IceCreamMan Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Grant is also playing CB which I thought was interesting. Team seems to have completely turned it around. Playoffs are still a long shot but if they keep winning you never know. Would be an amazing turnaround Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shamrock Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Just incredible how they turned a team with just one win in te first half around. With practically the same players! Although Grant probably was injured in that first half, since he's been playing so well lately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coramoor Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Grant wasn't on the team in the beginning, he was signed in may I think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub Narcotic Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Yes, they also added Jacques Haman as well at striker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shamrock Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 Grant wasn't on the team in the beginning, he was signed in may I think I know but he had only one game for them and now 3 in a row. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmonte Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 Loving the recent results from a team that plays a lot of CanCon. Thinking the early bad results were a bit of culture shock. A lot of the players' first time playing against primarily adults, and at a higher level of competition than they've ever played in as well, even for some of the players that are older. Good to see they are stepping their game up. That's what development is all about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coramoor Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 Apparently Crepeau is injured again does anyone know the extent of it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpg75 Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 Loving the recent results from a team that plays a lot of CanCon. Thinking the early bad results were a bit of culture shock. A lot of the players' first time playing against primarily adults, and at a higher level of competition than they've ever played in as well, even for some of the players that are older. Good to see they are stepping their game up. That's what development is all about. Wait, so they developed by playing and not by watching older foreigners play ahead of them?? <head explodes> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub Narcotic Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 Wait, so they developed by playing and not by watching older foreigners play ahead of them?? <head explodes> Yes, they cut players that weren't performing, brought a foreign striker in because no one else was scoring goals, established a rotation of senior team players in the midfield (Kyle Bekker was playing last night along with Gagnon-Lapare, both senior internationals) and actually went about treating the team like a real one where results matter and players are held accountable for performances. Luckily the club did not buy into the idiotic fantasy that watching your seventeen year-old academy players getting pounded for ninety minutes is somehow particularly valuable for anybody but the keeper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shermanator Posted August 13, 2015 Author Share Posted August 13, 2015 Nothing like prioritizing plastic trophies over development of local talent for our USL clubs, hey Dub Narcotic? Look out hex, here we come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpg75 Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 Yes, they cut players that weren't performing, brought a foreign striker in because no one else was scoring goals, established a rotation of senior team players in the midfield (Kyle Bekker was playing last night along with Gagnon-Lapare, both senior internationals) and actually went about treating the team like a real one where results matter and players are held accountable for performances. Luckily the club did not buy into the idiotic fantasy that watching your seventeen year-old academy players getting pounded for ninety minutes is somehow particularly valuable for anybody but the keeper. So they played one guy over the age 22 and a total of 9 or 10 Canadians last night. It's like they copied your formula! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub Narcotic Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 So they played one guy over the age 22 and a total of 9 or 10 Canadians last night. It's like they copied your formula! Yes, I agree. I've been advocating for the Whitecaps USL model the entire season as you clearly remember. The demographic profile of the Whitecaps 2 regular team is pretty much the same as this FC Montreal lineup with veteran and senior squad players as the core of the group and being surrounded by the younger prospects. Two months ago Eullaffroy freaked out on his team after another brutal loss, followed by player cuts and this great interview where he says: """ Since the beginning of the season, the mantra on the sidelines has been to promote development and to place emphasis on progression rather than immediate success. After every match, FC Montreal would find something positive even in a loss. Coming off the rain-soaked pitch, some of the players continued to follow that mentality. “At least we had our chances, at least we had our positives,” said full-back Zachary Sukunda. “It’s not like we got dominated. We could have easily tied it up and we could have easily gotten three or four goals.” “It’s disappointing for what we expected, but there are still positives to take out from this game,” said forward Victor N’Diaye about the game. While the players are trying to keep positive, it is clear that Eullaffroy’s patience is wearing thin. “We need to tell them upfront,” he said. “They weren’t good despite their efforts and it’s lacking rage, it’s lacking will to win and to put their balls on the pitch to say: we’re going to destroy this team.” For the first time this season, Eullaffroy hinted that he could take action on the players who are underperforming on the pitch and in training if they do not change certain aspects of their play. As FC Montreal is the minor league affiliate of the Montreal Impact of MLS, the goal for the young players is to show their worth in order to eventually find a spot with the Impact. This leaves two choices for FC Montreal’s players: play well enough to earn a professional MLS contract or be released and try your luck elsewhere. “We have arrived at a point where we made a review of the squad on the ten games, we’ve seen everyone and everyone got playing time,” said Eullaffroy. “Now it will be on us to make choices to continue with the ones that we think could go forward and turn the page on the other ones. “At the end of the year, I won’t be the one who decides if they sign a pro contract, it’s the [impact front office],” Eullaffroy added. “Now, if every game they have five good minutes, five catastrophic minutes, then five good minutes, [the Impact front office] will say that there is nothing interesting in this team and they’ll be right.” http://thelinknewspaper.com/article/7142 """ That was the start of the turnaround. The team won't make the playoffs and won't keep up this form but they've been sensational in the last month and a half after the coach got rid of this 'minutes is all that matters' for development nonsense. USL is where these players have to start fighting for their professional career. They had four Canadian players in the USL team of the week last week which is probably more than TFC has had all season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpg75 Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 You clearly missed my sarcasm. This FC Montreal team does not have a similar make-up to Vancouvers', you have many players who are born in '93 or later and hardly any call ups from the senior team or NCAA draft picks. If anything it looks to me like the coach finally put his foot down and placed some expectations on these young players - who seem to have responded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmonte Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 I don't think FC Montreal is doing one or the other. Primarily developing Canadians. Check. Giving opportunities to the 18-23 demographic that hope to break into the senior squad. Check. Getting results due to good play, but having development as higher priority than just results. This comes as a result of a balanced roster that also uses guys like Bekker and JGL that aren't quite cracking the main roster, which also helps others develop. Check. FC Montreal. Liking their style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bison44 Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 Hmmm 4 canadians from FC Montreal in team of the week? How many canadian regulars are on Whitecaps 2? