Montreal Impact vs Vancouver Whitecaps Preview : Three Questions with 86 Forever

In case you have forgotten, MLS is back and so are your Montreal Impact. The Bleu-Blanc-Noir travelled to British Columbia to face off the Vancouver Whitecaps, who are off to an impressive start in 2014 season.

The Montreal Impact is still at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. Frank Klopas and Nick de Santis (sporting director) have brought in a lot of new pieces and also lost a few.

Mount Royal Soccer Q:  
The Vancouver whitecaps look pretty awesome this year. I have been hearing of this South American revolution from a small country called Uruguay. Is that the key to this year's success?

86 Forever A:

To be honest, while the two urguayan additions, Sebastian Fernandez and Nicolas Mezquida, have been nice complimentary additions to the 2014 Vancouver Whitecaps, the key for the attack has been Pedro Morales. The Whitecaps have been trying to find a competant, creative midfielder ever since ever since Davide Chiumiento left, and they've found that in the 28 year old Chilean. Adding to the attack is the emergence of Erik Hurtado, playing his second year in MLS. He's scored a goal in 5 straight matches, and some of them have been absolute beauties. On the defensive side of things, Matias Laba has proven to be an early candidate for MVP with his shutdown style play, and Gershon Koffie has nearly matched him stride for stride. A lot of good things are happening with this club right now.

Mount Royal Soccer Q:
Is Carl Robinson's influence on the Whitecaps as a coach or as a manager as per recruitment?

86 Forever A:

I think it's a little bit of both. Robinson has done well with players that were already on this club; Gershon Koffie is playing excellent, Darren Mattocks was as well before his injury, and Erik Hurtado has emerged as a true goal scoring threat. However, he's also brought on several players that have made a significant impact as well; Pedro Morales, Matias Laba and Steve Beitashour, who will miss the match due to World Cup duty with Iran, are all names that come to mind. One thing I can tell you is that as an assistant coach under Martin Rennie, Robinson was extremely well liked by his players. I would imagine that sentiment has carried over into his Head Coaching role.

Mount Royal Soccer Q:
Vancouver seems to score quite a few goals but still concede a lot. Are we talking system, players or a team gelling from within with so many changes in and around the squad?

86 Forever A:

Since a shutout win versus Columbus, Vancouver has looked weak defensively, surrendering 8 goals in three matches. Part of this can be blamed on absent personnel. Captain Jay Demerit went down with an injury in the Philadelphia Union match on June 7th, and his replacement Johnny Leveron didn't look so hot in his stead. Steve Beitashour has been doing World Cup duty, which put Nigel Reo-Coker at RB. Reo-Coker has been inconsistent at best in this role, although he looked good against the Union. Other than that, I think a strong showing by the club defensively earlier in the season proves these guys just need to get back to playing their game, and hopefully a two week break will have helped them accomplish that.