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Montreal officially first canadian MLS team to reach 11 wins, on expansion year!


phil7777

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maybe I subconciously saw this thread, but I literally just went to CSN, remembered the games, and ended up back here with the exact same thought on my mind at almost the same time. Their not quite in the playoffs but their having by far the best first season in MLS out of the big three, by almost double the wins now.

edit: I just looked closer at the table, Montreal is actually very close to the playoffs.

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Well, I am not sure how "close" Montreal is to the playoffs. Yes, they are in 5th...I think 1 pt up on DC United. But DC United has played 5 LESS games than MTL. Unlikely DCU loses all 5 of those games or goes 4 losses, 1 draw.

That being said, outstanding first season in MTL. It's the folks in Vancouver getting nervous now. 5 pt lead on Dallas with Vancouver having played 1 less game. That being said, a must win in PDX next weekend.

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Playoffs aren't completely out of the question yet. Its just an unknown with all the games-in-hand DC and Columbus have. They still have to win those games. DC, with their 5 games in hand (how does this happen??) are favourites to surpass them for now I suppose. At least the silver lining in that scenario is having DeRo and Jakovic playing meaningful playoff games.

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Could someone please explain why an expansion team has played 5 to 6 more games then their opponents at this stage of the season?

You would think the Impact would have asked MLS to change that before the schedule was released to the public. Seeing as how they planned on all these mid season DPs.

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I really like what Montreal has going in midfield with Bernier and Felipe. Bernier's touches on the second goal yesterday were fantastic. Di Vaio also seems finally to be settling in.

It also has to be said that after a few disappointing crowds when they first moved into Saputo, the atmosphere and attendance have been excellent.

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Really impressed with Montreal's defensive depth (although this is coming from a Toronto FC fan ... so maybe our relative CB starvation makes me look at it in awe).

The team has four CB's that range from starter quality CB to standout. Pretty nice option for the coach to have. Although, I guess the deal with someone like Rivas is you sign him with the understanding that there's a good chance he's going to miss a few games due to injury at the sort.

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https://mobile.twitter.com/24thminute/status/125322018882195456

Also Duane Rollins' "2012 season preview" preview for IMFC:

Outlook: They are an expansion team. And they look like it. Then you have the possibility of Joey losing his mind and doing something insane in mid-season. The Impact might end up with the worst expansion record since Chivas demonstrated that Mexican reserve players weren’t good enough for MLS.

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Doubtful they will make the playoffs. The other teams have too many games in hand. That said kudos to the Impact for having a very good first year in MLS. As to MLS scheduling well it blows goats on so many levels it is frightening. And lastly as to Mr DR his prognostication was wishful thinking from a TFC fan. I was hoping they would not be sad sack #2 in Canadian soccer and they aren't.

Cheers

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https://mobile.twitter.com/24thminute/status/125322018882195456

Also Duane Rollins' "2012 season preview" preview for IMFC:

Outlook: They are an expansion team. And they look like it. Then you have the possibility of Joey losing his mind and doing something insane in mid-season. The Impact might end up with the worst expansion record since Chivas demonstrated that Mexican reserve players weren’t good enough for MLS.

I'm pretty sure he meant "worst expansion record of playing Canadians from Ontario." An evolved pundit would be able to see that losing season after season is actually desirable provided you throw as many local teenagers to the wolves as possible as soon as they clearly aren't ready. And most Voyageurs agree with Media Guy on this point.

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You know, somewhat, in his defense, the team looks a lot different than it did on opening day. I could see how someone could take a peak through that roster at the time and say "looks like it's going to be a rough season". Since then the team added quite a few good players and a bunch of others have vastly improved their performances on a weekly basis. It wasn't exactly a strong start to the year either.

Maybe foresight says we always should have assumed roster changes were coming, but then again, without MLS releasing contract information and us relying on updates from the MLSPU, it's hard to see how much flexibility any team has at a given time.

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You know, somewhat, in his defense, the team looks a lot different than it did on opening day. I could see how someone could take a peak through that roster at the time and say "looks like it's going to be a rough season". Since then the team added quite a few good players and a bunch of others have vastly improved their performances on a weekly basis. It wasn't exactly a strong start to the year either.

Maybe foresight says we always should have assumed roster changes were coming, but then again, without MLS releasing contract information and us relying on updates from the MLSPU, it's hard to see how much flexibility any team has at a given time.

Not really. They added Di Vaio who hasn't always been very useful and Nesta who played 2 games..

The rest of the roster is pretty much the same. Also, IMFC had to deal with the extended injuries to both Rivas and Ferrari..

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You know, somewhat, in his defense, the team looks a lot different than it did on opening day. I could see how someone could take a peak through that roster at the time and say "looks like it's going to be a rough season". Since then the team added quite a few good players and a bunch of others have vastly improved their performances on a weekly basis. It wasn't exactly a strong start to the year either.

