CARSON, California – The Montreal Impact U18 team will make history on Thursday night, at the U.S. national training center StubHub Center in Carson, California, as it faces Bethesda-Olney Academy (Maryland) in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy (USSDA) playoffs at 11pm EDT.
Following its first ever playoff qualification, the Impact U18 team is now one of the top four teams in the USSDA, the prestigious academy league with some 80 teams from across Canada and the U.S., including a number of MLS academies, in just its second year of existence.
“This qualification means a lot for us and for the club,” said U18 head coach Jason DiTullio. “The players have approached training with ambition and they are on a mission to win. I felt it throughout the year and even more so in the playoffs. The boys deserve to be here, so we are approaching the game with a lot of confidence and the knowledge of what we need to do to win it.”
“This is a very important game for us, probably the most important of the season and we are all well aware of that,” said U18 captain Mélé Temguia. “We will approach this game in the same way that we have approached all of our games this season. Our pre-game routines, the way we prepare, will not change. The same applies to the way we play. Our principles of play will remain our focus. It doesn’t change because this is a semifinal. These are principles we believe in. If we respect these principles, everything will go well for us.”
The Impact U18 got here by defeating the Seattle Sounders 3-0 in the quarterfinals. In the regular season, the Impact finished second in the Northeast Division with a record of 16-6-2.
The other semifinal has FC Dallas taking on PDA, with the winners of both matches playing the national final on Saturday, July 19.
To get live updates of the match, follow @academieimpact on twitter.
