At this time of the year, the role of the assistant coaches is crucial. Fortunately this year again, head coach Nick De Santis can count on his assistants Peter Pinizzotto and Youssef Dahha.
Pinizzotto, who joined the Impact in 2004, has a slightly different role this season, as he is now further involved in player fitness.
“It’s something that I really enjoy doing,” says Pinizzotto. “Unlike previous years, this season we have almost 14 weeks of training camp. I did a lot of research and we have developed a four-cycle program. We have to be careful because we don’t want to burn our players. To this effect, they will have three to four days off between each cycle.”
Basic endurance is the first of the four stages that the team will have to complete before the first regular season game in the United Soccer Leagues First Division, April 12, against the Whitecaps, in Vancouver. The following stages include aerobic power, anaerobic training and technical/tactical preparation.
Dahha is also in his fifth season as the club’s goalkeeper coach. He is also working on goalkeepers’ physical and technical preparation.
“In addition to doing physical work, we go over basic moves with the goalkeepers to work on certain details that were forgotten during the off season,” explains Dahha. “Some of the things we focus on are dives, distributions and crosses.”
Matt Jordan, Andrew Weber and Andrew Olivieri, who was playing with the Trois-Rivières Attak last season, are training with the team in Italy. Goalkeeper Julien Latendresse-Lévesque, 16, who started the camp in Montreal, January 7, will join the team upon returning to Montreal. The young Quebec goalkeeper could not travel with the team because of his studies.
“Olivieri brings freshness to our group of goalkeepers,” notes Dahha. He represents a new challenge for the two others who were with us last year. I think that they all deserve the top spot. Matt Jordan has proved last year that he could be in first position but he now has to fight for it.”
The Impact will play its second exhibition game in Italy, against Frosinone, WEDNESDAY at 3 pm (9 am Eastern time), instead of TUESDAY, as the second division Italian team has scheduled an anti-doping test.
PHOTOS PÉPÉ
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Source: Patrick Vallée
Info: 514-328-3668, Ext. 27
