The team lacks offensive power since departure of soccer legend Didier Drogba
Every Montreal Impact fan remembers when the team acquired Didier Drogba in 2015. The international soccer star, who’s now retired, played in Europe and at the highest levels of the game, and had an immediate impact on the team during his debut in the Major League Soccer (MLS).
Soccer is one of those sports where just one goal is often enough to win the game. Drogba, who played the position of striker, scored 11 goals in his first 11 games in Montreal. He concluded his time with the team with 23 goals in 41 games, playing in 2015 and 2016 for the blue, white and black.
The Impact qualified for the playoffs in both of Drogba’s seasons with the club. In 2016, it was the third time in five MLS seasons that the Impact qualified. However, the team hasn’t made the playoffs since. Last year, the Impact finished the season ranked 18th out of 26 MLS teams, winning only 12 of their 34 games and scoring just 47 goals.
Last year, the Impact added forward Bojan Krkić — known as Bojan to soccer fans — to the team, with hopes to get back what Drogba was bringing to the team: goals, offensive power, and the kind of starpower that puts the Impact on the map.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work as planned. Krkić didn’t perform as expected last season, scoring three goals in eight games. This year, he has only one goal in 10 games. Krkić clearly isn’t the Drogba replacement the Impact hoped he would be.
Montreal sports fans are passionate and want to see their teams win. It’s a sports city with a constant enthusiasm around the local teams. However, when things aren’t working, people can often be quick to ask for change.
It’s hard to acquire such talented superstars like the team did with Drogba in 2015. Yet, it really makes a difference to invest a bit more for a better player. At the end of the day, the team will be rewarded one way or another; even financially, as more fans will pay to come to live games with a superstar on the team.
Since Drogba’s departure, the future has been looking bleak for the Montreal Impact. Getting a new star on offence is a must.
Montreal Impact set to kick off 2018 season with new management and many new players
After a disappointing 2017 season, the Montreal Impact is preparing to kick off the 2018 Major League Soccer (MLS) season. They missed the playoffs by 11 points with a 11-17-6 record last year. Based on a new coaching staff and new players, The Concordian is trying to figure out how the Impact can have a bounce-back season.
Changing of the Garde
After losing nine of the last 10 games in the 2017 season, the Impact fired head coach Mauro Biello. In comes Rémi Garde, who further changed the team around by hiring his own coaching staff. Garde previously coached at Lyon in France and Aston Villa in England.
Besides keeping assistant coach Wilfried Nancy, Garde has brought in assistant coach Maxence Flachez, a former youth coach at Lyon; goalie coach Joël Bats, Lyon’s goalie coach for the past 17 seasons; and fitness coach Robert Duverne, who was Garde’s fitness coach when he coached Lyon and Aston Villa.
Garde is making a huge statement, and is clearly trying to run the club the way he did at Lyon. Will a European management style work in North America? Many past MLS coaches have tried with little success.
In order for Garde’s French style to be successful, he will need to adapt his tactics to a North American game. That’s not to say he needs to play the North American way, but rather change his French style to conform to a more physical, less-skilled MLS game.
Fresh faces on the field
The Impact has a new-look roster this season, with 10 new players replacing the 12 departed ones.
The biggest change came at defence, where the team needed it. Last season, they allowed 58 goals in 34 games, the seventh-worst mark out of 22 teams in the league. The Impact traded away leader and 2015 MLS Defender of the Year Laurent Ciman for full-backs Raheem Edwards and Jukka Raitala, while right-back Ambroise Oyongo signed in France and veteran Hassoun Camara retired. Garde signed six-foot-three defender Zakaria Diallo, and Canadian international full-back Michael Petrasso joined the team. The Impact hopes the new defence will solve their issues.
The midfield is also younger and more dynamic. Ignacio Piatti, 33, and Marco Donadel, 34, are the only midfielders over the age of 25. When attacking midfielder Blerim Džemaili returned to Italy to play for his former team, Bologna F.C.—which is part-owned by Impact owner Joey Saputo—the Impact acquired Algerian midfielder Saphir Taïder from Bologna. The Impact will miss Džemaili’s offensive skills and chemistry with Piatti, but Taïder is younger and more skilled, so it will be exciting to see what attack he can bring.
