Impact sign new head coach - Marco Schällibaum

I haven't either. But it does seem that many top Canadian players are from immigrant families and may have access to passports from their families' home country. There also seems to be a good number of top Canadian prospects that go to European academy teams. Those that can't go to Europe don't get the education they need to reach the top. That's the (simplified) problem with Canadian soccer. The hope is that with professional teams here with good academies, that will change

 

Interesting read AndyMead.
However, I don't see any anti-american posturing. Montreal's got a lot of promising americans that we all like. Even Jeb Browsky has a 'Jebi Knights' fan club of sorts. Valentin and Wenger are very well liked. And I think that Arnaud can be very usefull for us.

The issue was with the use of such players, Arnaud and Mapp specifically. Arnaud was employed for everything, everywhere in a rather stupid fashion by Marsch. It made Arnaud very vulnerable and magnified its limits. Why use Arnaud as a full back when you have Valentin and Camara on the bench??

The most frustrating experience for me probably has been Marsch subbing Ferrari for Mapp when looking for a goal while dropping Arnaud in defense. This kind of move is just so wrong, Saputo cannot have tolerated that. That resulted in losing the game 3-1. The lack of in game management was just too flagrant.

 

a lot of Canadians have at least one grandparent who can trace to European citizenship

 

I think Marsch's time was up in Mtl when Toronto destroyed Mtl 3-0 in at the Big O (or was it Stade Saputo?) Saputo was pissed after that game.

 

Im not sure about passports, but Im pretty sure there are different work permit rules for Commonwealth countries, of which Canada is a member.

 

Stade Saputo. Frings scoring on a free kick, straight to the goaler, Ricketts who moved out of the way to let the ball in. That was bad allright. I remember like yesterday, Nesta was in the attendance

 

bump

 

plus one.

At least we still have clueless Chivas USA to kick around.

 

Marco Schällibaum is a wonderful coach who has done an phenomenal job with this club this year, and clearly the Montreal Impact is the best Canadian team in MLS season 18.

 

Amway Canadian Champions

 

I can understand the earlier fears about Montreal steering away from domestic and American players, but Schällibaum has been master at properly utilizing all his players. He should be thoroughly commended for what he and his team have done with Justin Mapp. Andrew Wenger has also been playing very well under his system, and he's even been rotating in a bunch of home grown players like Karl Ouimette.

 

I sent him a box chocolate the other day..

 

Great job so far.

Everyone loved Hans Backe too in year 1 in 2010 but then we all saw how that turned out. Still early to see how this whole thing will turn out. But credit to him for what he has accomplished so far.

 

I looked back through the thread to see if I posted anything dumb. Looks like I didn't post at all. I don't think I pretended to know anything about Schallibaum, I was just scratching my head at firing Marsch after one season, as if you could be surprised at what that team looked like. If there was ever a "WYSIWYG" type of guy, he's it. Didn't seem like a great way to run a business, an expansion team firing a coach after one season where he didn't really do all that badly and had exactly the style you must have known he would, but yeah, they're winning now, so . . .

 

If anything, Marsch had changed the culture of the club in Year One. At its best in the last 20 years, the Impact had been a big family club, and it's something that we're seeing this year. People standing together and winning together.

Schallibaum is also a much better man-manager (with players and FO) than Marsch was last year.

 

Daniel, haven't seen you on the Voyageurs forum in years, what happened?

 

Life and Honduran heartbreak .

I haven't had the same passion for CMNT since Honduras '08, but I've stuck to being a regular supporter for IMFC in the last few years. I figured after 10k forum posts, I was set for a while !

 

Well said.

I think this shows, that there isn't any secret recipe in building a successful MLS franchise. What works in one market, won't necessarily work in another market. I think alot of people don't realize that Saputo has been in the business for 20 years, that's a lifetime in terms of North American Soccer franchises. He knows his market, and he deserves credit for making the changes that he has made both on, and off the pitch. It would be so easy for him, to stick with the cookie cutter team he had last season, but eventually that would have turned into another TFC.

 

Montreal could challenge for the cup this year. they could also makes waves in CCL. they look good.

 

The changes began last season, when they corrected errors, in getting rid of the likes of Donavan Ricketts, Justin Braun, Tyson Wahl, Josh Gardner. The foundation of the team is basically the same as last year. The only difference is that we actually have a coach who is capable of making it work. I like Jesse Marsch, but he was clearly over his head last season.

 

They have a solid side. They may get a points record the way they are winning.