What a pathetic finish to the season, but hardly surprising. Maybe they thought the season ended in May or June because of all the Europeans they have. They were certainly useless after June. The team played with zero energy in road games for most of the year, like they were disinterested. Last night, the only time they showed energy, aside from a brief spurt in the 2nd half, was to take cheap shots at the Houston players at the end. If they’d put that energy to actually playing soccer, maybe the season would’ve gone better because there was certainly some talent. Then again, when a coach shows as much hot-headed indiscipline as Schallibaum, it’s hardly surprising that the team acts the same way. I’ve never been as angry at this team as I am now. They weren’t thrashed by a team that was 10x better than them. They lost because of a lack of energy and a complete indiscipline that was typical of the second half of the season.
I don't think the fans understand the affect MLS travel has on players. My son played in Norway for a while. His longest trip was a 3 hours by plane and bus. When you talk to English players, they complain about the 3 hour bus ride across the country. MLS is a continental league. Players not prepared for the wear and tear of a long season with lots of travel run out of gas about August. It happens to every team. It happened in spades to Montreal this year. I watched the game last night. The final 10 minute were an embarrassment for the Impact. The owners need to work on the coach and players. Discipline needs to be enforced or Montreal will build a reputation it will not be able to overcome. You don't get many 50/50 calls when you are known as a problem. I really liked this franchise back in its division 2 days. I hope they can find that magic again. Bon Chance in 2014!
I think the age of our squad caught up to us, especially with Schallibaum's lack of rotation. It's not fair to only judge the manager though, his coaching staff, especially the fitness coach, must be looked at too. And De Santis didn't really have a stellar year in anything this season either. I really hope that something will change: be it a style, managerial or playing staff change because these last two months were just awful. We could barely get out of our own zone and just looked disjointed all the time. I heard rumors of Nesta being the new manager. That doesn't strike me with a lot of confidence but if true we'll see what he does. If Marco stays though he needs to be asked what he learned this season and if he's willing to change his ways otherwise it could be a repeat of this season, or even worst, we continue the slump onto the new season...
Also it's probably a mentality thing. Every 'leader' here is a sore loser and played the victim card this season. Saputo rants on social media, De Santis gets involved and suspended, Schallibaum always blamed the referees or luck, Arnaud's a moaner... What is good though is that three of those four could leave and be replaced but Saputo needs to calm down and think from a sporting perspective.
Oh its definitely fair to blame the manager. Burnt out the players, went with a horrible lineup for the playoffs. What was the attacking strategy? Give the ball to mapp to give to Di Vaio lol. Yeah the impact were good at the start of the season, because they had good players. I could explain this a lot more but it's not worth the effort, now their going to hire a player with no coaching experience to be head coach? I think I no longer consider myself an Impact supporter. Also I don't give a flying ******** weather they took cheap shots at Houston, the game was over, Rivas could have had 2 red cards in that game, everyone played shit defense, wenger was useless (might as well have been playing with ten men) Pisanu didn't even really join the attack, never mind the wingbacks. That game was an absolute disgrace, and I'm not even referring to the nonsense that happened when the Impact had long lost it. The sad thing was, their were some glimpses of what should have and could have happened had they had a better manager, best example was when Di Vaio t'd up Wenger on a platter and Wenger just stood at the top of the box like oh, am I supposed to be playing? Overall a highly unprofessional performance with the exception of maybe a few players( I don't really know what happened after the 75th minute because I had to stop watching. Now I gotta hear all this bull like Houston's an amazing playoff team again when really Montreal just made them look good on that day.
Dafobe: Saputo's just playing to the fans (would-be customers). Crazy: You're right. I understand it. People who think MLS typically think parity but home advantage is quite significant in MLS. I crunched numbers late in the regular season and season results were like 51% home wins, 26% draws and 23% away wins. That said, EVERY team in MLS has lots of cross-continental travel, not just Montreal.
An Instagram photo of Montreal defender Wandrille Lefevreholding an air pistol with a caption "With Donald now in power...better safe than sorry" has earned him a suspension from his MLS club, but how long it remains in effect remains to be seen. https://www.socceramerica.com/artic...fevres-suspension-disputed.html?edition=17074