Unchanged and confident Impact look to start season with win in San Jose
MONTREAL — They were entertaining and mostly successful in the Major League Soccer playoffs last fall. Now it’s time for the Montreal Impact to take that energy into a whole new season.
The Impact, with a starting 11 unchanged from the end of the 2016 campaign, open the regular season Saturday night in San Jose against an Earthquakes squad that made major changes after missing the playoffs for a fourth year in a row.
While the Impact feel good about themselves going into the new season, winning on the road is never easy in MLS, even against a team they have never lost to (3-0-2) since joining the league in 2012.
“We want to get off to a good start, but it’s always difficult playing teams in their home openers with the hype and the sellout crowds, so we’ve got to be ready for all this,” coach Mauro Biello said this week. “We have to go there and play a smart game in terms of what we can take advantage of versus San Jose and what we need to do to limit them.”