The friendly confines of Stade Saputo were even friendlier this past week as all three of the Impact youth teams in league action were victorious, with impressive performances in both the USSDA and the PDL.
Four goals for Morelli
The Impact U18s were the first to take the synthetic field at Stade Saputo last Saturday, in what ended as a 6-2 victory for the home side against BW Gottschee Academy, thanks in part to four goals by Fabio Morelli in the team’s last game of the regular season.
“It was important for us to finish the season strongly,” said defender Melé Temguia. “We took this game as an important tune-up match for the playoffs that start in two weeks. Personally, at the start of the season, I didn’t think too much about the playoffs, but as we progressed throughout the season and climbed the standings, it became more of a priority and now we want to go as far as possible.”
Mastanabal Kacher and Alexandar Kulic added to Morelli’s four goals to round out the scoring.
Lucky 7s
The U16s did one better than its older USSDA counterparts by scoring seven against BW Gottschee Academy on its way to a home shutout in its final game before the playoffs.
Jimmy-Shammar Sanon (2), Esleyder Luarca, Louis-Philippe Paquin, Thomas Meilleur-Giguère, David Choinière and Luca Ricci foudn the back of the net.
“The objective for today’s game was to be well-prepared for the playoffs and we approached it that way,” said offensively midfielder Choinière, “We will have to play an intense schedule of three games in four days. I’d like to reach the next level, which would be the semi-finals in California on July 17.
U23s best top team in PDL
The Impact U23 team hosted first place CFC Azul last Wednesday, knocking the Northeastern Division leading side to second spot following a 3-1 victory for the home side.
“We played a really good 70 minutes, with our identity out in full force,” said U23 head coach Philippe Eullaffroy. “The last 20 minutes were a little more difficult with fatigue kicking in after we played three games in just six days. The result is very positive for us as they were the top team in our division. We have to maintain that quality we had in the first hour throughout the entire game in order to top the only remaining undefeated team, the Western Mass Pioneers, on Tuesday night.”
The Impact U23 hosts Western Mass at Stade Saputo, synthetic field, at 5pm ET. The game is open to the public and admission is free of charge.
