Rested Impact look to pick up needed victories
Following a week off, Montreal squad goes back to work at Yankee Stadium
The rest and relaxation — if you want to call it that — are over. Now let's see if it did the Impact any good.
“Recharging mentally is as important, if not more important, than physically,” manager Thierry Henry said Friday. “When your mind is OK, your body follows.”
With a full week between games, following last Saturday's victory against Inter Miami CF, the Impact's healthy players returned to Montreal for four full days this week before returning Thursday to the club's Harrison, N.J., training base. While the players and staff were in quarantine, meaning they could do little, it afforded them the opportunity to cleanse the mind and get away from what has been a hectic schedule.
“You think and work on different stuff, but you don't do anything in quarantine,” Henry explained.
“But you like to have that time to work. Mentally, it's good to recover.”
The Impact returns to the pitch today against New York City FC at Yankee Stadium in yet another crucial matchup.
With four regular-season games remaining, NYCFC (8-8-3) sits sixth in the Eastern Conference, with 27 points. The Impact (710-2) is ninth with 23 points, just above the playoff line, three points ahead of Chicago, which occupies the final playoff spot.
Henry certainly hopes form holds true because the last time his players had a full week between matches, they returned with a draw against Chicago when the team wasn't playing particularly well. Montreal then went on to upset Columbus before losing a tight contest against Philadelphia.
“We came back and had a good game against Chicago. It wasn't so bad against Columbus,” Henry said. “As you know, against Philly also. But then, in an ironic way, we finished well against Miami when you would have thought maybe that was the one we would have been the most tired.
“Right now, it's about winning points, getting points as quick as we can against difficult teams.”
Coming off a sequence that saw the Impact play five times between Oct. 3-17, the respite was badly needed.
“It was very good to have a few days of rest — good for me personally and good for the group,” striker Romell Quioto said through an interpreter. “We've been playing a lot lately. The team's doing great physically and psychologically. We're very focused on the goals that we need to achieve in the next few games — and maybe after. That's the main motivation for me and the group.”
There are 12 potential points in play during the final four games. Montreal would qualify for the playoffs for the first time in four seasons, as of now, with three wins. Eastern Conference teams that are seeded seventh through 10th meet in a single-elimination contest to qualify for the opening round.