Montreal Impact Archive

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Dos Santos returns to NASL: Named new Ottawa Fury FC coach

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/23/2013

Marc Dos Santos

Marc Dos Santos

Ex-Montreal Impact boss Marc Dos Santos is ending his two year-stint in Brazil and will return to the NASL.

On Thursday, Ottawa Fury FC President John Pugh announced that Dos Santos would be returning home to become the team’s head coach for its inaugural season in NASL.

Dos Santos coached the Impact youth side, was the senior team’s assistant coach when it reached the quarters of the CONCACAF Champions League, then coached the team to a Division-2 title. But, in the Impact’s final NASL season (2011), he cough, cough resigned when the team got off to a poor start and, eventually, missed the playoffs.

But, as a youth coach in Brazil, he made his way to the famed Palmeiras club — and earned a lot of respect.

Yet, there was a strain on his family. His wife is from Montreal. And the challenge of taking on an NASL expansion team — in Canada — was too much to resist. And, after meeting with the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group owners, he knew what his answer would be. With a PDL program already in place, he felt there was a commitment to win.
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Whitecaps’ defence-first strategy pays off in Montreal; Brovsky breaks nose and “maybe” his cheekbone

By
Mike Wyman
– 05/16/2013

Jeb Brovsky: Injured after collision with Jordan Harvey

Jeb Brovsky: Injured after collision with Jordan Harvey

The first leg of the Amway Canadian Championship final finished in a scoreless draw as the Vancouver Whitecaps played the Montreal Impact in front of an announced crowd of just over 12,000 fans at Saputo Stadium.

“It was a tight game tonight. Montreal has started the season very well with some excellent results. Tonight I think we did a good job of shutting them down, had a couple half chances ourselves,” said Vancouver head coach Martin Rennie.

“It would have been nice to have stolen one but overall we’ve given ourselves a good chance going into the second game. The game’s still alive. We get 10 days off before the next leg. It’ll be nice to be playing at home at BC Place but tonight I feel as if it was close game.”

The visiting side fielded a defensive lineup and left with the result for which it had hoped, to keep the home side off the scoreboard and return to their home pitch to try to prevail in Vancouver on the 29th of this month.

“I feel like on the road we’ve been a little bit too open. At times we’ve played quite well but our results haven’t been as good as I would have liked on the road so I felt we should become more difficult to play against,” Rennie opined. “I think the players did their jobs tonight. They made the game more compact and we weren’t as open and easy to play against.”
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Whitecaps lose Leveron to suspension: San Jose’s Chavez has ban reduced

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/15/2013

Johnny Leveron

Johnny Leveron

We love to complain about how referees continually sabotage the efforts of our favourite teams, and then look away when they make calls in our teams’ favours.

So, Whitecaps fans have something to chew on Wednesday morning. Would the Caps have been able to overcome the Galaxy by a 3-1 count Saturday had Johnny Leveron been sent off for his early two-footed scissor challenge on the Galaxy’s Jose Villarreal?

Leveron was given a yellow for the sliding foul he committed early in that match. But the MLS Disciplinary Committee ruled on it Wednesday, and deemed that it should have been red. Leveron has been suspended one game for a reckless challenge that endangered his opponent, and will miss the May 18 match against the Timbers.
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Schallibaum on Impact after comeback win: “They never gave up”

By
Mike Wyman
– 05/11/2013

Marco Schallibaum

Marco Schallibaum

Twice tying the score before getting the winner in extra time, the Montreal Impact climbed back into first place in the MLS Eastern Conference with a 3-2 decision over Real Salt Lake in a hard-fought, physical battle that had the home team get the game-winner in extra time.

“That’s a reason I like this team, they never give up,” said head coach Marco Schallibaum. “Today we played against a really good team and with our program the last two weeks (six games in 18 days) it’s amazing what they did on the field and their will to do well. They can play good football or they can play good football and also have lots of character. They showed that again today.”

Things did not start well for the home team as an own goal put it down in the opening minutes of play. Seven minutes after the opening whistle, RSL defender Lovel Palmer’s drive deflected off Matteo Ferrari’s foot and over Troy Perkins into the mesh.

Montreal managed to even things up before the first half came to an end despite showing signs of fatigue linked to having to play six games in an 18-day span. The visiting side dominated in the opening 45 minutes, making 11 attempts on the Impact goal while only having to defend against a half dozen forays on the part of their hosts.
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Henry brace enough to top late Impact surge

By
Mike Wyman
– 05/09/2013

Thierry Henry

Thierry Henry

The Montreal Impact began its game with the New York Red Bulls tied with its opponents and a pair of other sides atop the MLS Eastern Conference standings. The Impact ended it in fourth, albeit with a number of games in hand, after dropping a 2-1 match that would have represented something more tangible than a moral victory if a few things had worked out differently.

Two of the three goals came in added time — one in the first half and another in the second — with Thierry Henry notching both the home side’s tallies while Marco Di Vaio got one (and very nearly two) back for the visitors.

Controlling the play in the early going, New York had the first chances but couldn’t find an opening in the Impact defence. Jonny Steele tried to find Henry with a cross in the 12th minute but couldn’t connect with the former Arsenal star. Henry had a more viable chance four minutes later but rolled his shot past the far post.

The Impact showed more confidence in the middle third of the opening half and had a few chances. Sanna Nyassi, who with a bit of luck could have put his side ahead, just missed connecting with a sliding Andrew Wenger in the 19th, his cross too high for the forward to redirect into the New York goal.
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MLS salary update: More Canadians working in the league, but making less

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/06/2013

Dejan Jakovic: Now the No. 2 highest paid Canadian in MLS.

