able to fill that role. He is like our own MLS Guti, referencing to the role Jose Maria Gutierrez played last decade with Real Madrid who was unable to pull out a good performance when starting the game but did great things off the bench. Although Sinisa hasn’t been particularly spectacular coming off the bench either. 

I also blame Jesse Marsh for persisting on using Nyassi as a forward, what are we? Spain using a false 9? He has never performed well in this position and you can see he tends to go to the flanks and make the plays from there because he is a natural winger. I would rather have Arnaud as a center forward than Sanna Nyassi and having forwards on the bench like Sebrango or Montanio makes me really think about how we are using our tools. 

Marco Di Vaio, we better wait two or three more games before start evaluating his performance. 

At the end, we need Bernier, Ferrari, Rivas, Felipe and Warner the 90min and Marco Di Vaio adapted to MLS to compete in this league.








   


Marco Di Vaio. The missing piece?

 Posted by on June 1, 2012 at 2:33 am  MLS, Montreal Impact
Jun 012012
 

Is there any doubt the city of Montreal was hungry for a designated player? Just take a look of the warm welcome at his arrival.


 

The missing piece in Jesse Marsch puzzle? At least is a great effort by Joey Saputo to complement, regardless the results, the good work the head coach has been doing to make a competitive team.

DiVaio GoalBologna2 Marco Di Vaio. The missing piece?
courtesy of montrealimpact.com

After a fine career in Italy Marco decided to leave Bologna, the team that gave him the stability he needed to finish 2nd leading scorer in 2008-09 season.

parma Marco Di Vaio. The missing piece?Personally, I have very good memories regarding Di Vaio in Malesani’s Parma. This era of the gialoblu was a very interesting one, featuring Argentinian stars Ariel Ortega, Hernan Crespo, Azzurri stars Gianluigi Buffon and Fabio Cannavaro. Parma was the best era of Di Vaio’s career, averaging 0.49 goals per game and therefore eventually leading him to the transfer to Juventus and call to the Nazionale.

We all hope Montreal Impact’s attacking options will improve with the arrival of the striker. This added to the new stadium and the majority of the games at home are the advantages we have to fight for the playoffs this year.

6710079 Marco Di Vaio. The missing piece?

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