O Captain! My Captain!
With former captain Patrice Bernier retired, the Impact needs a player, or multiple players, to take over and become a leader. Goalie Evan Bush has been with the club since 2011, while Piatti is entering his fifth season with the Impact. Donadel, defender Víctor Cabrera and forward Dominic Oduro are the only other players who have been with the Impact since before the 2016 season. Each of them will need to step up their roles as leaders to integrate everyone into a unified team.
With an inexperienced group, the Impact needs maturity from their young stars. Samuel Piette, the 23-year-old Repentigny native, could be considered one of those leaders. The same goes for forward Anthony Jackson-Hamel, who scored the second-most goals last season, with nine.
With so many changes to the Montreal Impact, fans will see how they perform together starting March 4 in Vancouver against the Whitecaps.
Thousands of people eagerly left their houses two Saturdays in a row to witness a revolution in Montreal. The buzz around the usually empty Olympic Stadium was magical — the chants worthy of a European championship game — as thousands joined in singing “Montreal, Montreal, Montreal, olé olé olé.” The deafening crowd erupted with joyful cheers as Italian star Marco Di Vaio scored a goal during two back-to-back games. The reasoning for our joy? The Montreal Impact was in town.
Montreal’s sports scene is going through a change. Where it was until very recently dominated by our beloved Habs, the Impact’s debut in Major League Soccer was met with flying numbers and die-hard fans. Not to mention, the acquisition of two star Italian players in the likes of Alessandro Nesta and Di Vaio have Montrealers feeling as if they’re actually attending a real European soccer match.
The truth is that soccer is a European sport. ‘Fútbol’ is to Europe as hockey is to Montreal. They live it and breathe it every day. Therefore, seeing soccer succeed in Montreal is attributed to the fact that our city has the true characteristics of a mixed European city. We are a melting pot of international cultures that enjoy this sport more than anything. It is therefore reasonable to say that some of our residents have probably never even heard of hockey prior to living here, although they end up getting engulfed in our passion. However, give them a good soccer team, a sport that is internationally renowned and successful, and you have yourself a serious moneymaker and a lot of room for growth.
Now that we finally have a team in a respectable league that we can support, it’s no wonder the Impact is becoming a team stars will want to play for. Our fan base is incredible, our city passionate and winning here will be glorious for any athlete.
The players are feeling it and the fans are feeling it; a soccer team that will soon have the entire city behind it.
Last year, the Impact broke a Canadian record in attendance for a soccer game when David Beckham and the L.A. Galaxy came to the Olympic Stadium for the first time, beating Toronto and Vancouver’s attendance for their opening games when they first joined the MLS. Although there’s no doubt in my mind that soccer can succeed in these two other Canadian metropolises, it’s clear to all that Montreal has a soccer flare that these two haven’t quite grasped.
Finally, Montreal can boast about having multiple sports teams, especially one that can survive at the same time as the Montreal Canadiens. More than 38,000 showed up to watch the Impact’s 2-1 victory over the New York Red Bulls on Saturday, despite the Canadiens playing only 20 minutes after the game finished.
If you would have told me 10 years ago that Montreal would have a world class soccer team playing in the MLS, led by a star Italian forward, no less, I would have laughed and shook my head. But this is the reality for all sports fans: Montreal is a booming soccer town, and it will be for the years to come.
The year 2012 is coming to a close my dear friends, and what a year it’s been. From American politics to Montreal soccer, we’ve summed up some of the most interesting events of the past year here.
Image via Flickr.
Robin Della Corte Assistant news editor
In a province that is so often identified by it’s language issues, having an English mayor elected in office is a very symbolic moment for many people around the Montreal area.
Michael Applebaum’s election not only shows diversity, but a change in the right direction. After Pauline’s Marois’ election, I was terrified to live in a province where language mattered more than economic and social issues and where putting money towards ‘language police’ was a priority. After Applebaum’s victory against a French-speaking candidate I felt as if, politically and socially, things had changed slightly. Applebaum, being both English and Jewish, was elected, and it seemed as though most of the people in power didn’t care so much as to what language he spoke, but actually what he was going to do to improve our city and have the job done right.
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Stephanie La Leggia Life editor
Image via Flickr.
