MONTREAL — With their magical run in the CONCACAF Champions League having finally run its course, for the Montreal Impact to now have to turn their attention back to their season in Major League Soccer is going to be quite a challenge.
Let’s face it, travelling to exotic locales in Central America, playing in historic stadiums such as the Azteca, and being the talk of the town beats playing the Portland Timbers—it’s not to say that that isn’t fun, but it’s just not entirely the same thing.
And the trouble is that the Champions League is really all the Impact have been thinking about for some time now.
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As coach Frank Klopas alluded to last Wednesday following the team’s crushing defeat in the final to Club América, the competition did bare the semblance of a very long season. Although the group and knockout stages might have only totaled eight games, they did take place over a span of eight months; and if you factor in the qualification rounds, which in the Impact’s case is the Canadian Championship, then it’s been 12 months since the Impact set their sights on the Champions League.
Moreover, as the hopes of a MLS playoff berth were quickly shelved after only several weeks into last season, the Impact were desperate to qualify for the Champions League; not doing so would have meant not having anything meaningful to play for, for months on end, and that would have been utterly intolerable.
After Montreal did qualify, the Champions League started to become an even greater fixation than it already was once the Impact topped their group. Doing everything they could to prepare for the impending knockout stage, the Impact signed 11 new players in the off-season, many of whom were acquired with the knockout stage in mind.
Montreal also spent a big portion of this past pre-season in Mexico preparing for the quarterfinal matchup with Pachuca in February and March.
If MLS wasn’t already an afterthought, it certainly was by the time Montreal reached the semis, especially since the MLS office was kind enough to reschedule league games. In the four that they did play so far in 2015, the Impact weren’t at all bright: they lost two and tied two, scoring a measly two goals in the process.
But now the Impact really need to put the Champions League behind them and focus on MLS play, especially because they currently sit at the bottom of the Eastern Conference and have significant catching up to do.
For starters, it will be imperative to win games in May, where three back-to-back home games with Western Conference foes and an away date with Chicago are on the schedule.
The Impact will also have to decide on how important the Canadian Championship and qualifying for the 2016-17 CONCACAF Champions League really is for them at this point—their first game is on Wednesday against Toronto FC at Stade Saputo in the semifinal opening leg.
Wednesday, May 6 programming alert: Watch Montreal Impact vs. Toronto FC live on Sportsnet World and web streamed on Sportsnet.ca at 7:30 pm ET, and FC Edmonton vs. Vancouver Whitecaps at 10:00 pm ET on Sportsnet 360 and Sportsnet World. || Sportsnet NOW || Broadcast schedule
Now that Montreal enjoys a solid reputation in CONCACAF, perhaps it’s time to start focusing on repairing its dismal domestic standing.
To begin doing so, it will be important for Klopas to select fresh faces for his upcoming lineups, because the Champions League didn’t only take a physical toll on the Impact (they’ve lost several players to injury) but also, and especially, a psychological one.
Klopas will be risking serious mental fatigue if he doesn’t shuffle his roster. Players who featured little to not at all in the Champions League should get the nod wherever possible; the rest, for at least some time still, might have some trouble waking up in the morning.
Nick Sabetti is a Montreal-based writer. Follow him on Twitter