Maybe foresight says we always should have assumed roster changes were coming, but then again, without MLS releasing contract information and us relying on updates from the MLSPU, it's hard to see how much flexibility any team has at a given time.

Yes as Steve said the opening day lineup was actually pretty good and many people, ie. those who unlike Duane know something about soccer, were predicting the Impact would be a decent team and possibly in the playoff race. There is no defence of Duane, his only value to sports journalism is the humour factor. I would not hire him to work for a village newspaper. And to save those the problem of clicking on his Twitter, what he posted was:

The 2012 Montreal Impact will finish season with 10 points. Save this Tweet. (Apparently Steve took his advice :) )

Classic Duane. And even today he is still yammering on with his crap:

they have built old. If they don't go on deep run this year is it worth it?

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Doubtful they will make the playoffs. The other teams have too many games in hand. That said kudos to the Impact for having a very good first year in MLS. As to MLS scheduling well it blows goats on so many levels it is frightening. And lastly as to Mr DR his prognostication was wishful thinking from a TFC fan. I was hoping they would not be sad sack #2 in Canadian soccer and they aren't.

Cheers

The other teams have a lot of games in hand and no doubt it will be difficult but certainly not impossible. The two most catchable teams DC and Chicago play each other twice in the remaining games including this Wednesday and will take points off each other. We then play DC this coming Saturday. If DC were to lose or tie Chicago and then we beat them Saturday we would be 1 or 2 points ahead of them with them having only two games in hand and with their next two games against New York and RSL. It is certainly doable but winning the game against them this Saturday is absolutely crucial.

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Not really. They added Di Vaio who hasn't always been very useful and Nesta who played 2 games..

The rest of the roster is pretty much the same. Also, IMFC had to deal with the extended injuries to both Rivas and Ferrari..

Depending on the timing of his speculation that list probably also includes Ferrari and Corradi. You'd somewhat expect the two CBs you mentioned to have some wear-and-tear issues throughout the season as well though, I think that's part of the reason why they come at such a cheap price, because otherwise their standard of football is easily above MLS.

Yes as Steve said the opening day lineup was actually pretty good and many people, ie. those who unlike Duane know something about soccer, were predicting the Impact would be a decent team and possibly in the playoff race. There is no defence of Duane, his only value to sports journalism is the humour factor. I would not hire him to work for a village newspaper. And to save those the problem of clicking on his Twitter, what he posted was:

The 2012 Montreal Impact will finish season with 10 points. Save this Tweet. (Apparently Steve took his advice :) )

Classic Duane. And even today he is still yammering on with his crap:

they have built old. If they don't go on deep run this year is it worth it?

I'm not going to deny that, I'm not much of a fan of his... but can we find other predictions that were similar to his...

Grant Wahl: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20120308/mls-preview/

Jason Davis: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1093752-mls-2012-season-10-bold-predictions/page/7

From the Gaurdian (which for some reason has reasonable MLS coverage): http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/mar/01/mls-2012-season-preview-eastern-conference

That's not to say that everyone had them at the bottom, but it just shows some reasonably minded people had their doubts. I guess that's my point, is that I can see the case even if it didn't happen. Personally, I was expecting something similar to Phily in their first year, which was competitive, respectable, but not playoffs. It was obvious from early on that Marsh had the team organized pretty well even though the squad had only been together for a short time, which is always a good sign.

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I'm not going to deny that, I'm not much of a fan of his... but can we find other predictions that were similar to his...

Grant Wahl: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20120308/mls-preview/

Jason Davis: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1093752-mls-2012-season-10-bold-predictions/page/7

From the Gaurdian (which for some reason has reasonable MLS coverage): http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/mar/01/mls-2012-season-preview-eastern-conference

That's not to say that everyone had them at the bottom, but it just shows some reasonably minded people had their doubts. I guess that's my point, is that I can see the case even if it didn't happen. Personally, I was expecting something similar to Phily in their first year, which was competitive, respectable, but not playoffs. It was obvious from early on that Marsh had the team organized pretty well even though the squad had only been together for a short time, which is always a good sign.

I don't think those predictions are similar to his at all. He picked us to finish dead last and be one of the worse expansion teams in MLS history. Two of those predictions pick us to finish second last and even the one that picks us last says we will be a team that plays hard. And furthermore if we want to talk predictions, I think almost everyone here could have predicted before the season that Duane would predict us to finish last no matter who we signed due to his complete lack of objectivity towards the Impact.

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I don't think those predictions are similar to his at all. He picked us to finish dead last and be one of the worse expansion teams in MLS history. Two of those predictions pick us to finish second last and even the one that picks us last says we will be a team that plays hard. And furthermore if we want to talk predictions, I think almost everyone here could have predicted before the season that Duane would predict us to finish last no matter who we signed due to his complete lack of objectivity towards the Impact.

Ok, yep I see your point there. I don't think the "one of the worst expansion teams ever" call is warranted on any level. Didn't realize that was specifically what you were hitting on :)

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