Our series of USL coach interviews continues, as Kamal Hylton chatted with FC Montreal’s head coach Phillippe Eullaffroy before the team’s first season. In the interview, we touch on a variety of topics including Eullaffroy’s academy coaching background in France and within Montreal, the importance of developing the Quebecois talent pool, the importance USL will have for the Canadian Men’s national team program, CONCACAF Champions League hero Cameron Porter and the players fans can look forward to seeing.

RedNation Online: How are preparations going ahead of FC Montreal’s first season in the USL?

Phillippe Eullaffroy: So far preparations are going well. We started pre-season camp a few weeks ago and have already played four games against local Quebec universities. The next step in our preparation is to travel to Florida next week and play the Tampa Bay Rowdies before playing Ottawa Fury. Playing those schools was good for conditioning but we still don’t know what level we’re at going into the USL season because the gap between university and USL is pretty big. Playing against NASL opposition like Tampa Bay and Ottawa will be good for us, letting us see if we’re ready for the season or not.

RNO: How do you feel your academy coaching experience in France (with Stade de Reims and Troyes) has helped you coming over to the Montreal soccer market?

Phillippe Eullaffroy: My experience in France has definitely has brought me knowledge and experience. When I had the mission to build the Montreal Impact academy, I came in already knowing what the priorities were and what was important. When you start constructing a building you have to start with the foundation, so my past experiences helped me choose the direction that we want the academy to go and the steps we need to take to reach those goals. It also helped me realize what a player needs to reach the professional level and to have a good relationship with the first team coaching staff, having a good relationship in that area is obviously crucial to the development structure. So far since we’ve started the academy three and a half years ago, the progression is very fast and the level of academy players has improved very quickly. Now the players need more experience and playing time at the USSDA level and now at the USL level. It will be curious to see how they adapt to a higher professional level within North America and at what speed will they be able to adapt and develop their skills.

RNO: Do you think you’re going to rely on your network of contacts within the Canadian University system (having previously coached in Montreal) when developing FC Montreal?

Phillippe Eullaffroy: Maybe rely is a bit of a strong word. Although we have a very good relationship with Canadian and American schools, only 2% of the players come from that route through tryouts at the reserve level. We do stay in touch with coaches when they have players of interest, testing them out to see if they have potential. For FC Montreal, we’re feeding that team with our academy players and the main source of our players will come from within. The roster for this season will be made up of 26 academy players. 100% of our players will be coming from the academy, but we’re not closing doors on players coming outside of that, including the university network.

RNO: Having done almost every role within the Montreal Impact coaching staff, what was it about this opportunity that interested you at this point in your career?

Phillippe Eullaffroy: It’s very motivating and exciting, this next step is going to be a big one that will bring me a lot of experience, taking the role of Academy Director and Head Coach that I’ve been doing for the last 10-15 years to a professional level. It’s a challenge for young players, coming from an amateur level and now moving into a professional level against professional players and professional teams. It’s the same for me and my staff, even though it’s still part of the academy, we’re going to be running a professional team.

RNO: As an Academy Director, how important is continuing to develop the Quebecois player pool and how much has it grown/changed throughout your various roles within Montreal’s system?

Phillippe Eullaffroy: First of all, the Montreal Impact want to have its core group of players coming from within the academy. This is part of the club’s identity. Young players from Quebec now know they can reach the professional level staying home. The pathway for these players to have a professional soccer career is now much clearer - helping grow the player pool in the province. Quebec has 8 million people and let’s say more than 100,000 young players playing soccer. Now we have the tools to help identify more potential players within the province and are adding to that with the new training centre being built to be finished by the end of the summer and new the USL team. We’re confident we can bring through good players into the first team, ready to contribute and make an impact. A goal of the club is to eventually have 40% of the club’s players come from the academy. I think in the next 6-7 years we’ll be able to reach this objective.

RNO: So you think it’s unfair to say Montreal Impact fans care more about European players than locally grown talent?

