The Montreal Impact’s season went from bad to worse on Saturday as they were dealt a heavy blow against Sporting Kansas City in a 4-0 loss at Sporting Park.
Nothing seems to be working for the Impact, who are still without a win after seven games. The defensive issues which plagued the team’s first two seasons in Major League Soccer linger and the team’s lack of killer instinct in front of goal has been costly.
Big changes could well be in store at the club if the season doesn’t quickly take a turn for the better.
Putting positive spins on their poor start to the season, the Impact tried to remain upbeat in the days leading up to Saturday’s game, but with another loss and disappointing performance to boot, the silver linings are becoming ever so slight.
Forget about any positives—here are the negatives from Saturday’s game.
Personnel Choices
You can at least give coach Frank Klopas full marks for nerve.
So far, he’s had established players such as Hassoun Camara and Jeb Brovksy ousted from the starting lineup, and even had Patrice Bernier, his team captain and one of last year’s MLS All Stars, on the bench for three consecutive games.
Against Kansas City, Klopas went one step further by starting Eric Miller, Karl Ouimette and Max Tissot together in defence, despite the fact that prior to the game the three youngsters didn’t even have 20 professional starts between them. Given that the Impact were playing on the road against the MLS champions and were desperate for points, having so much inexperience in defence all at once was asking for trouble.
Deployed as one of the two holding midfielders in front of the defence, Calum Mallace hadn’t seen much action either, having only been a starter on four occasions before Saturday’s contest.
Outplayed
The Impact’s game-plan was clear from the outset: sit back and counter; and it worked okay for the first 30 minutes or so until Kansas City found the opening goal.
The few times the Impact were able to get past Kansas City’s high pressing they nearly scored, but as the game wore on they struggled to cope.
By the final whistle Kansas City had had 60 percent of possession, but for all of their superiority in the game it seemed like they enjoyed a lot more than that. The gap in quality between the two sides was grossly apparent.
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Di Vaio wasteful
Marco Di Vaio missed a golden opportunity to put the Impact ahead by two goals last week against Chicago and on Saturday he missed two other excellent opportunities when the game was tied at 0-0 in the first half.
A large part of the Impact’s success last year was due to Di Vaio being so clinical in front of goal. If the Impact are going to get out of this rut they’ll need the Italian scoring again on a regular basis. The Impact have only managed to score a meagre six goals in seven games.
Defending set pieces
Defending set pieces has been a nightmare for the Impact ever since they joined MLS back in 2012, and their struggles continued on Saturday as the first two goals they conceded came off throw-ins. The Impact have already allowed five goals from set piece situations this season.
Dismal spirits
Klopas hasn’t been in a talking mood of late; he didn’t make himself available after Saturday’s game.
There’s no question that he’s feeling the heat. With the Impact’s poor start to the season, his job as may well already be in jeopardy.
The Impact return to Stade Saputo next week, and ordinarily that would be good news for the Impact considering the success they’ve had there in recent seasons. But with Montreal fans outraged over the team’s current plight, and poised to weigh in on who is to blame, it could feel like a hostile environment for the home side.
Nick Sabetti is a Montreal-based writer. Follow him on Twitter.