Harry Shipp was a part of the 2016 Montreal Impact side that fell to Toronto FC in the 2016 Eastern Conference Championship and came up just short of taking on the Seattle Sounders for MLS Cup. Now, though, little remains from that Montreal team.
Only nine players on the Impact’s current roster were there just 16 months ago. Only six of the top 18 players in minutes played are still around. Shipp is in Seattle. Didier Drogba joined Phoenix Rising. Laurent Ciman was traded to LAFC. Patrice Bernie retired.
Montreal even had several players join in 2017 only to leave after a year, most notably Blerim Džemaili, who returned to Bologna in Serie A, and Ballou Tabla, who transferred to Barcelona B. The Impact have reloaded on talent in the offseason — they added Algerian international and DP Saphir Taïder, Alejandro Silva and Jeisson Vargas — but one constant remains: Montreal is The Ignacio Piatti Show.
“He’s so good 1-v-1,” Shipp said of his former teammate Piatti. “Even if you get a little poke on the ball, somehow the ball ends up back on his foot when he’s running full speed. He’s just as fast with the ball as without it. Once he gets guys retreating especially into the box, guys are a little hesitant and not wanting to give up a penalty. He’s able to make that one cut and finish so well that he’s really, really tough to stop.”
PIatti, 33, is coming off back-to-back 17-goal, six-assist seasons and is showing no signs of slowing down. He already has a goal and two assists to open the first three matches of the 2018 MLS campaign and has formed a formidable strike partnership with Vargas, a promising 20-year-old Chilean attacker.
Piatti is closed down by Ozzie Alonso and Cristian Roldan on March 11, 2017 at Olympic Stadium | USA Today Sports
“[Piatti has] good vision, he’s good passing, he’s a goalscorer, he’s a good leader for them,” Sounders Head Coach Brian Schmetzer said. “He’s an all-around, really good, clean, technical player.”
The Sounders need no introduction to Piatti. He helped set up Matteo Mancosu’s opening goal against the Sounders in last year’s match at Olympic Stadium before tallying one himself to double the Impact’s lead. Late heroics from Nicolás Lodeiro and Will Bruin salvaged a point in Canada, but Piatti was all over the pitch.
A true Argentine playmaker, Piatti will be difficult to stop completely on Saturday when the Impact visit CenturyLink Field (7 p.m. PT; JOEtv, YouTube TV, 950 KJR AM, El Rey 1360 AM | TICKETS), but it’s imperative that the Sounders mitigate his influence on the match.
How well the Sounders can keep Piatti in front of them and limit his ability to operate in space will go a long way in earning Seattle’s first win of the season.
“As we attack, we must always know where Piatti is on the field because he’s usually the first pass, the first outlet,” said Schmetzer. “They’re a good counterattacking team, a good transition team. It’ll be a challenge as we try and get on the front foot to make sure we don’t allow them to get into any counterattacking rhythm.”
Added Shipp: “Guys like Piatti, they’re always going to be dangerous on the break. Even when we are possessing the ball and dictating tempo, which we should at home, that’s our goal, we have to be aware of where those guys are because they can strike quickly.”