Even with all the warnings and evacuation calls, Hurricane Sandy came as kind of a shock to me. Many underestimated its power and potential level of deconstruction, destroying homes and diminishing people’s lives and belongings to a suitcase.
Although I may live in Montreal, I’m a New Yorker at heart, travelling down at least three times year. With family and friends to worry about, I constantly checked CNN for updates. Although the video footages and article were quite alarming, it wasn’t until I saw photos of the aftermath that the horror of it really hit me; photos of people line-up to get their fill of gas, giant trees in the middle of the street, the diminished Jersey shore boardwalk, and people’s belonging scattered about like they were insignificant pieces of junk.
While some simply lost power in their skyscraper apartment building, others were not so lucky. When people think of New York, they narrow their focus to Manhattan, forgetting about the other burrows that were so badly hit, like Staten Island. Not to mention the damages the hurricane caused in Haiti. The photos of the aftermath and the personal stories of those without a home and insurance really put things in perspective for me. While my biggest concern may have been an assignment due by the end of the week, these survivors had to worry about basic needs like heating and food, needs that we take for granted on a daily basis.
You ask me what affected me most this year as 2012 comes to an end, it’s Hurricane Sandy, a hurricane so powerful it stood up against the Big Apple.
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Image via Flickr.
Kevin Duarte Sports editor
The event that affected me the most in 2012 was the Montreal Impact’s inaugural season in Major League Soccer. To start, I am a diehard football fan… the real one, played with a round ball on the floor. Football, or to make it less confusing, soccer, is an integral part of my life. Right up there with breathing and eating, I’d say. The Impact expansion into the MLS finally gave me a chance to watch some decent soccer in my hometown. Prior to this year, Montreal was playing in the second tier of North American Soccer, a league that never really meant much at all. This past year, they just finished their first season in North America’s top flight. Fans got a chance to see some world-class players visit Saputo Stadium. More importantly for me, someone who studies the game as a coach, it was the higher quality of the sport that I enjoyed the most.
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Image via Flickr.
Casandra De Masi Staff writer
Thousands watched, as did I, as Pauline Marois gave her acceptance speech in September. She had just become the first female premier of Quebec, and in the same night lived through an alleged assassination attempt. It all happened so quickly and it almost overshadowed the election itself. Throughout the election campaign, the wedge between the Francophone and the Anglophone community became larger and sharper. There were arguments and all-around ignorant behavior from both sides. This was the icing on the spoiled cake. As someone who lives and works in a French community, but was raised in a primarily English household, it just puzzled me as to why so much emphasis was being put on language, with so many other issues plaguing our province.
As horrible as the shooter’s actions were, especially because he killed an innocent man, he led people to a realization. People realized that, ‘Hey, maybe we should band together and focus on things that affect all of us, no matter what language we speak.’
That week, people came together, condemning this man’s actions. Just to see people agreeing that we should learn to coexist, that this silly war needs to end, was refreshing. It was hopeful. It didn’t last long, but knowing it is possible is what counts.
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Image via Flickr.
Paula Rivas Managing editor
An event that kept me on the edge of my seat, as odd as it may sound to many people my age, was Obama’s victory in the American elections. The buildup from the presidential debates left my head spinning and I was looking forward to the elections like a child waiting for Christmas Eve.
The day of this historic event, I turned off my phone, avoided plans with any of my friends, and watched the CNN coverage like a hawk while Wolf Blitzer and other A-team reporters announced the advancement of the polls. My heart jumped with excitement as the state I spent 10 years of my life in, Maryland, turned blue in support for Obama. The blue wave that followed as the hours passed made me swell with pride to again see a glimpse of the United States that I love — not the ugly, homophobic and closed-minded side, but the side that many Canadians unfortunately don’t get to see. I’m talking about a United States that stands up to defend women’s rights when archaic restrictions were being suggested to govern women’s bodies and also to defend Hispanics when immigration laws were threatening to throw out hard-working citizens.
My own family was once living illegally as Hispanics in the States and we felt the harsh reality of being treated like second-class citizens. But most of all, to defend an America devoted to the idea that coming together as one is stronger than the idea that every man is out there for themselves. Thanks Obama, you made my year.
