On Tuesday the Montreal Impact will play the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal against Mexican side Club Pachuca. This will be the first competitive game the Impact take part in after a disastrous 2014 MLS season. The second leg will take place in Montreal on March 3, at Olympic Stadium.
Montreal finished first in their group ahead of the New York Red Bulls and C.D. FAS of El Salvador. The Impact finished with an impressive three wins and one draw, finishing fourth overall. Club Pachuca also won their group, finishing ahead of Municipal of Guatemala and Real Espana of Honduras.
Club Pachuca currently sit in tenth in the eighteenth team Liga MX having won three matches out of seven in the Clausura. This will be Montreal’s first competitive match of 2015, only playing a few friendly matches in Mexico in the lead up to this match.
To make things interesting, Last Word on Sports has chosen JC Zambrano to make a pitch as to why he thinks Club Pachuca will win the tie and John Richan will make a pitch for the Montreal Impact.
Why Club Pachuca will win:
Club Pachuca, also known as Los Tuzos, or the Gophers, are a team that has made both the Clausura and Apertura playoffs last year, losing the Clausura Championship by one goal to Leon at home in May. They may not have had a strong start to their Liga MX season, however, their recent form show that they are beginning to find their stride. They are led by a new manager this campaign, 39 year old Uruguayan Diego Alonso, who likes to play with one striker up top along with a false number 9 who is supported by attacking midfielders.
There are two young and rising stars on the club that will provide fits for Montreal’s defenders, 22-year-old Jurgen Damm and 19-year-old Hirving Lozano. Damm plays from the right wing as the false 9 on the team, while Lozano plays on the left wing. From these positions the two are able to create chances for teammates and themselves. Each have one goal on the season, while Damm leads the team in assists with two. If the two continue to improve and begin leading Pachuca to wins, it will only be a matter of time before they continue their roles with the Mexican national team. Lozano and teammate Erick Gutierrez are already part of the national team’s U20 team.
While the team is relatively young, Alonso has done a nice job of fielding a veteran backline to go along with 42-year-old, and former national team member, ‘keeper Oscar Perez. Mexican national team member Miguel Herrera is solid at the center back position, while team captain Aquivaldo Mosquera fields the other center back position. The other change made by manager Alonso was to move midfielder and Ecuador national team member Walter Ayovi to the left back position. Ayovi now pushes the pace from that position helping to feed Lozano and the lone striker, typically German Cano.
The Gophers have the advantage of having seven games under their belt already in 2015, while the Impact will be fielding a team for their first competitive action on Tuesday. This bodes well for the Mexican club since Montreal has completely rebuilt their defense in the off season, meaning that the back line will perhaps go through some growing pains early on and bodes well for Pachuca’s offensive minded players. Another negative for the Montreal defense is that goalkeeper Evan Bush finally takes the reigns as the full time starter, there is no way to know what type of results the Impact can expect from him, but he will surely be tested often and early in the first leg.
Finally, Montreal struggled to score goals in 2014. After scoring 50 in 2013, that number dropped to 38 in 2014, finishing as the third worst attack in MLS last season, that’s a 24% drop off from the year before. Losing their leading goal scorer, Marco Di Vaio (7 goals), to retirement does not help and now the “burden” rests on Jack McInerney’s shoulders to carry the goalscoring load. Pachuca’s back line has the advantage and should be prepared to handle McInerney, Andres Romero, Dominic Oduro or anyone else Montreal decides to play at the top.
Line up builder frame:
Why the Montreal Impact will win:
The Impact will be coming into the matchup with Pachuca fresh and eager to play their first competitive match of 2015. Montreal comes into the game with a vastly changed lineup from a year ago. The Impact have completely rebuilt their backline, highlighted by Belgian international Laurent Ciman and former Chicago Fire stalwart Bakary Soumare. It will all start at the back for the Impact as they will need a team in midseason form in check. Club Pachuca struggle to score goals and if Laurent Ciman can keep Pachuca players Damm and Lozanoin locked down the Impact will give themselves a chance going into the second leg at the Olympic Stadium.
The Montreal Impact have been training in Mexico for a couple of weeks now in order to get acclimatized to the weather conditions and high altitude in Mexico. This is always a challenge for teams from Canada and the United States when going to play games in Mexico. The Impact have had the chance to play against Liga MX side Cruz Azul in a friendly and carried themselves well. The mood in training camp has been very positive over the last month and Head Coach Frank Klopas looks like he is more comfortable with his player selection options than in 2014.
Scoring goals might be the biggest struggle for the Impact going into 2015. This was one area the Impact failed to upgrade in the offseason. Luckily for Montreal, Club Pachuca has failed to keep a clean sheet this season in Liga MX. If Nacho Piatti is able to get forward to support McInerney, the Impact have a chance to score a crucial away goal. Furthermore, Pachuca left back Ayovi is 35 years old and tweaked his ankle in Saturday’s match. The Impact will want to try and expose this weakness, and it could open up the opportunity for Dominic Oduro to see some minutes in order to utilize his speed.
The return leg in Montreal will be sandwiched between two very difficult Liga MX games for Club Pachuca. On February 27, Club Pachuca will take on Tijuana who currently sit in 2nd place in Liga MX followed by Club America on March 7 who are currently in third and the 2014 Apertura Champions. Depending on how the first leg goes, the focus for Pachuca may not be on the second leg.
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