The Montreal Impact might have given a soccer lesson to the Atlanta Silverbacks last night, it still wasn’t enough to make it to the playoffs. The Minnesota Stars, who were hanging on to the last playoff spot managed to get a surprising win in Cary last night as well, beating the league champion 2-1.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]Montreal completely dominated Atlanta, scoring 3 goals in the first half to finally go on and score a fourth in the second. Timbers loanee Ryan Pore bagged a hat-trick while Sounders loanee Miguel Montano netted the other goal.
The Impact finished the season strong, mainly due to the arrival of players that were probably a little experience for the NASL caliber. The team really picked up (a little too) late in the season, after a dismal start of 2 wins, 4 draws and 8 losses in the first half. They finished the season with a very average record of 9 wins, 8 ties and 11 losses, and were just 1 point short of a playoff spot.
It may be easy to blame the Railhawks for underperforming against Minnesota yesterday, but it would probably be easier to look back at the games that Montreal dropped during the season. Just looking back at the sequence of 5 home games at the end of July, we can think of 2 games that Montreal should have won. The 3-1 loss the Minnesota as well as the Tampa Bay comeback in the last minute of a 3-3 draw on August 10th are just a few examples.
Despite all this, things are looking very bright for the club as they are set to join the MLS next season. Despite not being involved this season, the arrival of new coach Jesse Marsch has probably given a motivational boost to the players, who will now be waiting impatiently for a contract renewal, an invitation to the training camp … or just a simple “Goodbye”.
The team will be landing at Pierre-Elliot Trudeau airport and will be meeting the media for a brief conference this afternoon. Technical director will then board another plane, this time to meet Jesse Marsch, who is currently on a scouting trip in London. Start the Anelka-to-Montreal-rumours (Ok, please don’t).
The club is set to organize another conference on Wednesday, for an end-of-season review.
NASL Playoffs Quarterfinals
(Carolina Railhawks and Puerto Rico Islanders have bye to semifinals)
FC Tampa Bay - Minnesota Stars
Fort Lauderdale Strikers - FC Edmonton