Defender Nelson Rivas, announced Monday as the first Designated Player in the Montreal Impact’s history, is definitely anything but a sure thing.

He’s going into the week with an optimistic outlook. Despite the Impact’s disappointing finish in its final D-2 season Lowery feels he’s shown enough to warrant serious consideration.

But, then, there’s the matter of Montreal. The Impact is red-hot at the moment, earning 14 points out of the last 21 on the table. With the additions of MLS loaners Miguel Montano and Ryan Pore, the attack has been transformed. Evan Bush is the best keeper in NASL. Wouldn’t it suit Carolina best to ensure that the team most likely to make a Cinderella run from a low seed didn’t make the playoffs at all?

Undistracted from the task at hand in tonight’s match against the visiting FC Edmonton, getting the three points needed to close the gap between them and Minny, the Impact came through in the clutch with a 2-0 win and has almost climbed out of the hole that it has dug for itself with its dismal play in the first half of the season. Montreal is now just a single point behind Minnesota with each team having a game left on the schedule. Montreal owns the tiebreaker between the two teams.

In front of 12,247 fans Sunday, the home side gave head coach Nick De Santis the best possible birthday present, prevailing in a 1-0 decision over the high-flying Carolina RailHawks, who have already clinched first place in the NASL this season and with it a bye for the opening go-round.

Tonight’s adversaries played the final 60 minutes a man short but, despite this assistance, the best the Impact could manage was a 1-1 tie against the Puerto Rico Islanders.

Goalkeeper Evan Bush was named the NASL’s defensive player of the week Tuesday, after his stellar performance allowed the Impact to, ahem, only lose to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers by a 1-0 scoreline Saturday.

A combination of an FC Edmonton win and a Montreal tie or loss clinches a playoff spot for the Eddies. The Eddies have not lost to Atlanta so far this season.

As it turned out, things went a lot better for the Strikers than they did for the Impact. The teams avoided a third sister-kissing result with the home side coming away with their desired result in a 1-0 contest.

The club confirmed Wednesday that Senegalese forward Mignane Diouf was detained at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Sunday, accused of stealing a pair of headphones worth US$600.