Phillippe Eullaffroy: It may be unfair, but that’s the case everywhere. Coming from France it’s the same story, always believing that player coming from outside are better than local players. Even when I speak to academy directors in other countries like Japan, they say they suffer from the same thing and it’s the same perception. This doesn’t bother me or the club, but it’s up to us and the players within the academy to work even harder and be better players when reaching the first team. Maybe this will change a bit, but I’m not sure because an academy player or homegrown player could be doing will for 10 games before having a bad one and you’ll still hear “They’re not good enough” or “Players from Europe are better”.

RNO: What would you say is the Montreal Impact’s philosophy/style of play and how does FC Montreal fit in?

Phillippe Eullaffroy: That’s a BIG question. The objective of a successful club is to have the same identity, philosophy and style of play from U-8 to the first team. Obviously this isn’t easy to put in place, but we’re a young club, young academy, and we might not be able to copy 100% of the first team’s identity but we should be able to get to 70%-80% of the team’s principle of play. Right now the first team has a more counter attacking and their objective is to have a more possession-based offensive style, but that takes time especially with so many players coming from outside our system. The academy’s style of play has a few main objectives, focused on scoring goals, making lots of runs deep, getting players in the offensive end of the pitch and play with emotion. We’d rather win a game 5-4 than 1-0.

RNO: Do you think coaching this group of U-23’s in the PDL last season gives you an advantage or asset going into USL?

Phillippe Eullaffroy: It’s going to be a big asset, because they know how we want them to play and know what our principle of play are, what the coaching staff expects of them and exactly what to do. In terms of cohesion and team spirit it’s a big asset, but at the same time we lack experience, maturity and players that are older or with more experience like some of the other teams.

RNO: How important do you see FC Montreal being to current/future Canadian national team player pool?

Phillippe Eullaffroy: I’ve spoken to people within the CSA and they’re very happy with how we’re running our team, with 26 young Canadian players that will be playing at a high professional level. If you look at the amount of young Canadian players playing at a professional level within the country, we’re adding 26 more players to that group. Having these teams in USL is a huge step for Canada, looking at what talent the CSA will have to choose from within TFC II and WFC 2 as well. I don’t know how many young Canadian players those two team will be bringing through, but between all three teams there should be about 60-70 young academy players playing at the USL level. I think even looking at the short term, this will be amazingfor the U-20 and Olympic team and within the next 3-4 years the senior national team will have an incredible pool of talent to choose from.

RNO: Looking at homegrown players within the Montreal Impact first team that could see time with you, players like Anthony Jackson-Hamel, Jeremy Gagnon-Lapere and Maxime Crepeau, what do you think they will bring to the FC Montreal group?

Phillippe Eullaffroy: The main thing is leadership. Even though they haven’t played a lot within MLS last season, and in Max Crepeau’s case as a young keeper he didn’t play at all, they will bring more maturity and a higher level of talent to this team. The experience alone, practicing and living as pros, is a major influence to the rest of the group. This will also be good for them, because the one thing they’re lacking is time on the pitch at a very good level and they will get that with FC Montreal. It’ll be natural for them to play for FC Montreal, positive for the rest of the group and those players as well.

RNO: One other player is the CONCACAF Champions League hero Cameron Porter. Evaluate him and how he is as a player?

Phillippe Eullaffroy: He was a complete surprise, being a 3rd round draft pick, we didn’t know a lot about him. He came into the pre-season camp and it was amazing. The first day he showed high work rate, he’s very strong and he has shown one objective, to win the ball and score goals. His mentality is fantastic, as a very intense player on the pitch and the game is very simple for him. On that play he just made himself an option, entered the game with maybe five or ten minutes left, made the easy decision and Calum Mallace found him with a good ball. A month ago nobody knew him and now all of a sudden he’s a hero and made history. He seems like a guy that will keep working hard and establish himself in the beginning of his career.

RNO: What would you consider a successful first season for FC Montreal in USL?

Phillippe Eullaffroy: The first step for us will be to figure out if we can be ready for that level come March and April. I’m pretty confident we can get to that level. If we can adapt to the USL level that early, the next objective would be around can we qualify for the playoffs and do we have enough quality to be within the top six. The other thing is getting a player promoted into the first team and signing a professional contract. If all of that happens, it would be a completely successful season.