No new Canadian prospects invited to Impact’s evaluation camp

The Montreal Impact announced that three players from its NASL roster won’t be part of the team’s pre-MLS evaluation camp.

And none of the six new players the Impact have invited to the camp carry Canadian passports.

The Impact announced Monday that midfielders Anthony Le Gall and Antonio Ribeiro, as well as defender Hicham Aaboubou, will not be part of the team’s pre-MLS camp. Aabouobou is a Moroccan-born Canadian resident who has called Montreal home since 2006; Ribeiro, who spent the 2009 season with the San Jose Earthquakes, is Canadian.

Le Gall is one of the French players brought over by the Impact over the past two seasons to shore up its NASL roster, a move which ultimately led Montreal to take a massive plunge in the standings, missing the playoffs this season.

According to the official statement by the Impact, striker Ali Gerba, who was speculated to be on the team’s cut list, will miss the camp due to injury — and hasn’t been chopped. Also on the injured list is striker Eduardo Sebrango, who came out of retirement to help the ailing Impact at the midpoint of the season.

But, what’s interesting is that Ryan Pore and Miguel Montano — two players who spurred the Impact’s surge over the final month of the season, as the club made a desperate push to make the NASL postseason — were both listed on the evaluation camp roster. Both of those players are on loan — Pore from the Portland Timbers, Montano for the Seattle Sounders. They are still committed to other clubs. But the fact that Pore and Montano are going to keep their Montreal auditions going may be a sign that there is interest by coach Jesse Marsch to make deals that could keep them around.

Marsch invited six new players to join 19 established Impact players at the camp; most notable of those is Wes Knight, the American midfielder/defender who was cut by the Vancouver Whitecaps at the end of August.

Also on the list is 20-year-old Guatemalan national-team midfielder Jose Javier Del Aguila; Orlando City (USL) forward Jamie Watson; Jeremiah White, an American forward who has played in Poland and Saudi Arabia; French defender Alexis Zywiecki; and former Chicago Fire midfielder Bratislav Ristic.

Maxime Crepeau, who went to Mexico with the Canadian team for the U-17 World Cup and got injured in the first game of the tourney, will also be at camp.