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Club de Foot Montreal

Impact Looks to Build on Recent Form at Columbus on Saturday

September 26, 2014 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Club de Foot Montreal News Release


COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Montreal Impact played the Columbus Crew on two occasions this season, with two very different results. The bleu-blanc-noir hopes that this Saturday's game at Crew Stadium at 7:30pm EDT (TVA Sports, TSN Radio 690) will mimic their most recent matchup, a 2-0 win back on August 30.

"In the game that we played there, we lost the midfield a little bit," said head coach Frank Klopas. "However, in the game in Montreal we were able to close spaces down quickly and did a good job of creating chances and making it hard on their midfielders Tony Tchani, Will Trapp and Kevan George."

Overloading the offensive part of the field has resulted in four players having scored five goals or more this season, with striker Federico Higuain leading the way at 10, followed by midfielder Ethan Finlay (7), forward Justin Meram (7) and midfielder Bernardo Anor (5), who scored both of the Crew's goals in the 2-1 victory the last time IMFC headed to Ohio.

Despite the Crew' success in recent weeks (2-0-1, six goals scored, two shutouts), the bleu-blanc-noir believes they have to focus on their own game to be successful against the 5th place Crew, a team that is battling to hold on to the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

"We need to continue working on the things that have made us successful in our last two games," said Jeremy Gagnon-Laparé. "We are playing a pleasant style of soccer and we need to focus on making sure our quality comes through."

Some good news on the injury front is that midfielder Justin Mapp, who's missed a significant amount of time, rejoined the group at training this week.

"Our attacking players have created a lot of problems for our opponents," said Mapp. "We've got some wins as of late and have been able to score some goals and improve at the back, so we've been playing well."

GAME NOTES:

Without playing, the Impact reached the CONCACAF Champions League quarter-final round following a 0-0 draw between C.D. FAS and the New York Red Bulls. Ignacio Piatti scored both goals in his team's 2-0 win against the Crew last month, in his first game against Columbus, He now has amassed four goals and three assists in only eight starts, all competitions. Defender Krzysztof Krol will be available this Saturday after serving an automatic one-game suspension, last Saturday against San Jose, due to a red card at New England. In his last eight games played across all competitions, striker Marco Di Vaio has scored five goals and added three assists. Di Vaio has torn it up in the CONCACAF Champions League, having scored four goals and one assist in his team's first three games. The Crew transferred World Cup standout defender Giancarlo Gonzalez to Serie A' Palermo last month, but replaced him with Austrian national team captain and former EPL and Bundesliga defender Emanuel Pogatetz. Goalkeeper Steve Clark is in the top 5 in the league with 91 saves.

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