Here is a summary of what was said Tuesday afternoon at Lachine’s Catalogna Soccerplexe.
HEAD COACH NICK DE SANTIS
“There’s no doubt it’s disappointing. During the season, we had some highs and lows, but it seems like we always had problems getting through the opposing defence, creating good scoring chances. Last year, we went out and signed three of the league’s top five scorers in 2005, among others. We did our best with the players we had, but instead of forwards, maybe we would have needed some midfielders with more creativity instead. We’ll have to carefully evaluate the situation, but maybe this winter we’ll be looking more closely at some attacking midfielders, and forwards too.”
“The fact remains that with the players we had, we finished first overall during the season. Maybe the absence of Zé Roberto, who gives all of his heart to this team, and Antonio Ribeiro, who plays an increasingly important role, affected us in the midfield, from a depth standpoint mostly.”
“Still, this team finished first and I have to thank the players for their effort once again this year. But in the end, when a team doesn’t score in its last four home games, it doesn’t deserve to reach the final. Vancouver deserved to win, the best team won.”
CAPTAIN MAURO BIELLO
“It’s very hard to lose a decisive game at home, in front of our fans. That’s what disappoints me the most. But it isn’t easy to win a league championship. Yes, we finished first at the end of the regular season, but we weren’t at our best in our last few games. We had trouble scoring goals and we tried to find ways to fix it, but things didn’t get better in the playoffs, and that’s the main reason we lost against Vancouver.”
MIDFIELDER PATRICK LEDUC
“We had some highs and lows during the season, and we weren’t at our best towards the end. Vancouver didn’t steal anything away from us in the semi-finals, they played very well, and they dominated us. On paper, we had a very strong team, but it didn’t work out. We would have liked to do better than that, especially for our fans — we would have wanted to give them more, we were aiming higher.”
DEFENDER ADAM BRAZ
“It’s very disappointing because in my mind, from day one, my objective is to win the championship, and it’s also what we want as a team. So at the end of the day, being in the semi-finals is not good enough. The difference between the season and the playoffs is that in a two-game series, if you’re not on top of things right away, it becomes very tough. Whereas during the season, if you make mistakes, you can correct them the following game. For example, early this season, we lost 3-1 in Charleston, it was a bad loss, but we were able to pick ourselves up and move on, and go on to win the regular-season title. Unfortunately, in North America, you’re not judged on how you do throughout the season overall, but during the playoffs.”
I. IN THE FACTS
Position in the standings: 1st
Record: 14-5-9 (51 PTS), 31GF-15GA
At home: 8-2-4 (28 PTS), 18GF-4GA
On the road: 6-3-5 (23 PTS), 13GF-11GA
Trophies: Commissioner’s Cup, Voyagers Cup
• The Montreal Impact is the regular-season champion team of the United Soccer Leagues First Division. A 0-0 tie between the Rochester Raging Rhinos and the Charleston Battery, Sunday, allowed the Impact to clinch its fifth regular-season title in club history after 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2005.
• Montreal also posted the best defense in the league for the fourth straight year, allowing only 15 goals in 28 games, a team record first set in 2004 and tied for the first time last year.
• The 16 shutouts collected by Impact goalkeepers — nine by Sutton, seven by Andrew Weber — are the second best total in club history tied with last year’s, and three behind the league-record of 19 set in 2004 by Montreal.
• The 10 shutouts at home tie a club record and the four goals allowed at home are a new club record, beating the six-goal mark set in 1994 and tied in 1996 and 2004.
• The team also had its best-ever start to the season at home, remaining undefeated in its first 10 match-ups at Claude-Robillard Sports Complex (7-0-3).
New club records (2)
• Four goals allowed at home
• Best start of the season at home (7-0-3)
Club records equalled (2)
• Best defensive performance (15 goals allowed in 28 games)
• 10 shutouts at home
II. INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES
Most goals: Mauricio Salles (9)
Most Assists: Leonardo Di Lorenzo (6)
Most points: Mauricio Salles (19)
Most Minutes Played: Mauro Biello (2,192)
Most games played: Mauro Biello (28)
Most starts: Mauro Biello (24)
USL First Team All-League: Greg Sutton and Gabriel Gervais
USL Second Team All-League: Nevio Pizzolitto and Leonardo Di Lorenzo
USL Individual Honours: Greg Sutton (Goalkeeper of the year), Gabriel Gervais (Finalist – Defender of the year), Nick De Santis (Finalist – Coach of the year)
* Winners in those categories to be unveiled by the league later this week
• Greg Sutton was crowned USL D1 Goalkeeper of the Year for the fourth straight year after posting the best goals-against average in the league, 0.50 in 14 games, ahead of his teammate Andrew Weber (0.571). And in spite of limited playing time, Sutton finished 2nd in the league for shutouts (9), while Weber finished 7th for wins (8).
• Mauricio Salles was the Impact’s leading scorer with nine goals and one assist for 19 points, earning him 9th place in the league for points and 6th place for goals.
• With his six assists, Leonardo Di Lorenzo finished 4th in the league.
• Salles and Mauro Biello ended up 4th and 5th for shots, respectively, with 58 and 51.
• Biello became the first player in Impact history to play all of Montreal’s regular-season games for two straight seasons. Biello also became the first Impact player to surpass the 25,000 minutes-played mark and the 300 games played in his United Soccer Leagues First Division career.
• Impact head coach Nick De Santis and defender Gabriel Gervais have been nominated as finalists for United Soccer Leagues First Division individual awards. De Santis is a finalist for Coach of the Year, while Gervais has been nominated for the Defender of the Year award. The award winners in these categories will be unveiled by the league later this week.
• Four Impact players were selected to the United Soccer Leagues First Division All-League Teams. Defender Gabriel Gervais and goalkeeper Greg Sutton were selected to the first team, while defender Nevio Pizzolitto and midfielder Leonardo Di Lorenzo received second-team honours.
III. ATTENDANCE
Total attendance (regulars season + playoffs): 173,544 spectators
Average attendance (regular season): 11,554 spectators
Largest crowd: 13,450 (August 9, 2006 vs Rochester)
• Montreal played in front of a total of 161,762 people this year, for an average of 11,554 spectators per home game, compared to 10,064 for the Rochester Raging Rhinos. The Impact registered its best season ever in this category, beating its 11,176 average and 156,458 total set in 2005.
• Since the club’s re-launch in 2002, the average attendance continually increased, going from 5,174 spectators per game in 2002, to 7,236 fans in 2003, to 9,279 in 2004, to 11,176 in 2005 and 11,554 this season.
• For a second straight year, the Impact surpassed the 150,000 spectators mark for home games.
• The team played an unprecedented five straight games in front of over 13,000 spectators
• The Impact registered is best all-time regular-season high with 13,450 fans August 9 in a game against the Rochester Rhinos.
• On the club’s all-time top-10 list of largest crowds, eight have been registered this year.
• The Impact also welcomed its 1,000,000th fan on August 25 for a game against the Virginia Beach Mariners.
• Montreal played to a sell-out crowd its two last games of the regular season.
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Source : Patrick Vallée, Montreal Impact
Info : 514-328-3668 (ext. 27)
