3 Points For a Win-NYCFC vs IMFC March 18th 2017 2pm E

Every Friday, I will give my keys to victory for the Montreal Impact, in 3 points!

Point 1 Backline Discipline

The Montreal Impact defense have already racked up 4 yellow cards in the first 2 games, particularly early in the first halves ( Camara, Duvall and Ciman). On top of exposing your team to the risk of having a player sent off, those early yellows affect the way the player on notice approaches his tackle opportunities. On a very small pitch like the one at Yankees Stadium, the fraction of a second loss to hesitation from the defender on notice can prove quite costly and before you know it, you find yourself defending David Villa in the box . You add the Laurent Ciman 76' foul in the box against Seattle and you have a situation where after 2 games, 3 precious points were lost due to the lack of discipline by the Montreal Impact defense. For a positive result this Saturday in the Big Apple, patience and discipline are the directives for Montreal's backline.

Point 2 Possession and Transition in the Midfield

Last week, the midfield executed very well the game plan of having the ball and transitioning it successfully higher up the pitch, creating breakthroughs in Seattle's defense. The passing accuracy of the three defensive midfielders (Bernier 84.6% Donadel 91.1% Bernardello 93.6%) was quite impressive and quite an improvement from week 1. This is even more important in an environment like Yankees Stadium, where the edge of the box and the midfield line are not that far apart. If the defensive midfield trio of Montreal is able to replicate the passing accuracy performances of last week you will see a Montreal ball possession transition more efficiently from midfield to the last third of the field, thus creating more theoretical goal scoring chances for Piatti, Mancosu and Co.

Point 3 Beware of Villa-Moralez-Wallace

If it's not one of them, it's all three. The prolific trio that led to four goals versus DC United last week, is the main goal scoring threat for NYCFC. If you can eliminate the threat on New York's left side of the attack by suffocating the service to it, you give yourself a better path to victory. Which brings us again to the battle in the midfield. If Montreal is able to stop NYCFC's transition at the Mattarita and Pirlo level, they might have a shot at suffocating the service to their favored offensive threat. Easier said then done.

You can follow Kevin Laramee on Twitter @KevLaramee

Off the Woodworkx, a podcast about the Montreal Impact available on ITunes