Impact face home test vs. Atlanta United (Jul 26, 2018)
Riding high and inching their way up the MLS standings, the Montreal Impact conclude a busy stretch with their stiffest test yet.
Playing its fourth game in 10 days -- including two trips to the Pacific time zone -- Montreal looks to extend its home pitch advantage when it hosts MLS-leading Atlanta United on Saturday night at Saputo Stadium.
Much has changed since the two sides last met at the end of April in a game which ended in a 4-1 final for Atlanta. Back then, Montreal (9-12-1) had just one win and was floundering at the bottom of the league's standings.
Five weeks later, however, a turnaround began. The Impact are 6-2-1 in MLS action since the beginning of June, most recently securing a crucial point in a road draw against the Portland Timbers last week. They now sit fifth in the Eastern Conference but remain just one point up on seventh-place Philadelphia, which sits just outside the postseason cut-off line.
A key part of that resurgence has not only been a tighter defense -- the team hasn't conceded a first-half goal in five straight -- but also a five-game home winning streak.
"The atmosphere (at home) is great and the crowd always gives us a push," midfielder Samuel Piette told reporters. "It just feels comfortable to play here. This is a league where it's always tough to get points away, so it's really important to get as many as we can at home. And that's what we've been doing lately."
Piette and his teammates, who will be on short rest after falling to the Whitecaps in Vancouver in Voyageurs Cup action on Wednesday, will be in tough competition against Atlanta (13-4-5), which owns the best road record in MLS this season at 6-2-2.
Atlanta is coming off a 3-1 win against D.C. United, fueled by Josef Martinez's record-setting sixth MLS hat trick. He now leads the league with 22 goals -- just six fewer than the entire Montreal Impact roster combined.
"I think that when one has the possibility to have someone in the kind of form that Josef is in right now all you can really do is sit back and watch and try to enjoy it," manager Tata Martino told mlssoccer.com. "These moments where players are at a very high level, whether it's Josef or Miguel 1/8Almiron 3/8, they're our players and all we try to do is give them confidence and enjoy those moments."
It was the second straight match in which Atlanta United conceded the opening tally, and both times the club rallied for at least one point.
"It was huge. I thought we were going to start a trend by going down a goal like last week, but that shows the character of the team," defender Chris McCann told reporters of the comeback effort. "We are mentally strong and we showed that. We just stuck to what we know is best and the goals came."
