A season-long stumble
High hopes quickly dashed as Impact squandered leads, surrendered late goals
The future looked so bright for the Impact heading into the 2017 Major League Soccer season.
After coming within one win of advancing to the MLS Cup final in 2016 — losing the Eastern Conference final in overtime to Toronto FC — the Impact had made a huge footprint on the Montreal sports scene.
A sellout crowd of 61,004 packed Olympic Stadium for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final and four busloads of Montreal fans were among another sellout crowd of 36,000 in Toronto for Game 2 of the aggregate-goals series. The Impact won the first game 3-2, but lost the second game — which went to OT with the aggregate score tied — by a 5-2 score.
“For the first time since our inception, the city, the province and the country fully lived and experienced its very own brand of soccer with tremendous passion and pride,” Impact president Joey Saputo said after the playoff loss to Toronto. “During the playoffs, the energy and spirit of international soccer swept the province, but in a new framework. This was not the World Cup, the Champions League, but rather a timeless rivalry in a new arena. A relatively young sport in North America showing clear signs of maturity and popularity.”
Then everything fell apart in 2017 as the Impact failed to even make the MLS playoffs with an 11-17-6 record. To make matters worse, the Impact’s biggest rival, Toronto FC, became the first Canadian team to win the MLS Cup.
The 2017 season started off badly for the Impact when they went winless in their first five games (0-2-3), losing much of their momentum from 2016. They finally earned their first victory on April 15, beating expansion team Atlanta United 2-1 in front of 17,144 fans in their first game at Saputo Stadium. The Impact played their first home game of the season on March 11 against Seattle in front of 34,373 fans at Olympic Stadium and blew a 2-0 lead they held after 82 minutes, settling for a 2-2 tie after the Sounders scored in extra time.
It was a sign of things to come for the Impact, who struggled defensively and couldn’t protect leads when they had them. During his post-mortem news conference, Saputo noted that the Impact lost 10 points in the standings by conceding goals in the 90th minute or later in several games and allowed 23 goals off set pieces. The Impact could only put together a .500 record at home (8-8-1) and were 3-95 on the road, finishing the season minus-6 in goal differential.
Midfielder Ignacio Piatti was named the Impact’s most valuable player for the third straight season after scoring 17 goals and adding six assists in 28 games.
“Our team had a difficult season, very difficult,” Saputo said. “We struggled all season long and never hit our stride. More importantly, this team never had a clear identity of play. At key moments, we were unable to rise to the occasion.”
The Impact lost their last five games to finish the season while being outscored 9-3 during that span. They couldn’t even register a win or a tie in captain Patrice Bernier’s final game before retiring, allowing the New England Revolution to score in extra time for a 3-2 win at Saputo Stadium on Oct. 22. Bernier, who scored the first Impact goal in that game and the last of his career, watched New England score the winning goal from the bench after being substituted in the 81st minute and leaving the pitch to a standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 20,681.
“It was an emotional day and we wish we could have had a better result for Patrice’s last game,” coach Mauro Biello said after the game. “This game seemed to reflect what’s happened to us all season.”
Bernier won’t be back next season, moving on to a new job with the Impact Academy’s technical staff. Biello won’t be back, either, after being fired and replaced by Rémi Garde, the Impact’s fifth coach since joining MLS in 2012, following Jesse Marsch, Marco Schallibaum, Frank Klopas and Biello.
“If you take a look at the coaches that we had, and you’re right … since joining MLS we’ve had quite a bit,” Saputo said at the news conference announcing Garde as the new coach. “We haven’t really found the right person, so to speak. Maybe the average of the number of years that a coach will stay is a lot less than what we’re used to if you compare it to hockey or you compare it to baseball or you compare it to any other sport. But if you take a look at the average time that a coach stays in soccer — at least in Italian soccer — it’s a lot less.
“Today we are laying a solid foundation with a different approach,” Saputo added. “We believe Rémi’s tremendous experience, his vision and knowledge of the game, his management style, his intimate understanding of youth development will give this club a new start at every level.”