After a weekend with no league games, the U18 and U16 Impact Academy teams were back at Centre Nutrilait to host teams from Everton FC Westchester on Saturday.
Everton scored two quick goals early in the second half against the Impact U18 team, but the locals replied right away with a goal from Protais Mutambala. Giovanni Pulitano and Gabriel Balbinotti joined the party with one goal each to give the lead to the Bleu-blanc-noir, but a goal at the end of the game helped the visitors take one point in a game that ended 3-3.
“The result is disappointing, considering our performance,” said Impact U18 head coach Yoann Damet. “We are getting better at expressing ourselves collectively. This weekend, we saw more initiative, as well as individual and collective creativity. It helped us create many chances. Still, we got a draw that the players and the staff aren’t satisfied with. We have to pay more attention to the little details that can change a game, and this weekend, we cheated with our finishing and defensively, in situations that we know. We need to be more realistic and not give hope to the opponent.”
As for the Impact U16 team, it kept its first clean sheet of the season, winning 2-0. Tristan Resendes and Jean-Arnaud Tano scored the goals.
“In the first half, we struggled because we lacked width and our passes were not accurate,” said Impact U16 head coach Nicolas Gagnon. “We fixed this in the second half and created problems for them when we switched the point of attack, which paid off on both goals we scored. Despite an average first half, it’s positive that we were able to find solutions to score, but also that we didn’t give goals away for the first time this year.”
The Academy teams are still unbeaten this season, as the U18s have a 2-0-2 record and the U16 a 4-0-1 record. Both teams will be making their first trip of the year on Sunday, October 23, to face Empire United.
Tryouts
This Friday marks the beginning of the U18 and FC Montreal tryouts. The selected players that make it through the three rounds of the tryouts will integrate the Academy groups full time.
