With a bit less than 11 months to go until Christmas 2015, Montreal soccer fans got an early Impact Christmas- or late, depending how optimistic you are. On Tuesday, January 27th, the club’s management group handed over four new players for IMFC fans to be giddy and rejoice about for a little while.
The day started off with the introduction of their newest signing, Laurent Ciman, at the Olympic Stadium. The 29-year-old Belgian will join the Impact after playing the past decade in Belgium’s top league and the past six for ten-time champions Standard de Liege. The Impact are fortunate to have landed a top-level center back like himself, who’s main reason to come to the city of Montreal was to receive treatment for his autistic daughter.
A mainstay on the Belgian national team since 2010, Ciman will bring a load of experience to the squad and must needed support on the backline that was easy to pierce through last season. He will join former MLS All-Star Bakary Soumare in the middle of the defensive line, which already makes it look like a tough defence to score against.
Then came the big time presents. Technical director Adam Braz announced a “major trade” for the club. As reported earlier in the week from LWOS, they sent midfielder Felipe Martins and the top spot in the MLS Allocation ranking for left back Ambroise Oyongo, midfielder Eric Alexander, an international spot and allocation money. The Red Bulls have already made used of the spot in the allocation ranking, signing USMNT midfielder Sacha Kljestan today.
Not done there, after an already crazy day, Braz used the allocation money obtained from New York to acquire forward Dominic Oduro from Toronto FC, who are also strapped for cash with three designated players on their roster.
At the end of the day, the Impact fulfilled their off-season plan quite nicely with a centre and left back, another solid midfielder to add even more depth at the position and a much needed striker to help Jack McInerney with his duties and provide competition to the team’s starting striker job.
Heading into the off-season, management knew they had to fix many issues, their biggest problems were their defence and their absence of forwards. Using the MLS Dispersal Draft of former Chivas U.S.A. players, the Impact selected left back Donny Toia and took the former Chicago Fire centre back Soumare in the second stage of the Re-Entry Draft. After acquiring 21-year-old Victor Cabrera on loan from River Plate in Argentina, the Impact backline was already vastly improved since last season.
The signing of Ciman is an added bonus as the team’s younger players like Maxim Tissot, Eric Miller, Karl Ouimette and Wandrille Lefevre will have an opportunity to play behind these veterans and watch, before they hold the burden of becoming starters themselves.
With Oyongo, if he stays long, the defensive line will consist of 3 new faces, with an original Impact member, Hassoun Camara on the right side. Krol will be a valuable piece on the left side as he showed last season that he has the ability to get upfield and play as a left wing back, but his defensive game needs improvement.
The wish to add an experienced striker also came true with Oduro. Failing to sign former Italian international Alberto Gilardino, the Impact headed into training camp with only one striker with legitimate MLS experience. Homegrown Anthony Jackson-Hamel underwent surgery for a sports hernia while Santiago Gonzalez is out on loan. Third overall draft pick Romario Williams was a default second on the depth chart behind Jack Mac.
Oduro will come in and somewhat replace Marco Di Vaio’s creativity. Di Vaio loved to play just onside and looked for the through balls. He was smart about it and when he penetrated through, he scored big time goals. The speedy Ghanaian Oduro plays the same way as Di Vaio, always on the edge of being offside, however Oduro uses his speed to blow by defenders. One of the fastest players in the league, the Montreal mdfield will have to adjust their tempo from when he plays and when the technically smart McInerney plays.
The midfield is arguably one of the better midfields in the MLS. DP Ignacio Piatti, captain Patrice Bernier and former captains for EPL and Serie A teams, Nigel Reo-Coker and Marco Donadel, join the more underrated wide midfielders in Justin Mapp, Andres Romero, Dilly Duka and now Alexander. In what will most likely be a 4-2-3-1 formation, Bernier, Reo-Coker, Donadel and Calum Mallace will be the holding defensive midfielders while Piatti and Alexander will be used on the left side of the midfield, Romero and Mapp on the right and Duka as the attacking midfielder.
Tissot and Blake Smith, returning from loan, may also be able to step in on the wide sides and allow Romero or Piatti to play the attacking midfielder.
We saw last season some chemistry develop being Piatti, Romero and Duka and coach Klopas hopes the explosiveness from those three continues this season as the Impact plays two games in the CONCACAF Champions League Quarter-Final against Pachuca on February 24 and March 3.
Adam Braz and his large stature played the role of Santa Clause with an early Impact Christmas on Tuesday as fans got to see which plays will don the bleu-blanc-noir in less than a month’s time. Braz and Klopas can sleep easily now, knowing their roster is in a great position to bring the team victories.
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