MONTREAL — Ending a four-game losing run with a big win at home was a relief, but now the Montreal Impact hope to get a streak started in the other direction.
The chance to put two wins together for only the second time this season comes Wednesday night against the Fire in Chicago, another team that has struggled early in the Major League Soccer season.
The seventh-place Impact (3-6-0) and the eighth-place Fire (2-4-2) both need the win to stay close to a playoff position (top six) in the Eastern Conference.
After losing all four games in April, the Impact started May on a high note with a 4-2 victory over New England at Saputo Stadium on Saturday, with star midfielder Ignacio Piatti leading the way with a goal and three assists
"It was good for us," midfielder Samuel Piette said Tuesday. "We’d been through a difficult month.
"We lost four in row and then we came up with a big win against a team we had lost to (4-0 on April 14), so we got our revenge. It gives us confidence for this game. It would be good to put some wins together."
The Impact are 1-5-0 on the road and will be playing away for the seventh time in 10 games this season. But the Fire are coming off a 2-1 loss to Atlanta that left them 1-3-1 at home.
Impact coach Remi Garde usually has at least one surprise in his starting 11 and with three games in an eight-day span — Montreal returns home to face Philadelphia on Saturday — there will likely be more in Chicago.
Against New England, he brought Anthony Jackson-Hamel and Raheem Edwards into the starting 11 and it clicked as the two Canadian forwards combined for three goals — all served up by Piatti.
The Argentine shares the league lead with six assists with the New York Red Bulls’ Alejandro Romero Gamarra. He also scored his fifth of the season and was named MLS player of the week.
"In a tough time like that it was important to have our best player step up," said Piette.
Piatti, who signed with Montreal in July, 2014 as a designated player, has won Montreal’s most valuable player award the last three seasons. He passed Patrice Bernier for the team assists record since it joined MLS in 2012 with 27 and went past Eduardo Sebrango into second place in career goals with 52 since the club debuted in the defunct APSL in 1993.
Fullback Chris Duvall goes against Piatti regularly in training and knows what the 33-year-old can do.
"For most of us it’s fun because we know we have the best one-on-one player in the league on our team, so if we can practice stopping him there shouldn’t be too many difficulties in games," said Duvall. "He’s a huge reason why people want to watch this team. He makes amazing plays that surprise all of us every day."
The Montreal defence will have its hands full with Chicago’s Serbian striker Nemanja Nikolic, who led MLS with 24 goals last season and has has five in eight games in the current campaign. There is also German star Bastien Schweinsteiger, who has been playing at the back this season but moved up to support the attack against Atlanta.
"We all know he’s a special player," Duvall said of Schweinsteiger. "If he’s playing higher up the field he’s a guy we’ll have to keep our eye on and make sure we keep track of him. If he’s playing deeper he can still hurt us with his passing and organization skills."
Central defender Rod Fanni, who was expected back from a thigh injury last game, could return, especially if Garde goes back to a five-man back line on the road after playing in a 4-3-3 setup against New England. It appears that forward Jeisson Vargas picked up an injury in training on Monday, which could give Edwards another start.
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