Montreal Impact’s Piatti named to MLS Best XI team

Montreal Impact's Ignacio Piatti, right, challenges L.A. Galaxy's Jonathan dos Santos for the ball. (Graham Hughes/Canadian Press)

Peter Galindo November 11, 2018, 3:31 PM

After another stellar season with the Montreal Impact, Ignacio Piatti has been named to the MLS Best XI for the 2018 campaign.

Major League Soccer officially announced its end-of-season all-star team on Sunday which included Piatti, who also made the Best XI side in 2016.

Piatti, a 33-year-old native of Argentina, was yet again Montreal’s top scorer in the regular season with 16 goals. He also posted 13 assists, which is an MLS career high for the Argentine. It’s the third straight year Piatti has tallied at least 15 goals.

Piatti joined the Impact in 2014 from Argentine club San Lorenzo, where he won the Copa Libertadores that same year. However, he didn’t truly break out in MLS until 2016 when he finished third in the league with 17 goals, helping Montreal reach the Eastern Conference semifinals where they lost in extra time to Toronto FC.

Now, two years later, Piatti is joined by a few other South Americans in the MLS Best XI. The likes of Atlanta United have targeted the region to bolster their squads, and the league is becoming a destination for many of those players.

“There are many South American players that want to come to this league,” Piatti told Sportsnet back in September. “This league is growing a lot. It’s very nice to play here. It’s a nice lifestyle and there’s a soccer culture here. Very different than South America. [MLS] is very calm, the football [schedule] is organized.

“You know when is the first and last game of the season. In South America, the schedule is not fixed. You don’t know what time or day you play. It changes all the time. Sometimes you think you’re playing Saturday or Sunday and you end up playing on a Wednesday.

“MLS has great organization and it has grown tremendously in the last year and that’s one of the reasons why so many young South Americans want to establish a career in this part of the world.”

Even though the Impact missed out on the playoffs, they were among the best teams in MLS from June to the end of the regular season. Montreal only won three of its first 13 matches, but earned 40 points in its final 21 games. The team’s 1.9 points-per-game pace was only bettered by Atlanta and the New York Red Bulls, the top-two sides in the Supporters’ Shield standings.

Montreal coach Remi Garde is one reason why the Impact managed to turn around their season right before the World Cup break, as he tweaked the system to fit the team’s strengths on the counter-attack. Piatti was very encouraged by Garde’s work at the helm.

“Now that time has passed, we understand each other and we see the results on the pitch,” said Piatti of the Impact coaching staff.

“So we are very happy with [Garde], and I believe the club is as well … He puts a lot of emphasis on tactics. He’s very organized, makes sure that we don’t concede goals, and we work very hard on this during the season. He has a physical trainer who makes us run a lot. Now we feel the difference when we are on the pitch.

“During the season, we also worked a lot on closing the spaces and ensured that the opposition is pushed to the flanks. [When] we follow his instructions, everything goes well during the game.”

Piatti’s contract with the Impact is set to expire next December, and he has been heavily linked with a return to San Lorenzo once the deal runs out. Whatever transpires next winter, the Impact have the star Argentine for at least one more campaign. This past season could serve as a springboard towards the playoffs, especially if Montreal addresses some key areas over the next few months.