No place like home for Impact playoff push

How the Montreal Impact play at home in the next few weeks will determine the team’s fate this season, according to veteran defender Laurent Ciman.

Six of Montreal’s next eight Major League Soccer games are at Saputo Stadium, starting Saturday against FC Dallas (7:30 p.m., TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio).

The Impact are coming off a 2-1 home victory over the Philadelphia Union on Wednesday, with Michael Salazar and Blerim Dzemaili scoring for Montreal.

“Playing at home in MLS gives you a real advantage, more so than in other leagues in Europe, for example,” said Ciman. “We have to get as many points as possible at home.”

The Impact are 5-2-1 at home this season compared to 1-4-5 on the road. Nine of Montreal’s remaining 16 games this season will be played on home soil.

“Teams need to come to Montreal knowing it will be difficult to get points,” said the Belgian international. “We need to win in front of our fans. It’s as simple as that.”

Mauro Biello’s men are undefeated at home in their last six games in all competitions and have won four straight at home in MLS action. Montreal’s last defeat at Saputo Stadium was more than two months ago.

“This is a big week for us,” said Biello.

“Everyone keeps talking about our home games, but now we have to play and perform and get points from those games.”

Montreal started the second half of its season with a win against Philadelphia despite a mediocre performance. The victory leaves the Impact five points out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with two games in hand on the Columbus Crew and Orlando City SC.

The Impact (6-6-6) will very likely have Argentine midfielder Ignacio Piatti back in the lineup on Saturday, which will give a big boost to the home side’s alreadypotent offence. Piatti missed the team’s last three games with a groin injury. Montreal went 2-1-0 in his absence.

Holding midfielder Hernan Bernardello will miss the game due to an accumulation of yellow cards. That could force Biello to reluctantly start captain Patrice Bernier, who spent the last three weeks with the Canadian team at the Gold Cup.

FC Dallas (8-3-7), second in the Western Conference, is one point behind leaders Sporting KC with two games in hand. The visitors have lost an MLS-low three games this season (tied with Toronto and Chicago).