Impact Ends Its Season Sunday Against Austin

October 2, 2010 - U.S. Soccer Federation D-2 (USSF D-2)
Montreal Impact News Release


MONTREAL - The Montreal Impact (11-11-7, 40 PTS) plays its final game of the regular season Sunday at Saputo Stadium against the Austin Aztex (15-6-8, 53 PTS), the team on top of the USSF's Second division standings, at 2pm (radio-canada.ca/sports, CKAC Sports, THE TEAM 990).

"This game doesn't have the same importance as the match we will play next Wednesday, but we will be playing to win," said Impact head coach Marc Dos Santos. "We want to finish the season on a positive note, but at the same time we have to manage our roster. Sunday's game will give us a good idea about the Aztex, a team that we could face in the playoffs."

The Impact is having its best sequence of the season having won five of its last six games. During this stretch, the Impact has scored 14 goals, while allowing only three goals.

Last Friday, the Impact shut out the Vancouver Whitecaps 1-0, in Burnaby, with Eduardo Sebrango scoring the game-winning goal in the 29th minute.

"Only a few days before the start of the playoffs, the team spirit is high right now, as we saw in Vancouver last week," said defender Adam Braz. "We don't know who we'll be playing, but we are ready to face any team. We have to approach this game seriously and continue to play well collectively."

This will be the second meeting of the season between these two teams. The Impact lost the first game 2-0, on April 11, in Austin. It was the Impact's first game of the season.

Austin sits in first place in the league for goals scored with a total of 52. Forward Edward Johnson is the Aztex leading scorer this season with 14 goals and four assists for 32 points. Johnson (32), Maxwell Griffin (23) and Jamie Watson (21) are the 2nd, 3rd and 4th leading scorers in the league respectively.

"This will be a good test and we want a good result to keep our confidence up for the playoffs," said Impact team captain Nevio Pizzolitto. "Austin has done very well offensively this year, scoring a lot of goals, so it will be important to continue our strong defensive play as we've been doing in recent weeks."

The Aztex lost 3-1 against the Carolina RailHawks on Friday night, in North Carolina. Austin has not won in its last eight games on the road (0-4-4). The team's last win away from home came on June 26 against Miami FC.

Impact Midfielder David Testo will miss the game due to an automatic suspension following his 5th yellow card of the season, in Vancouver.

Goalkeeper Matt Jordan, defender Hicham Aaboubou and midfielder Antonio Ribeiro will be resting. Goalkeeper Srdjan Djekanovic will start the game tomorrow.

Midfielders Filipe Soares (knee) and Pierre-Rudoph Mayard (toe) have recovered from injuries and will be available Sunday.

Leonardo Di Lorenzo is 27 minutes away from reaching the 2,000 minutes played plateau this season. He could reach that mark for the 2nd time of his career, after realizing the exploit in 2007. Philippe Billy, Tony Donatelli, Nevio Pizzolitto and Hicham Aaboubou have also reached the 2,000 mark this season.

A few tickets for Sunday's match are still available via Admission Network (514-790-1245 / 1-800-361-4595 / admission.com) or at the Saputo Stadium ticketing office. Fans will receive an Impact poster when they will leave the stadium after the match.

The Impact will then play its quarterfinal match at Saputo Stadium on Wednesday, October 6, against a team yet to be determined (Rochester, Austin or Portland). The return match will take place on either Saturday, October 9 or Sunday, October 10.

OTHER FACTS

- An Impact victory against the Aztex would result in an identical record for the Impact to last year: 12 wins, 11 losses and 7 ties.

- Since the club's inaugural season in 1993, the team has a 7-9-0 record in its final regular season games (18GF-24GA).

- Last season, the Impact went undefeated against the expansion team from Texas (2-0-1), scoring a total of eight goals.

- Montreal will face two former players, midfielder Tyler Hemming, who has played 249 minutes since being acquired from Montreal on July 27, and defender Kevin Sakuda, who has accumulated a total of 2,108 minutes so far this season.

- Midfielders Tony Donatelli and Philippe Billy have played every game this season for the Impact (29). If they play in game number 30, they will break a team record held previously by Joey Gjertsen with 29 games played in 2009.



U.S. Soccer Federation D-2 Stories from October 2, 2010


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