Thursday, 31 May 2012

Marco Di Vaio. The missing piece?



Is there any doubt the city of Montreal was hungry for a designated player? Just take a look of the warm welcome at his arrival.


 

The missing piece in Jesse Marsch puzzle? At least is a great effort by Joey Saputo to complement, regardless the results, the good work the head coach has been doing to make a competitive team.



courtesy of montrealimpact.com

After a fine career in Italia Marco decided to leave Bologna, the team that gave him the stability he needed to finish 2nd leading scorer in 2008-09 season.






Personally, I have very good memories regarding Di Vaio in Malesani's Parma. This era of the gialoblu was a very interesting one, featuring Argentinian stars Ariel Ortega, Hernan Crespo, Azzurri stars Gianluigi Buffon and Fabio Cannavaro. Parma was the best era of Di Vaio's career, averaging 0.49 goals per game and therefore eventually leading him to the transfer to Juventus and call to the Nazionale.





We all hope Montreal Impact's attacking options will improve with the arrival of the striker. This added to the new stadium and the majority of the games at home are the advantages we have to fight for the playoffs this year.





Sunday, 27 May 2012

Many things can go wrong besides tactics. Colorado 3 Montreal 2.

Just when we thought we figured out the ideal attacking formation on the field the defensive back-line, which we are very proud of, decided to have a reckless night.

Besides the score, I am pleased of our overall performance last night. I am pleased to see how effective can this midfield be when Felipe does not have to be a box-to-box midfielder and Bernier is on the field complementing. It reminded us the first 5 games of the season when the only good thing was midfield transition.

The best combination is having Warner as a staying-home midfielder, Felipe as a trequartista and Bernier free on the field filling the holes of these two. It just gave the best results showcasing the Montrealer at his best. I'm very happy of Patrice performance last night.

The magic 4-2-3-1 makes ball possession and creative attacking easier and it is even more effective when you have the players to make it happen, it has been more than a month since I have been proposing this formation. It took us 13 games to find the right players for the right positions, I honestly loved the starter eleven last night, but since they are humans many things can go wrong besides the tactics.

Matteo Ferrari decided to play a very poor game in Denver. He was caught out of position many times, being the second goal a good example. The Italian wasn't bight with the ball on his feet either turning the ball over several occasions. I realized I was right when he was the first substitution.

Matteo Ferrari. Courtesy of  montrealimpact.com

Greg Sutton on the 3rd goal. Simple, he looked like he was at Claude Robillard warming up before the start of the training. Shameful.

On the other hand, Sanna Nyassi decided to shine all night on the right flank, with his limitations specially finishing but even then his shots did not go very wide. He was quick and created spaces making what Justin Mapp has been doing so far and moreover what Lamar Neagle has been incapable of doing previous matches.

Last but not least, I am not a big fan of blame the referees for our losses but these guys in grey didn't do a good job last night. Their bad decisions week in and week out are the real downside of the MLS and need to be addressed ASAP.

Another frustrating night for Impact fans, but the future still looks bright having more games left at home than away, with Marco Di Vaio arriving tonight and a Saputo Stadium ready to fit the right crowd to rock the road to the playoffs.

See you guys later.