The Montreal Impact and the San Jose Earthquakes don’t have too many things in common on the field, but what they do share is a reliance on their Designated Players to score them goals, despite taking different paths to Major League Soccer.
The Impact’s Marco Di Vaio has had a storied career, playing almost 20 years in Europe’s top flights, with about 15 years of it spent in Italy’s Serie A.
The Scudetto winner with Juventus has four markers on the year in seven games played and although he’s scored all his goals at home, the striker has found himself in some dangerous scoring opportunities while on the road.
Considering the Impact has scored nine goals in seven games in 2013 regular season action, Di Vaio has almost 50% of the team’s tallies. In addition, two of his three goals were game winners.
Different route, similar importance
Oddly enough, the ‘Quakes recently extended DP Chris Wondolowski has the same numbers as Di Vaio, although one of his four goals were scored on the road.
After being drafted in 2005, it wasn’t until the 2010 season that he got his first real chance in MLS with San Jose, leading the league in scoring with 18 goals. Since then, he hasn’t looked back.
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Seeing that the US international has exactly half of his team’s goals in nine games played, it’s obvious that the Earthquakes’ - after finishing as the Supporters Shield winners in 2012 - rely heavily on him. Wondoloswki scored an MLS record tying 27 times last season, good for almost 40% of his team’s offence including nine game winners.
Both DPs found the back of the net in their only matchup last season, although the Impact got the better of the Quakes 3-1 at Stade Saputo.
This Saturday, they will get another chance to show their worth in the Impact’s first ever visit to Buck Shaw Stadium.
