Montreal Impact 2020 Season

[Big_M 1,768]

Thierry Henry's chance starts Wednesday night – what will he do with it? | Andrew Wiebe

[Obinna 7,482]

How are the Impact fans out there feeling? Not an Impact fan, but will be cheering for them tonight. A lot of young, promising players could get a chance tonight.

Excited in particular to see if Tabla can get a run out. Brault-Guillard and Bayhia are vying for the RB spot, no? Will Waterman make his Impact debut? Will Shome play a role? We know Piette will. Choiniere? Jackson-Hamel? 

Edited February 19 by Obinna

[costarg 390]

4 hours ago, Obinna said:

How are the Impact fans out there feeling? Not an Impact fan, but will be cheering for them tonight. A lot of young, promising players could get a chance tonight.

Excited in particular to see if Tabla can get a run out. Brault-Guillard and Bayhia are vying for the RB spot, no? Will Waterman make his Impact debut? Will Shome play a role? We know Piette will. Choiniere? Jackson-Hamel? 

Already looks like a difficult mountain to climb.  Line-ups announced and we're missing two important starters: Taider and Lassi.  Pretty sure they'll park the bus for this one.

[Moldy9 691]

2-0 up!!! Incredible. But we already made 2 subs Camacho and Okwanko out Waterman makes his debut and Urruti in. 

[Moldy9 691]

Good on the Montreal Ultras. I can hear them singing. Love it. 

Edited February 20 by Moldy9

[Unnamed Trialist 5,224]

Word on Ballou's minutes? 

[Obinna 7,482]

3 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Word on Ballou's minutes? 

I was disappointed with his defensive effort. For a substitute, I expected more energy and hustle closing down space, getting in peoples faces, etc. I know it's hot and it's pre-season for the Impact, but he came on around the 70th minute and he's a young man. On the game tying goal, he was ball watching. Give and go on his side and instead of being sharp and focused, he hesitated for a split second and didn't track his man. That extra moment gave the Saprissa player space to play the cross into the box, which was converted.

The good was later in the game, after the tying goal, someone plays the ball to him near the top center part of the box, Piette I think it was. He simply let's the ball run and cleverly turns, fooling a few Saprissa players. With that space he created, he was able to pass it to Bojan, who kind of makes a mess of it on his first touch and the chance is gone. Had the Spaniard hit it first time it would have been a shot on goal. Bojan worked hard all game though, so I can forgive that.

Overall, I was disappointed with Tabla, but that moment of awareness and creativity he displayed is special. It is why I like him centrally and his work rate is going to have to improve on the defensive end if he is going to be a winger. Still not convinced that is his best position.

[Ivan 788]

3 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Word on Ballou's minutes? 

Meh.  I was disappointed actually.  I was excited when he came on, thinking "here's his chance!", and he really did nothing with it.  Showed no energy really (a poster in another thread actually partially blamed him for both goals) while Urruti, who had been on the field for an hour,  ran his ass off.  Ballou did make one good turn and set up Bojan at the top of the box, but he took too many touches and frittered the chance away.  

[costarg 390]

3 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Word on Ballou's minutes? 

The usual.  Showed potential going forward, but his marking/defensive game isn't what it should be.  Not playing much can do that.

[Chad_Impact 1,222]

What do you guys think about the game as a whole last night? 

 

[Chad_Impact 1,222]

3 hours ago, Ivan said:

Meh.  I was disappointed actually.  I was excited when he came on, thinking "here's his chance!", and he really did nothing with it.  Showed no energy really (a poster in another thread actually partially blamed him for both goals) while Urruti, who had been on the field for an hour,  ran his ass off.  Ballou did make one good turn and set up Bojan at the top of the box, but he took too many touches and frittered the chance away.  

Yup. I'm also getting tired of his diving. 

[Kadenge 1,791]

7 minutes ago, Chad_Impact said:

What do you guys think about the game as a whole last night? 

 

Gutsy performance by Montreal. First competitive game since last fall away to Saprissa and having to make 2 early subs which was a killer. Fanni is a stud CB at 38 yrs!  Bojan missed some glorious chances to score and win the game. Quioto looked good....hate saying that!

