MONTREAL — The promise of good weather and having both of their top players in the lineup has the Montreal Impact upbeat about their first game at Saputo Stadium this season.
Now they need to hold off a team that has no problem playing on the road — expansion Los Angeles FC and their former Impact defensive general Laurent Ciman.
Mild 10C temperatures are forecast as the Impact (2-4) try to shake off two weak road performances against LAFC (3-2) on Saturday afternoon.
Technically, it is their second home game, having beaten Toronto FC 1-0 on March 17 at Olympic Stadium, but it is their first outdoors on the grass pitch at their real home park.
"Just that it’s a grass field is a good thing," said midfielder Saphir Taider, who will play at Saputo for the first time. "It’s an English-style stadium so the fans are close to the field and we’ll hear them even more.
"Many of the players are used to playing here. It’ll be new for some of us and that makes it even more exciting, but we can’t lose sight of our goal. It’s the three points we’re after."
The Impact played five of their first six games on the road, four of them on artificial turf. The last two went badly.
Two weeks ago at New England, star midfielder Ignacio Piatti sat out with a minor injury and Taider was show the red card 15 minutes into a 4-0 defeat. Piatti was back for a 3-1 loss last week against the New York Red Bulls, which Taider missed due to a suspension.
"We don’t have enough depth at this point to be without one of those two players, so having them both back is important," said first-year coach Remi Garde. "Saphir also has had a chance to recuperate, or regenerate more precisely."
They will likely be without veteran central defender Rod Fanni due to a muscular problem, however.
They are facing a team that has done well despite not yet playing a home game. LAFC will end a stretch of six straight on the road to start the season before moving next week into Banc of California Stadium, a 22,000-seat US$350 million gem that was officially declared open this week.
LAFC has had some wild results, including a 5-1 win at Salt Lake and a 5-0 loss at Atlanta. They are coming off a 2-0 victory at Vancouver.
They also have Ciman, one on Montreal’s most popular players who was shocked to be traded in December. Ciman has made his bitterness known on social media, although he appears to be adapting well to his new team.
"It’ll be nice to see him, but it’s just another game," said fullback Chris Duvall. "For him, it’s probably going to be very special to come back to Montreal. We’re all very aware of that."
The Impact have other concerns, like tightening a defence that looked to have sprung holes without Taider to manage the ball. They worked on that this week in training.
"We did a lot of 1-v-1 and making sure that runners don’t get behind us," said Duvall. "Last game it seemed every time they got the ball they had an opportunity.
"So this week was almost entirely focused on defence."
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