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First Thoughts
After responding to a lethargic and out of character performance away to Columbus Crew with a home win over Houston Dynamo, the schedule over the next couple of weeks looks favourable for coach Marco Schällibaum and his charges. It sees them play Colorado Rapids, Toronto FC and Chivas USA. Outside of “401 Derby” being a rivalry match, these are teams the Impact should be able to come out of with 7 points from a possible 9 points, if not a clean sweep.
The Rapids are a young team that are dealing with its fair share of injury issues and are currently on a 4 match winless streak, the last of which was a 3-0 hiding at the hands of a red hot Portland Timbers in the cauldron that is JELD-WEN Field. All of this being said, coach Oscar Pareja has his team playing a good brand of soccer and is getting the most out of his core group of emerging talent combined with the guidance of key veterans. The Rapids have a similarly tight schedule over the next few weeks, but also one that is significantly more difficult, playing Montreal Impact, New York Red Bulls and DC United with little rest in between.
Keep Thinking
Knowing that the seemingly endless stretch of bye weeks are now over and, unlike most of the other teams in MLS, Montreal won’t be losing any key players to CONCACAF Gold Cup call-ups. This is a key point in the season for Montreal, so this is a good chance to put a string of good results together and start to pull away from the rest of the pack as top dogs in the Eastern Conference.
The Impact finally look fully healthy for the first time in quite a while with the returns of Andrea Pisanu and Daniele Paponi being most notable. When the other teams in MLS look at Montreal Impact the main focus is to stop Marco Di Vaio, but having other players capable of being difference makers like Pisanu and Paponi to go along with a much improving Andrew Wenger and a player in Felipe that looks to be finally rounding into form after what has been a slow start to the season gives Schällibaum options to play with and keeps the opposition guessing.
The Rapids have hands down been the most unfortunate team in the league when it comes to injuries and it has proven to be a challenge for Pareja to put out a solid team every week. However, even with all of these struggles they are still within a point of the final playoff spot and could be a team that goes under the radar in the second half of the season. The injuries have also had an added benefit of sorts with key players getting major minutes. Players such as goalkeeper Clint Irwin stepped up in a big way for the injured Matt Pickens and is in the conversation for MLS All-Star voting and Dillon Powers is growing at such a rate that he has cemented himself within the starting XI and was a key reason why Pablo Mastroeni could be rather shockingly traded to Los Angeles Galaxy.
These are two teams that play contrasting styles and while they both have shown to be good counter attacking teams they do so in different ways. Montreal play a more measured and methodical style predicated on staying solid and compact while Colorado play much more aggressive and look to cover as much of the pitch as possible. When it comes to counter attacking, the Impact rely on the likes of Alessandro Nesta or Patrice Bernier to come up from a deeper position and work combinations or play the role of “quarterback” and spray the ball to the wide players like Justin Mapp, Andrea Pisanu, Andres Romero and Sanna Nyassi. On the other hand, the Rapids almost exclusively look to hit balls into space for its speedy trio of rookie Deshorn Brown, Atiba Harris and Edson Buddle to run onto and make matches less physical and more into track meets.
In the End
Both teams have busy schedules to contend with and will likely rotate a few players but Montreal have proven to have one of the deepest squads in the league with the overwhelming majority getting key minutes throughout the season so far. This is a crucial run of games going into the July and August where Montreal will play its games in hand and have a full squad while opponents are dealing with international call-ups. Colorado could pose a few problems when it comes to defending speed. However, outside of that, this match should not prove overwhelming.
Prediction
Montreal Impact 2-0 Colorado Rapids
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