Montreal Impact

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Template:Football club infobox The Montreal Impact (French: Impact de Montréal) is a soccer team in the North American USL First Division. Founded in 1993 by the Saputo family following the demise of the Montreal Supra and its league (the Canadian Soccer League), the Impact became a dominant club in the American Professional Soccer League (1993-1996) and the A-League (1997-2003), renamed the United Soccer Leagues Division 1 (2004). It did not compete during the 1999 outdoor season. Its main rivals are the Rochester Raging Rhinos and the Toronto Lynx. It plays its home games at Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard, which has a capacity recently increased to 9,500 to reflect increasing ticket demand. The team is building a new soccer-specific stadium, Saputo Stadium, which should be completed by July 2007.

1 Club history
2 Club Data
3 Year-by-year
4 Average Attendance
5 Current Squad
6 External links

[edit]

Club history

Following a lackluster first year, the Impact surprised the defending champion Colorado Foxes (1-0) on October 15, 1994 to claim its first league title. Subsequently, the team finished first or tied for first during the regular season in 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2003 without making it back to the final. The Impact lost to archrivals Rochester in first four playoff encounters, in 1996, 1998, 2002 and 2003 before finally defeating them in 2004 on route to their second title. The club was favoured to repeat in 2005 but after a near-flawless season (3 losses in 28 games), the Impact was ousted in the semi-finals by the eventual champions, the Seattle Sounder (2-2, 1-2). The team also won the inaugural Voyageurs Cup in 2002 and successfully defended its title in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

In 2004, the Impact finished first in the A-League's Eastern conference before disposing of Rochester (1-0, 1-0), Syracuse (2-0, 1-1) and Seattle (2-0) to capture its second championship, 10 years after its first. The final, held in Montréal, saw an all-time record 13,648 fans cram into Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard Stadium (whose seating capacity for the day was adjusted 10,100). The MVP was Mauricio Vincello who scored the winner at the 33rd minute of play. Fredrick Commodore sealed the game with a goal at the 78th minute.

At the gate, the Impact had always been solid within the league before 1999, with average crowds of 4,000-5,000. After disappointing seasons in 2000 and 2001 (where the average gate was between 2,000 and 3,000 people), the team had new record attendances in 2002 (5,000+ on average), 2003 (7,000+ on average), 2004 (9,000+ on average) and 2005 (11,000+ on average). The all-time high is the 13,648 attendance for the 2004 final.

In 1999, the owners had a conflict with the league and withdrew the team from competition. After resurfacing in 2000, the club went bankrupt during the 2001 season when the then-owners were Ionian. Administered until the end of the season by one of the original pillars, Joey Saputo, the club rose from its ashes in 2002, set up as a non-profit organisation owned by the Quebec government, Hydro-Quebec and Saputo. It also attracted many big-time sponsors such as the National Bank of Canada, Bell Canada and Coca-Cola, among others. The team's mandate is to develop local talent and to serve as a representative of Montreal for tourism. Since the Impact's renaissance in 2002, Québec-born players have played a much more central role in the Canadian national team, after many years of non-selection. For the 2005 Gold Cup, players Greg Sutton (from Ontario, Gabriel Gervais, Sandro Grande Patrick Leduc, Adam Braz and Ali Gerba, as well as former player Patrice Bernier and Quebec-born Olivier Occéan were all called to the national team and did well by most accounts. The visibility helped Grande and Ali, who both transferred to Scandinavia shortly after the tournament.

The Impact also played indoors in the NPSL (at the Bell Centre, then at Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard) with many of the same players from 1997-1998 to 1999-2000.

[edit]

Club Data

Key players over the years: Patrice Ferri, Rudy Doliscat, Patrick Diotte, Mauro Biello, John Limniatis, Nick Desantis, Lloyd Barker, Jean Harbor, Paolo Ceccarelli, Pat Harrington, Grant Needham, Paulinho, Onandi Lowe, Lyndon Hooper, Nick Dasovic, Nevio Pizzolitto, Eduardo Sebrango, Sandro Grande.

Current stars (2006): Mauro Biello (Captain), Greg Sutton, Gabriel Gervais, Nevio Pizzolitto, Zé Roberto, Patrick Leduc, Adam Braz, Mauricio Salles, Kirk Wilson

All-time leaders (1993-2004):

Goals: Mauro Biello, active, (60).
Games played: Mauro Biello, active, (236).

Coaches:

Eddie Firmani - 1993.
Valerio Gazzola - 1994-1997.
Paul Kitson - 1998.
Zoran Jankovic - 2000.
Valerio Gazzola - 2000-2001.
Nick Desantis - 2001.
Bob Lilley - 2002-2003.
Nick Desantis - 2004- .

Titles:

League Champion - 1994 (APSL), 2004 (A-League).
Voyageurs Cup - 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005.
Can Am Cup - 1998, 2003, 2004.

[edit]

Year-by-year

Year	League	Reg. Season	Playoffs	Voyageurs Cup
1988*	CSL	5th, Eastern	Did not qualify	N/A
1989*	CSL	5th, Eastern	Did not qualify	N/A
1990*	CSL	2nd, Eastern	Quarterfinals	N/A
1991*	CSL	5th	Quarterfinals	N/A
1992*	CSL	4th	Semifinals	N/A
1993	APSL	7th	Did not qualify	N/A
1994	APSL	3rd	Champion	N/A
1995	A-League	1st	Semifinals	N/A
1996	A-League	1st	Semifinals	N/A
1997	USISL A-League	1st, Northeast	Division Finals	N/A
1997/98	NPSL	3rd, North	Division Finals	N/A
1998	USISL A-League	2nd, Northeast	Conference Semifinals	N/A
1998/99	NPSL	3rd, Central	Conference Semifinals	N/A
1999/00	NPSL	2nd, Central	Conference Semifinals	N/A
2000	USL A-League	4th, Northeast	Did not qualify	N/A
2001	USL A-League	4th, Northern	Did not qualify	N/A
2002	USL A-League	2nd, Northeast	Conference Semifinals	Champion
2003	USL A-League	1st, Northeast	Division Finals	Champion
2004	USL A-League	1st, Eastern	Champion	Champion
2005	USL First Division	1st	Semifinals	Champion