MONTREAL – How do you a solve a problem like Ignacio Piatti?
That’s the prevailing question facing Toronto FC ahead of their Eastern Conference semifinal against the Montreal Impact, which begins on Tuesday with the first leg at Olympic Stadium.
Normally when TFC plays, the pre-match narrative is about how the opposing team will stop Sebastian Giovinco. While that’s foremost on the Impact’s collective thoughts, how exactly Toronto will deal with Piatti has dominated the dialogue ahead of this two-game playoff series.
There’s a good reason for that. The 31-year-old Argentine playmaker is a star of considerable quality, his 17 goals and six assists during Major League Soccer’s regular season—and his three goals in the playoffs—underscoring his value to Montreal and his standing as one of the best players in the league.
There is a languid elegance to Piatti’s style of play, his sharp mind married to a killer instinct and an ability to read the match in a flash, and then directly influence matters in an instant.
Case in point, the first round of the playoffs against D.C. United. Late in the first half, Piatti had the ball outside of the penalty area with two D.C. defenders directly blocking his path towards goal. Instead of taking them both on, the Argentine took a moment, looked up and coolly hit a perfect chip over the defenders and just in front of goalkeeper Bill Hamid, allowing teammate Matteo Mancosu to run onto it and slot the ball home. It was 2-0 for Montreal going into the break, and the game was essentially over.
That’s what Piatti does. He brings the “X-factor,” according to Impact captain Patrice Bernier, by creating space for himself and for others, and by creating “a spark out of nothing.”
“It takes him two seconds to change the whole [complexion] of the game,” Bernier noted.
Piatti was at his best in the second leg of the Eastern Conference finals against the New York Red Bulls. Piatti found himself in a somewhat similar situation early in the second half, again facing goal with two New York defenders in his way. Chris Duvall and Aurelien Collin attempted to close him down, but Piatti deftly flicked the ball past Duvall then fired a venomous shot, just as Collin lunged to stop it, that whipped past goalkeeper Luis Robles.
Piatti added another goal late in the game to make it 2-1, sealing the series for the Impact. The Red Bulls simply couldn’t contain him in the decisive second leg at home, often reduced to chasing his shadow while he was in full flight with the ball glued to his foot.
“He’s deceptively fast, I don’t think people give him enough credit for his speed. He’s just as fast with the ball as he is without it, which is extremely rare,” teammate Harry Shipp said.
What makes the mercurial Argentine especially dangerous is his cunning and deceptive play, especially in transition. He’s already thinking counter-attack and anticipating the Impact getting the ball back while opponents are still in possession.
“What [Piatti] does before he gets the ball, when he’s helping the team defend, [and] sees [they’re] about to win the ball, he quickly transitions before anyone else. He wins fragments of time. That’s where he gets his space, his separation. And then you see his ability to take on defenders one-v-one and to score,” Toronto coach Greg Vanney explained.
TFC defender Drew Moor echoed his coach’s diagnosis, adding that Piatti likes to ghost into scoring positions.
“He kind of likes to drift off your shoulder a little bit. He’ll kind of hide from you when we’re in possession and then they look for him to break … If you give him time and space he can pass the ball, he can beat you one on one and he can score from just about anywhere,” Moor stated.
Crowding around Piatti and limiting his space is one option to negate his influence. But that’s easier said than done.
“Piatti poses a different threat in that he’s more of a one-v-one player,” TFC defender Eriq Zavaleta said. “He’s not a guy who’s going to beat you with his movement behind you but more so with the ball in front of you.
“We have to get numbers around that ball and around him so he doesn’t feel comfortable in one-v-one situations. He plays wider on the field as opposed to the middle of the field.”
Another way of neutralizing Piatti is making sure that he stays defensively engaged for as long as possible.
“It’s important that we make him defend,” Vanney said. “If he tries to peel away early, we have to take advantage of those moments: attack the fullback, make [Piatti] pay for not being fully engaged on the defensive side.”
Piatti’s sneaky defensive style of play has drawn criticism from some pundits, the feeling being that he doesn’t contribute nearly enough in his end of the field.
Montreal coach Mauro Biello argues Piatti helps the back line from his position out wide, ably balancing his defensive responsibilities with serving as the Impact’s main outlet on the counter.
“That’s what makes it even more remarkable, his season that he had in terms of his offensive output,” Biello offered.
His defensive help hasn’t gone unnoticed by Shipp.
“Credit to him—he’s tracking back and working hard defensively… he’s not just sitting up there waiting for us to go forward and get him the ball,” Shipp said.
Sportsnet’s Soccer Central podcast (featuring James Sharman, Thomas Dobby, Brendan Dunlop and John Molinaro) takes an in-depth look at the beautiful game and offers timely and thoughtful analysis on the sport’s biggest issues.
