Columnist Lloyd Barker
Kicks off his look back on the Impact’s inaugural MLS season.
Now that the Major League Soccer season has ended, we can all play “Monday Morning Quarterback” or the “Hindsight Coach” and see where the Impact’s inaugural campaign went well and not so well.
We begin with the lads in the back, goalkeepers and defenders, and look at the pros and cons of how it all played out. Pro: Bringing in Donovan Ricketts as an expansion team was one of the most applauded decisions the Impact made while building the team during the pre-season.
Ricketts was regarded as one of the top two or three goalkeepers in MLS and the fact he was available was a surprise. Los Angeles Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said it hurt him deeply to let Ricketts leave, but Impact coach Jesse Marsch was persistent and got his man in the end for allocation money.
Ricketts joined 10-year MLS veteran Greg Sutton as the two main goalkeepers expected to carry the load. To round out the group, Montreal also had Evan Bush on its pre-season roster after he won the Impact’s Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2011 and the Golden Glove Award for the best goalsagainst average in the North American Soccer League.
On paper, it was arguably the top trio of ’keepers in MLS. As it turned out, Ricketts was traded to Portland for Troy Perkins on Aug. 7, and Perkins played the remaining nine games, finishing with a 3-3-3 record and four shutouts. Perkins brought an improved level of security to the position that Marsch had wanted all along. Con: For whatever reason, Ricketts never really settled in as expected, and over his 24 games with the Impact looked like a shadow of his previously reliable self. He showed flashes of brilliance, but was not nearly consistent enough to steal a few wins early in the season.
Sutton was given a chance on May 26 when Ricketts left a game in Colorado injured. Sutton played the final 24 minutes and gave up a strange goal as Colorado won 3-2. Sutton never saw the field again.
Bush got the call on June 30 at D.C. United, when the Impact was in a span of five games in 14 days. This was essentially the beginning of the end for Ricketts, who was livid at being left out of the team.
Before the arrival of Perkins, questions loomed about why such a talented goalkeeping trio of Ricketts, Sutton and Bush looked so very average. The answer may lie somewhere most would not look, at goalkeeper coach Preston Burpo.
The ultimate blame will and should always fall on the player himself, but those who prepare the players are not without blame. Such is the case for Burpo, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a new trainer in place next season. Pro: Alessandro Nesta (World Cup winner), Matteo Ferrari (Italian and Turkish Cup Champion), Nelson Rivas (Serie A Champion). Easily the most impressive trio of defenders in MLS this season — and maybe in the league’s history — on the same back line.
This woke up the league to Montreal’s bold ambitions. Rivas, at 29, and Ferrari, at 32, still have a lot to offer and showed it throughout the year. Nesta, at 36, used his incomparable experience to deny the young lads of MLS. When all three were healthy and fit, it was a pleasure to watch them in action as a unit.
Ferrari was a surprise pickup for the Impact, but turned out to be one of the more reliable players on the squad, playing 25 games. The opportunity to play alongside Nesta on a daily basis at training is a dream come true for any player. Nesta was the ultimate signing for Nick DeSantis and Joey Saputo, and it’s not just the Impact organization that should be happy with that acquisition, but so should the entire MLS.
While these big names were getting all the attention, Jeb Brovsky quietly earned the trust of Marsch and solidified himself as a No. 1 fullback. Only three players played more than the 23-year old expansion-draft pickup, who suited up for 28 games. Con: For a team that was built from the back, 51 goals conceded was a massive failure in terms of team objective. Only lowly Toronto FC conceded more goals (62) in the Eastern Conference and only Portland (56) and Chivas (58) conceded more from the Western Conference.
For the Impact, it was not the kind of numbers you’d expect with the likes of Nesta, Ferrari and Rivas on the back line and two time allstar Ricketts in goal. Pro: Mental mistakes and lack of aggression were the Impact’s No. 1 and 2 problems defensively. To improve, preparation on an individual basis has to be better, which is very possible for next season.
The fact the back line will have a whole pre-season together will probably make for a better start to next year’s campaign.