Montreal keeping the playoff dreams alive.

Don't underestimate your enemy. I hope is something Merrit Paulsen learned last Saturday.
He decided to rest important players like De Rosario, Pontius and Boskovic that night because, I guess, substitutes are enough to beat an expansion team.

Well, obviously things didn't turn up as expected.

Bernier and Warner. Courtesy of impactmontreal.com 

Impact played another strong game at home. Montreal controlled the midfield while defenders were sharp all 90 min.

Again the Warner-Bernier duo was close to perfect, this allowed to have more presence in the midfield and create more chances overall.

We didn't start the game well.  Sometimes we seemed to be more concerned about not losing the game keeping a harmless, low paced possession. This reminded me when we played against TFC in the Canadian Championship -bad memories-. Later on, around minute 22, Bernier made a great accurate pass in the box to Di Vaio and goal!!

Great classy finishing by the Italian and yes, first shot of the game first goal. Deserved? Hard to tell because DC United didn't do much before that either. 

Montreal, again in the situation of do or die, didn't risk much in the attack focusing a lot on having a flawless defense and tying to preserve the lead at all cost. This style has benefited Montreal lately because our all-around midfielders can pretty much attack and defend at any time -thanks Jesse- and all of the sudden in the second half Collen Warner had a clear run for the ball in the box, after another top class pass from Bernier, but received a clear contact from the central defender getting the penalty shot called from the referee. This was probably a non-existent call in Serie A, but MLS has been consistent on this particular type of play and Hassun Camara or Matteo Ferrari know something about it. 

The rest of the game was an open 2-0 typical scenario where Montreal counter attacked a low paced DC United in several occasions and after three or four attempts the third goal arrived. Patrice Bernier, who outclassed the opponents all game, made a 70 meters run to kill Hamid with a shot to the near post. Thanks Patrice!, thanks.

These are some enjoyable times in Montreal, specially while the playoffs hopes are alive.

Now, the next opponent is the red hot Columbus Crew and Federico Higuain. I've been saying this before the game with San Jose and here I go again. If we win this match we have a great chance to make the playoffs.

Here are the highlights from the game.


 

Another 3-0 loss for Montreal.

Can we go any worse? 

Before the game we knew we'd miss all the injured/suspended players and performance would be affected but we also wanted to experiment how deep our squad is and how dependent is the team on certain players. 

I don't want to take away any credit to DC United, the did the right things and availed our errors wisely. I don't know why I enjoy watching playing Boskovic, maybe because he reminds me in some way to what Fernando Redondo, Argentinian and Real Madrid legend, treated the ball and set the pace to the game. 

The truth is we thought our squad was deep and is here where we face the reality of an expansion team and the dilution of the league talent, but we will develop this subject in another post.

Can we save a player from last night? wow, not even Davy Arnaud, who always makes solid performances, was victim of the fatigue of the last few games where traveling and little rest has been the rule, especially if he plays all 90 minutes in every single match. Here I blame Marsch a little, especially when he made no substitutions in the win against Houston after winning 4-2 with 30 minutes left, he could have freshen the midfield and avoid extra tax key players like Felipe, Mapp or Arnaud. 

We also have Sinisa Ubiparipovic, very erratic last night; he couldn't make a decent play in the entire match. I've always been a fan of him, he came last year and gave us sparks of magic but never forget it Montreal was still playing on 2nd division (NASL). I was very happy Jesse Marsch kept him on the team and coming off the bench he has done some good things when the team is on full potential. But there is a big difference when you want Sinisa to start the game and carry your MLS team on the shoulders. He simply hasn't been able to fill that role. He is like our own MLS Guti, referencing to the role Jose Maria Gutierrez played last decade with Real Madrid who was unable to pull out a good performance when starting the game but did great things off the bench. Although Sinisa hasn't been particularly spectacular coming off the bench either. 

I also blame Jesse Marsh for persisting on using Nyassi as a forward, what are we? Spain using a false 9? He has never performed well in this position and you can see he tends to go to the flanks and make the plays from there because he is a natural winger. I would rather have Arnaud as a center forward than Sanna Nyassi and having forwards on the bench like Sebrango or Montanio makes me really think about how we are using our tools. 

Marco Di Vaio, we better wait two or three more games before start evaluating his performance. 

At the end, we need Bernier, Ferrari, Rivas, Felipe and Warner the 90min and Marco Di Vaio adapted to MLS to compete in this league.

   

Pregame notes vs Portland Timbers.

Last week Montreal gave another step forward  and  is starting to feel more part the pack in MLS rather than an expansion team,

 It’s scary knowing we already played a quarter of our schedule and we are unable to to create quality attacks. It is time to focus on our weaknesses and find a way to be less vulnerable, because 1 win, 5 losses and 2 ties is not an exciting record specially when Montreal is struggling to attract new fans into this new project. 

That night in DC, before the end of the game, Jesse Marsch reminded all of us how different can the options be with Corradi or Braun on the field, especially being one of the most effective games for the Italian since he arrived when winning almost all air duels creating several opportunities for Nyassi who unfortunately spent most of the night offside, but that’s another discussion.  Bernardo, who obviously lacks Braun’s speed is very good positioning the body and winning headers which that night gave another dimension to Impact’s attack. Not that I like the abuse of long balls we played  in DC but at least we have Bernardo to start in those attacks. With Braun on the field, well unfortunately nothing happens. 

We need a guy that play behind the forwards and make that final pass we are all waiting. We have that guy and has the number 28 on his back. Sinisa Ubiparipovic has not the best defending qualities and I imagine that is why Felipe has been starting all games, because the Brazilian is an all around midfielder, the favorite profile for Jesse Marsch. But it is time to make a change in the approach of the game. The duo Felipe-Bernier or Felipe-Warner is what has established Montreal’s character in the league where everywhere I read or listen comments about our city the only good thing I hear is ‘’The Impact is not an easy team to play against’’.  That is a good reputation, I like it, but we are not a dangerous team when in possession of the ball. 

The approach I would take in the next games, or at least I would try it against Timbers today, is to use the double pivot Bernier-Warner knowing both midfielders have played very well in previous games and have Ubiparipovic with 2  wingers like Mapp and Arnaud or Neagle or Nyassy in the attack with only one forward building a 4-2-3-1. This way the Serbian won’t have much defensive chores and might concentrate to distribute the ball with to attackers.  because is there where Felipe has failed in the last 5 games. I don’t remember another good pass besides the one to Nyassi to complete the 1st ever MLS goal on Arnaud’s header. I also don’t think is fair either to relegate Ubiparipovic to the bench after showing his good touch against Toronto.

According to the latest trends on the trainings, I know this formation is not what is on Marsch’s mind but in my opinion is the best way to use our players. Because Justin Mapp and Sinisa Ubiparipovic, being two of our most skilled soccer players, don’t have the rhythm to defend the way the coach wants.

When looking the forwards options, with Justin Braun with a mild injury, Andrew Wegner absent and Fucito traded we might see Eddy Sebrango playing at least 10 min tomorrow.

Here a video after the training.