But he won’t be alone to do the work: he will also be able to count on the input of his assistants Peter Pinizzotto, Gil Orriols Jansana and Youssef Dahha.
According to De Santis, the term “assistant” does not accurately describe the role played on the team by Pinizzotto, who was head coach of the Toronto Lynx during seven years before joining the Impact for the 2004 season.
“He’s not an assistant, he’s there next to me, I see us as a team of coaches who are both trying to make this team better,” says De Santis. “Although we’re both opiniated, we have a very good relationship in the way we see the game.”
“I’m more calm, while Nick is still very much like he was when he was a player — he has a lot of intensity. And it works out well,” says Pinizzotto.
De Santis consults Pinizzotto on a regular basis during the season, but it was also the case this winter. He therefore was able to count on his help to build this year’s team, which has several newcomers of note, including Kirk Wilson, Mauricio Salles and Daniel Antoniuk, among others.
“We would talk at least once or twice a week when I wasn’t in Montreal. The lines of communication were always very good,” says Pinizzotto.
“Peter brings us a lot of experience, he knows the rest of the league very well,” says veteran defender Gabriel Gervais. “He plays a very important role on the team. He is very good tactically, he has a lot of creativity.”
Dahha, a former member of Morocco’s junior and olympic national teams, also joined the Impact before the start of the 2004 season, in the role of goalkeeper coach.
“He’s a very good motivator, and he always works on the small details,” says Greg Sutton, who was crowned the league’s Goalkeeper of the Year for the third straight season in 2005. “He keeps me on my toes, helps me avoid being complacent or too satisfied.”
Although there is no doubt Sutton will once again be the Impact’s first-string goalkeeper this season, Dahha has no favourites. He treats the six-foot, six-inch athlete the same way he does his backups Andrew Weber and Gerry Argento.
“As far as I’m concerned, there is no number one, number two or number three ‘keeper,” says Dahha, who is also goalkeeper coach for the Quebec Select Teams, the National High Performance Centre and the UQAM Citadins. “The preparation is exactly the same for all three. If Greg catches a cold, the others have to be ready.”
“He’s also very good in the room with the guys,” says De Santis about Dahha. “He brings positive energy to the team.”
Orriols Jansana, who joined the coaching staff this winter as a physical preparation specialist, brings with him an impressive résumé, after notably working as physical and high performance coach for FC Barcelona’s reserve and youth teams. He also holds a Masters degree in Sport & Physical Education Sciences, specialized in high performance soccer, at Barcelona University.
“I wanted to come back to Quebec,” he says to explain his career path, which could easily have led him somewhere else in Europe. “In 2001, after university, I spent some time in Quebec City, I worked for the ski federation there and I liked it a lot, the quality of life was good. I thought about my career in terms of other factors, not money or public recognition.”
Orriols Jansana supervised the physical preparation of players during the off-season and training camp, and this summer he will take on injured players once their rehabilitation with the physiotherapist is completed.
“Gil brings a different dynamic to the team,” says Gervais. “He makes us do exercises that emphasize the physical aspect, but at the same time he brings us to touch the ball, he includes a tactical aspect to them. He also conceives programs for each player, according to his needs.”
With the Impact, success is therefore the result of team work, not only for the players but for the coaches too.
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