Lost players mean changes at defence
Montreal and Kansas City will both be short bodies for Saturday’s MLS match
Impact coach Mauro Biello said he can’t worry about the players who won’t be in the lineup Saturday when his team travels to face Sporting Kansas City (8 p.m., TVA Sports, TSN Radio 690).
This is one of those weeks when the Impact — and Sporting Kansas City — are without key players who have been called away to represent their countries. The Impact have lost seven players while Sporting Kansas City is missing four.
“The circumstances are that we’re missing a few key players, but in the end it’s a team of 28 players who work hard every day, every week, and some of them will get an opportunity to step in here and show they deserve minutes,” Biello said before his team held a final training session before flying to Kansas City.
“For us, it’s important to have the focus for 90 minutes and defend well,” Biello said. “We have to manage the game offensively and try to come out with a result.”
That might be easier said than done. While the Impact have turned their season around over the past two weeks, Sporting Kansas City haven’t lost an MLS game at home for more than a year and lead the Western Conference with 25 points on a 7-4-4 record. Sporting have gone 16 games at home without a loss — they have 13 wins and three ties in that run.
The Impact have a 4-4-4 record and are 10th in the Eastern Conference but are only four points out of a playoff spot and have multiple games in hand on the teams ahead of them.
“They have a long streak of sellouts and the atmosphere is good there,” Biello said. “It’s a highpress team. It likes to possess and install in the opposing half and we’ll prepare for that.”
It’s difficult to score on Sporting Kansas City, which has allowed only 10 goals in 15 starts. Goalkeeper Tim Mella has a career-high eight shutouts and a 0.67 goals-against average this season.
Leagues in Europe aren’t impacted by international call-ups because they don’t play in the summer and they build in breaks in their schedule to accommodate events like World Cup qualifying.
“That’s the dynamic of our league; we play throughout the summer when there are a lot of international tournaments going on,” Biello said. “It becomes difficult schedule-wise for the league to break for those moments. We’ve dealt with it in the past and we’ll deal with it again.”
Impact midfielder Blerim Dzemaili joined Switzerland for a 2-0 win over the Faroe Islands in a World Cup qualifier Friday. The Swiss have a perfect 6-0 record in their group. Centre-back Laurent Ciman dressed but did not play in Belgium’s 2-0 win over Estonia. Outside back Ambroise Oyongo has joined Cameroon for friendlies against Colombia, Australia and Germany.
Patrice Bernier, Anthony Jackson-Hamel, Wandrille Lefévre and Maxime Crépeau have spent the past week training with the Canadian national team. Bernier, Jackson-Hamel and Crépeau were named to the team, which will represent Canada this summer in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, which means they’ll miss more time next month. Canada will warm up for the competition with a friendly against Curaçao Tuesday at Saputo Stadium.
Kansas City’s Tyler Pasher was also named to the Canadian team. Matt Besler and Graham Zusi are with Team USA and Soony Saad went to Lebanon for a friendly against the United Arab Emirates, which has since been cancelled.
With Ciman and Oyongo unavailable, Biello has to make major adjustments on the back line. He noted Hassoun Camara has a “ton of experience” and Victor Cabrera is returning from injury. Kyle Fisher and the versatile Daniel Lovitz complete the back four.
“Any time you get a chance to start, you want to make the most of it,” said Lovitz, who has appeared in seven games with two starts.
Biello said cohesion might be a problem early in Saturday’s game. While there will be experienced players in the lineup, they may be in unfamiliar positions. Lovitz, for example, has been paying mostly as a midfielder while Fisher has taken advantage of a partnership with Ciman.
Ignacio Piatti, who has six goals and two assists, was described by Biello as a difference-maker but he won’t have an opportunity to build on his growing relationship with Dzemaili and the team will miss Bernier’s leadership and calming influence in the midfield.
“We have depth but it won’t be easy in terms of cohesion if you don’t have those minutes (and) you haven’t played. That could be an issue but experience has to take over.”
It’s a high-press team. It likes to possess and install in the opposing half and we’ll prepare for that.