Dejan Jakovic: Now the No. 2 highest paid Canadian in MLS.

More Canadians are working in MLS this season than in 2012 — but those new jobs aren’t on the high-pay end of the scale.

The MLS Players’ Union released its salary update Monday, the day when the layers of secrecy are peeled away from the contracts that have been signed by the league’s players.

And what have we learned? That there are five Canadian players making US$35,125 this season, while eight more are on the books for base salaries of $46,500 each. Of those, only DC United’s Kyle Porter and TFC’s Kyle Bekker were able to squeeze some extra dough out of their deals to get a little bit more than their base contracts.

With Julian de Guzman now playing out the string with relegated Bundesliga 2. side Jahn Regensburg, he gives up his No. 1 spot on the Canadian rich list. Dwayne De Rosario, with a base number of $600,000, now takes over as the highest paid Canadian in MLS.
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After taking two-goal lead, Impact pegged back by Quakes

By
Mike Wyman
– 05/05/2013

Sam Cronin... scored equalizer

Sam Cronin… scored equalizer

The Goonies were good enough this afternoon. The San Jose Earthquakes erased a two-goal deficit to draw the visiting Montreal Impact in a 2-2 match played in close to 30 C heat at Buck Shaw Stadium.

The game could have resulted in either team claiming victory. That neither did was more due to the visiting Impact than to the host Earthquakes. The four key saves Impact goalkeeper Troy Perkins made in the opening half served as the main reason his side went into the interval up by a goal.

San Jose directed eight shots at the Montreal goal in the opening 45 minutes of play with several near misses coming in the opening quarter hour. Six minutes in Earthquakes forward Chris Wondolowski got the ball to a stealthy Rafael Baca, who unleashed a point-blank shot that Perkins pushed away.

Wondolowski, wearing the captain’s armband this afternoon, curled an 11th-minute corner kick towards the Montreal goal. The shot appeared to catch Perkins flat-footed but he managed to get a hand on it and redirect it harmlessly over the crossbar.
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Montreal coach Schallibaum: TFC could not deal with “injured tiger”

By
Mike Wyman
– 05/02/2013

Marco Di Vaio

Marco Di Vaio

For the first time in five years, the Amway Canadian Championship will not be awarded to Toronto FC, soundly drubbed by a Montreal Impact squad eager to erase its lacklustre performance of last Wednesday from its followers’ hearts and minds.

The 6-0 score probably did just that, provoking numerous pyrotechnic displays and enticing the almost 15,000 fans in attendance to end the game with repeated refrains of a Montreal standard usually reserved for the ice rink.

A contingent remained behind afterwards, singing as they awaited their heroes’ departure from Saputo Stadium for over an hour once hostilities came to an end.

“I felt all day that we were going to have a good result,” said head coach Marco Schallibaum. “I also felt it yesterday in training and during my pregame speech tonight. The guys were pumped.
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Tactical change pays off for Impact in victory over the Fire

By
Mike Wyman
– 04/28/2013

Marco Schallibaum

Marco Schallibaum

A change was as good as a rest for the Montreal Impact ,who rebounded from an awful outing against Toronto on Wednesday to recapture the top spot in the MLS Eastern Conference, taking a 2-0 decision from the visiting Chicago Fire in front of 19,773 fans at Saputo Stadium.

Coach Marco Schallibaum abandoed the 4-1-4-1 scheme the side has played since the beginning of the season in favour of a 4-4-2, with newcomer Daniele Paponi joining fellow former Bologna alumnus Marco Di Vaio up top while Patrice Bernier began the game on the sidelines for the first time since the 2013 schedule got underway.

The strategy paid off for the Impact fans were treated to a game that had their heroes dominating from about the 30-minute mark on with Paponi and Di Vaio both finds the back of the net in the second half.

The opening 45 saw the visiting side take the play to their hosts but without converting, not that the Fire didn’t have opportunities.

Midfielder Patrick Nyarko had his shot from the top of the box deflected before it was controlled by Impact goalkeeper Troy Perkins, who also made an important stop two minutes later on midfielder Jeff Larentowicz.
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TFC continues Cup dominance of the Impact

By
Mark Polishuk
– 04/25/2013

Doneil Henry

Doneil Henry

The Impact is going to need its own version of the “Miracle In Montreal” if it’s going to finally defeat Toronto FC in an Amway Canadian Championship series.

The Reds took command of the tie with a 2-0 win in the opening leg at BMO Field, putting the Impact in dire straits as they head to Saputo Stadium for the reverse fixture on May 1. Granted, the Impact’s hole is not as large as the one TFC dug themselves out of in 2009 (when their 6-1 win in Montreal overcame a huge goal-differential deficit and clinched the club’s first Voyageurs Cup) but the Reds’ current two-goal edge gives the Impact have little room for error next Wednesday.

“We’re definitely capable of scoring two, three or four goals in a game,” goalkeeper Evan Bush said. “When it comes to Cup games crazy things happen and hopefully we can get on the board early next week, dictate the play and get the result we need.”

The Reds are now 7-0-2 all-time against Montreal in Voyageurs Cup play. It scarcely seems to matter who wears the jerseys for either club in this competition, whether it be the first-choice starters or, as was the case on Wednesday, many of the backups.

“No offence to anybody but to be fair it was pretty much our reserve team out there, a lot of us young boys,” midfielder Emery Welshman said. Read the rest of this entry »

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