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub Narcotic Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Inauspicious end to the season as they take another big loss at home, 5-0, to the Islanders. They are guaranteed to finish 10th in the Eastern conference (and above Toronto 2). They were equally bad at conceding goals (18th in the league) and scoring them (20th in the league) so you can't point to one obvious area that caused their problems this year. They went on a very strange 5 win run in the middle of the season that accounted for a large chunk of their points (and may have coincided with the arrival of Jacques Haman before teams got him scouted) but they were also on the end of a lot of pretty bad beatings throughout the year. They generally played their best on the counter-attack and heavily relied on Riggi or Haman to create something up front but could not really create when behind and if they committed numbers forward they tended to get punished quite badly. I suppose you can say the season was a mild success in an expansion kind of way, they got a core of players they can build around next year, they got a good sense of who was worth keeping in the organization (they cut a bunch of players in the middle of the season, I also except players like N'diaye and Joly to be gone in the off-season) and they promoted up some of their better U-18's with an eye on next year. In addition, this team allowed the Impact to improve the bottom end of the senior roster but still keep players like Beland-Goyette in the system. In terms of promotion to the senior team, Riggi and Sukunda look like good bets and Gagnon-Lapare and Crepeau also showed well for possible minutes next year. Not a bumper crop of future stars but some possible MLS regulars. Things to improve on next year: * Better integration with the first team/draft picks. At the start of the year the Impact organization was treating the team as an extension of their U-23 PDL team and U-18 USSDA team. Their lineups were almost all players from inside the organization but after getting crushed in most of their early games they started to realize that they needed to integrate better players from outside their own system, hence we saw guys like Haman and Jonny Grant come in. That should continue next year, with the senior roster set up so that the bottom four or five guys are actually meant to be FC Montreal regulars and the rest of the team is a stable core of players from this year. In addition, the Impact organization seem to hate their draftees. I don't know if this is an Andrew Wenger-size hangover but the draft gives you a free top U-23 prospect in North America and Montreal needs to take advantage of this process more with at least some minimal scouting and effort. There was no excuse for burying Romario Williams this year with no playing time on either team and they have to get better in general at this. * Better home atmosphere. They couldn't help the early games at Saputo and the Impact training facility but with Claude-Robilliard sorted out as the home ground the Impact should make a big effort next year to make the home games feel more professional. I would follow the Whitecaps 2 lead here: get some food trucks and bands out, charge money for tickets and gear some stuff towards kids. VW2 doesn't draw a tonne of people but their games have a noticeably better atmosphere than Montreal's do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Posted September 22, 2015 Share Posted September 22, 2015 Eullaffroy's season post mortem: http://uslradio.com/2015/09/21/philippe-eullaffroy-makes-first-ever-fc-montreal-post-mortem/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub Narcotic Posted September 22, 2015 Share Posted September 22, 2015 I like Eullaffroy but I hope the Impact don't see 23 as too old for USL. That's one year out of college for a NCAA draftee and it would be nice to see Riggi continue to develop on what is hopefully a better FC Montreal team next year with an eye to providing attacking depth for the senior team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Posted September 22, 2015 Share Posted September 22, 2015 At 23 he needs to take the next step. If he is not ready for the first team then he should probably move to NASL either on loan if the Impact still believe in him or if they do not then signing with a new team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub Narcotic Posted September 22, 2015 Share Posted September 22, 2015 Dom Dwyer was 23 when he tore up the league with USL Orlando City and got his career going. FC Montreal want to compete for the playoffs next year and they have no one to replace Riggi in any case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soccerpro Posted September 22, 2015 Share Posted September 22, 2015 Eullaffroy is harsh in his opinion of a cut off age for Riggi to be with the organization. However, maybe that is needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Posted September 22, 2015 Share Posted September 22, 2015 Dom Dwyer was 23 when he tore up the league with USL Orlando City and got his career going. FC Montreal want to compete for the playoffs next year and they have no one to replace Riggi in any case. During his 2nd year in MLS Dwyer split the season between USL and MLS. Actually he played the first half of the season in USL before KC recalled him. When he returned to KC he had a lot of short sub appearances initially and then started to get more time near the end of the season though he only scored 2 goals in 17 appearances. His real break through came in 2014 when he became a starter for KC and put up impressive numbers. Sure he may have gotten some benefit from playing in USL and scoring a lot at a low level but I doubt the 13 games he played there (plus 2 Open Cup games) were anywhere near as pivotal to his career as you are implying. But different things work for different players and I am sure if you search a bit harder you can actually find a player who fits your agenda of promoting MLS/USL and denigrating NASL. As for FC Montreal they are a development team first so while it is good to have a decent team for players to develop in, success on the pitch is not priority number 1, it is developing young players. If they think Riggi is close to making the first team and will actually get some minutes then it is fine to keep him with the USL team and have him split the season between MLS and USL. If they think he is a bit further away but still has potential they should loan him out to a higher level which would likely mean NASL, Ottawa being the ideal team if they are interested. He needs to play a higher level to improve and we need to open the FCM places for younger players. If management doesn't think he has what it takes to make MLS in the near future then he should be cut loose and should try to find a better league to play in than USL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unnamed Trialist Posted September 26, 2015 Share Posted September 26, 2015 That looked like a very well coached team that is in it together. Pleased for Lefevre, a big game for him, I mean--who is this guy, never heard of him until this week (so you don't have to tell me). He seems to have a pretty big upside this guy, really sure back there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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