The group will play just its second preseason game tonight
It seems like it was just yesterday that the Montreal Impact squad met at the airport, greeting each other for the first time in 209 on route to Florida to kick off their training camp.
More than two weeks have passed now since that departure. Since then, the players and coaching staff, along with the rest of the team, have eaten three meals a day together with few exceptions, taken part in two to three training sessions a day together, and have done team building activities, such as dragon boat racing and yoga sessions on the beach, you guessed it, together.
It’s a large amount of time to spend with the same people, but head coach Rémi Garde is appreciating the positive spirit he’s seen from the group thus far.
“What I see so far, in terms of togetherness and being a team, is very interesting,” said Garde. “If we can keep this team spirit, which is one of the most important things for me, we will be a very strong team.”
Although Garde knows that the preseason is a much different beast than the MLS regular season, he believes that a strong team spirit is what allows a team to get through the season’s more difficult moments.
“When we’ll be in the heart of the campaign, we need to remember what we’ve been trying to build here in terms of solidarity,” added Garde. “We need to be even stronger this year. Last year, in our difficult moments, we didn’t find it fast enough. I think today, the way the group is built and the way it’s constituted individually, we’ve already progressed on that front.”
The team is set to play its second game of the preseason this afternoon against USL side Nashville SC. Head coach Rémi Garde isn’t expecting a perfect game, although he wants what was worked on in training sessions to be showcased when game time comes around.
Physically, he knows the players still have a way to go before being ready to play a full 90 minutes, but it’s all part of the process.
“If we want to make other teams suffer, we must first suffer ourselves.”
