Montreal

Impact face tough road match at Atlanta United (Apr 26, 2018)

Published Apr. 26, 2018 10:46 p.m. ET

One of the worst road teams in MLS ventures into one of the toughest venues in the league when the Montreal Impact visits Atlanta United on Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The Impact are 4-13-5 on the road in league play since the start of the last season, including 1-4-0 this year. United is unbeaten inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium this season, outscoring opponents 14-4.

Atlanta (5-1-1) has been good everywhere this season, though. Since dropping their season opener at Houston, the Five Stripes are unbeaten in their last six games with five wins. They're coming off a 2-0 victory at LA Galaxy and boast two red-hot playmakers in striker Josef Martinez and dynamic midfielder Miguel Almiron.

Martinez leads MLS with five goals, and Almiron has four assists and four goals.

Montreal (2-5-0) squandered a two-goal lead and a hat trick from Ignacio Piatti in a 5-3 loss to Los Angeles FC its last time out. Montreal played a man down for 60 minutes against LAFC after Victor Cabrera was sent off with a red card in the 31st minute.

"I'm not happy at all with the way that we managed the second half," Montreal coach Remi Garde told reporters after the loss, "because when you have the chance to lead 3-1 at halftime, even if you are playing 10 men, you should be more determined to protect your goal and some time to attack.

"I mean, there are not too many tactical situations in this occasion. It's more about your pride, about the fight you want to put in the game to win. And I think in the second half I didn't see a team that wanted to preserve the score and maybe to score one more."

Piatti's hat trick gave the Argentine 51 career MLS goals. He'll be the focus of Atlanta's defense, United coach Tata Martino said.

"That's the main problem that every team that plays Montreal has to figure out is how to stop Piatti, and I think if we're able to solve that part of the game then our chances of winning are much higher," Martino said. "We try to avoid one-on-one situations. We try to keep him or any player of that talent as far away from goal as we can and try to double-team him to stay out of 1-v-1 situations."

Montreal and Atlanta faced off twice last season, with each team winning on its home pitch.

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