Impact players prepared for ‘intense’ training camp
Team heading to Florida to prepare for season aiming for better first half
The Montreal Impact are headed to Florida Monday, but unlike most of the travellers headed south, they aren’t looking forward to a vacation in the sun.
The Major League Soccer team opens training camp in Bradenton on Tuesday and, if last year’s camp under the tutelage of head coach Rémi Garde was any indication, there’s hard work ahead.
“Last year was intense and we expect the same thing, even harder,” said midfielder Samuel Piette. “We joke with Robert Duverne, our physical trainer, and he said it’s going to be even more intense than last year. I don’t know if he’s trying to scare us, but we know it’s going to be hard. But that’s good because we know it will help us during the season.”
“I know what his first camp was like last year and most guys who were there have prepared themselves accordingly,” said goalkeeper Evan Bush. “We’ll find out if they did pretty quick. There’s going to be a lot of running, fitness work. As the camp goes on and he has an understanding of who we are and we understand him, it’ll be a little easier to get into the technical stuff and we’ll be able to get into how we want to play earlier than we did last year.”
There’s a sense of excitement over how the team played down the stretch last season, missing out on a playoff spot on the final day of the season. But Bush said he wants to guard against feeling comfortable going into the new season.
“I don’t want to be content that we had a good second half, that we almost made the playoffs and we beat some good teams,” said Bush. “I think if we look at it that way, you’re going to start off slow and get punched in the face early. We have to recognize that we’re going to be on the road a lot and we have to develop the mentality that it’s us against everybody.”
The Impact elected not to play an early-season game at Olympic Stadium this year, and that means they will be play the first six games on the road, beginning March 2 in San Jose. The team returns to Saputo Stadium for the home opener against Columbus on April 13 and then goes on the road for two more games.
“We have to go into those games with the idea we’re going to win,” said Piette. “We can’t be looking for a draw, we need points so we don’t fall behind like we did last year.”
The Impact are in better shape than they were last year at this time because the roster is pretty well set. There’s a nucleus returning from last year and there are some key additions.
For starters, defender Zakaria Diallo is healthy. He tore his Achilles tendon in camp last year and missed the entire season. He bolsters a back line that was greatly improved during the summer with the addition of former Arsenal standout Bacary Sagna.
Sagna signed a one-year contract during the off-season and noted that he was looking forward to his first full training camp in two years.
Garde said he hoped to add a striker and a midfielder during the off-season, and he received half of his wish list when the Impact traded for Maximiliano Urruti, a proven MLS striker. He said the search for another midfielder is on hold because of salary-cap considerations.
Meanwhile, offensive midfielder Jeisson Vargas didn’t accompany the team to Florida. There are negotiations underway to loan the 21-year-old to a team in South America, most likely Universidad in his native Chile. phickey@postmedia.com twitter.com/zababes1
I know what his first camp was like last year and most guys who were there have prepared themselves ... we’ll find out if they did pretty quick.