[Ivan 788]

I thought ZBG, Waterman and Piette each had pretty good games.  They all had their moments, made a few mistakes, but overall played well and worked hard.  I was happy for Waterman, he sure didn't look out of place.

[The Beaver 2.0 294]

6 hours ago, Ivan said:

Meh.  I was disappointed actually.  I was excited when he came on, thinking "here's his chance!", and he really did nothing with it.  Showed no energy really (a poster in another thread actually partially blamed him for both goals) while Urruti, who had been on the field for an hour,  ran his ass off.  Ballou did make one good turn and set up Bojan at the top of the box, but he took too many touches and frittered the chance away.  

Echoes of Wynn Belotte? All this promise at a young age but not enough humility to put in the work required? Or, if not lack of humility, then something else? The easiest thing to do is work your ass off! I hope he can get his head straight before it is too late.

[Chad_Impact 1,222]

I'm not as high on the performance personally, but I am going to hold out on what I thought until this team has a few games under its belt. The team getting into match shape will fix a lot of it i'm sure. 

Edited February 21 by Chad_Impact

[shamrock 1,812]

Reading some post-match analysis I don't understand the negativity. Football is a game about winning. Beating Saprissa over two games is a daunting start of the season for any club coming out of the break. Of course we hope to see more but now Montreal is still in it and they're on the good side of the table as well.

Save the growing steadily into the season for MLS.

[costarg 390]

6 hours ago, shamrock said:

Reading some post-match analysis I don't understand the negativity. Football is a game about winning. Beating Saprissa over two games is a daunting start of the season for any club coming out of the break. Of course we hope to see more but now Montreal is still in it and they're on the good side of the table as well.

Save the growing steadily into the season for MLS.

The strategy over the two games was perfect considering the huge challenges.

Saprissa is already in regular season form.  IMFC are missing 4-5 starters to injury, new 3-man D system, and in pre-season form.

They exceeded expectations by coming out on top. Henry has done really well. 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 27 by costarg

[CanadaFan123 1,380]

6 hours ago, shamrock said:

Reading some post-match analysis I don't understand the negativity. Football is a game about winning. Beating Saprissa over two games is a daunting start of the season for any club coming out of the break. Of course we hope to see more but now Montreal is still in it and they're on the good side of the table as well.

Save the growing steadily into the season for MLS.

Yeah pretty bizarre... you have to be very happy with this result as Saprissa, in my mind, were favourites.  Look at the Liga MX teams Tigres and America.. both are very lucky to have not been eliminated by teams weaker than Saprissa.  This Saprissa squad is very talented and would do well in MLS.

[HFX Wanderer 1]

ZBG and Waterman doing well after settling down

 

[dyslexic nam 8,590]

18 minutes ago, HFX Wanderer said:

ZBG and Waterman doing well after settling down

 

Agreed - but the goal they conceded was brutal.  Five of them standing casually around one guy and ignoring everything else going on.  

[dyslexic nam 8,590]

Took some luck, but the Impact started things off the right way with a 2-1 win over NE.  With the strong Canadian content they are fielding and using in crucial roles, I will be paying a lot of attention to them this year.  
 

Along with the aggregate win over Saprissa, Henry is definitely starting his tenure of the right way.  

edited score

Edited February 29 by dyslexic nam

[Big_M 1,768]

2-1 not 2-0

[HFX Wanderer 1]

55 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

Agreed - but the goal they conceded was brutal.  Five of them standing casually around one guy and ignoring everything else going on.  

Yes it was ugly, but they sucked it up and organized themselves on the back line after that.  I thought Quioto made the best effort through the game.  The double header goal was really nice, showing flashes of quality...hope it keeps up!  I also am cautiously optimistic about Urutti, lucky goal, but we'll take'em!  

[dyslexic nam 8,590]

24 minutes ago, Big_M said:

2-1 not 2-0

Not sure how I mistyped that.  Def knew the score...

Edited February 29 by dyslexic nam

[Chad_Impact 1,222]

Bojan is the one downside, needs to get going