The war is not won for the Montreal Impact, but the club’s management team can congratulate itself from winning the first battle after turning the tide of its inaugural campaign in Major League Soccer.

The arrival of Marco Schallibaum, the team’s collective efficiency on the field and Marco Di Vaio’s production are all main factors explaining why the Impact is the most improved MLS club of the first quart of 2013 compared to the nine first games of 2012.

Montreal has a 5-2-2 record after nine games in 2013 (26.5 % of the season) for a total of 17 points against eight points (2-5-2) at the same stage last season.

These nine points of improvement puts Montreal ahead of FC Dallas (+8) and Toronto FC (+7) among the best improved teams of Q1. Dallas has a very good start in 2013, leading the Western Conference standings after missing the playoffs in 2012. As for TFC, it’s tough to do worse than 0-9-0 in 2012.

The bottom-dwellers of 2013’s Q1 are the San Jose Earthquakes (-12), the Seattle Sounders (-10) and DC United (-9).

Nine of the 10 playoff spot teams after nine regular season games in 2012 made it to the post-season tournament, the only exception being Colorado who dropped out in favor of the MLS Cup champs LA Galaxy in the Western Conference.
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Ten of 19 MLS club climbing including TFC, Montréal and Vancouver dropping in the April 2013 issue of this exclusive standings.

Two Copa Libertadores group phase wins have shot Brazilian giants Corinthians on top of SoccerPlus’ monthly Americas Club Standings for the period ending on April 30. The Sao Paulo-based club has set the table for a Round of 16 home and away series against Argentine side Boca Juniors who were leading the ACS last month.

Little movement happened in the Top 10 this month as Sao Paulo (2nd) also moved up one spot, to drop Boca Juniors from first to third, where as countrymen Tigre climbed three positions to fourth. Argentina’s Velez Sarsfield (8th) and Brazil’s Fluminense (9th) also moved up a spot each while Universidad de Chile (9th) slipped down five places. There only one newcomer in this month’s top 10, Colombia’s Deportes Tolima (10th), pushing out Paraguay’s Libertad (16th, -6) from the select group. Seven of the Top 10 teams are involved in Copa Libertadores’ Round of 16 in May.

The Club of the Month is Argentina’s Tigre (4th) which won a Primera Division match and three Copa Libertadores matches, including the home leg of its Copa Libertadores Round of 16 series with Paraguay’s Olimpia (12th).

Ten of MLS’ 19 clubs have moved up in the standings during the last month. Such is the case for Toronto FC (+9, 132nd), with a cup win and three league ties, while Montreal (-13, 173rd) and Vancouver (-9, 182nd) dropped a little in April. Expect the latter two latter to pick up a few spots at the end of May with both of them moving to the Amway Canadian Championship title series.

These standings use every game played by CONCACAF and CONMEBOL’s 480 first division sides during the last 12 months. The point system leading to these standings is based on the one used for many years by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics.
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Recorded live in NYC following Montreal's 2-1 loss to the New York Red Bulls at RBA.

Hear both coaches post game comments, Thierry Henry on sir Alex Ferguson's retirement announcement, former Lyon star Juninho on his tough adaptation to MLS, and Canadian international Patrice Bernier.

NYRB director Jerome de Bontin also discusses the imminent coming of NY2 in Queens and how his club prepares for the new neighbours.
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Salaries, amazing performances and a battle for first place in the Eastern Conference on the menu of this week's first of three shows.

We revisit Montreal's 2-2 tie in San Jose and the great performance from American midfielder Justin Mapp. We also look at at the publication of MLS players' salaries and we set the table for Wednesday's battle for first place between the Impact and the Red Bulls in New Jersey.

Our guests: Marc Tougas (CP), Nick Sabetti (Sportsnet.ca) and Jonathan Tannenwald (Philly.com).
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Every year at this time, the MLS Players’ Union unveil the list of salaries and the most recent publication brought Montreal’s DP Marco Di Vaio up three spots into the top 5 salaries. Di Vaio was eighth in October 2012’s list.

No one country of origin really stands out when looking at the Top 20 salaries with French, Irish, Colombian, Argentinian, Dutch and American players tied at two a piece. In terms of clubs, the Red Bulls, L.A., Seattle and Toronto each have two members in the top 20.
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The publication Monday of the biannual MLS’ Players’ Union led us to put up a few interesting standings to illustrate the monetary value of goals scored since the beginning of the season (up to May 6, 2013).

Of course, we are only 25 per cent of the way into the season and not every team have played the same amount of games. Therefore these standings must be taken with a grain of salt and we will benefit from an updated list in October. Still, it is interesting to look at trends coming out of a few numbers put together.
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