As Sporting Kansas City returns home to Sporting Park to take on Eastern Conference side Montreal on Saturday, I caught up with MLSsoccer.com's Olivier Tremblay to preview the match. Live pregame coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. CT and is available on KMCI (38 The Spot), SKCTV, Sports Radio 810 WHB, and La Grande 1340 AM.
Jonathon Feyerherm: What's been the reason for the drastic diffference in Montreal's home and road record?
Olivier Tremblay: The road issue dates back to the whole 2014 season where didn't win one game on the road. They had a stretch of like 25 games, if I'm not mistaken, where they went on the road and only picked up six or seven points from those games. It's not like they went and drew every time. They got beaten and just weren't good. Once the 2014 season started, you could see that this was a team that was really struggling to find who they are, after changing coaches for the third time in three years. This year Frank Klopas is in his second season as head coach, and that's never happened in the history of the Impact in MLS. You get off to a bad start like that and it just goes on and on and on and you just keep hearing about it. They are asked time after time, "So are you snapping that streak this weekend? Is it happening?" and it does get into your mind. You come to a point where you want to do so well on the road that you're overthinking things, and you can see Montreal just not sticking to game-plans on the road and trying to change their game to the opponent. In terms of game-plan and in terms of attitude, that's where the main problem lies. I'm kind of excited to see that game against Kansas City because they finally snapped that streak when they won at Columbus. But they haven't really had the opportunity to build on that, and yes they did lose on the road after that. Sporting Park is a ground where Montreal will either do really, really bad or do really, really well so I'm excited to see what kind of Montreal team we will see.
JF: How are you expecting Montreal to approach the match?
OT: I think they're going to approach it in a really no-nonsense way. If there is a time to not over-complicate things, it is this weekend. It's been a really eventful week for Montreal. Laurent Ciman, who has been probably their best player, him and his wife have been talking in the media about the healthcare for their daughter with autism. They moved here for her to get better care and they've been kind of accusing the club of not following through on some promises. That has been addressed in some ways, but it's still an issue in Montreal. It's a point of discussion. Bakary Soumare was complaining that he wasn't getting as much playing time as he wanted to and now he's been traded to FC Dallas in return for Kyle Bekker. So just an awful time for Montreal to try and approach a game in a calm and collected fashion. They have to shift their game-plan to the most no-nonsense way, in my opinion. So just try to be solid in the back and catch them on the break, even go for a draw. That would be a good result under the circumstances of such a harsh week.
JF: What will be the keys to the match for Montreal?
OT: They have to stop Kansas City from threatening. They have to hold on in those first few minutes because when they concede early at Sporting Park, everything just unravels and they don't necessarily have the kind of approach that would help them get back into such a game, and they're going against an in-form team in Kansas City who also happen to be pretty good at home. The first 15-20 minutes, they should just play simple. Just try to hold on, try to keep Sporting KC at bay. Without a couple of really important pieces at the back-line, for example Ciman, who I mentioned earlier was playing very well defensively. He can play the ball out of the back well, he's prone to being maybe a little too adventurous at times, but he's been rock solid for Montreal. Probably the best defender they've ever had, dating back 20 years. Oyongo has been very good as well. They have the kind of guys that can at the very least, just remain calm and not panic because historically when Montreal has played at Sporting Park, KC just goes straight at them and they smell blood straight away. So if they can keep them at bay for 15-20 minutes I think they can get a result.
JF: What are your thoughts on Sporting KC?
OT: Kansas City obviously is a team, to me, that is an example that a smaller markets can do well in MLS. Kansas City are a team that seem to have a plan, they seem to know where they want to go instead of just making roster moves for the sake of making roster moves. They are a model club to me in MLS. The way that they've played as well, very high-energy and a couple of skillful players that can turn a player on his head. Sporting KC are really fun to watch and I'm looking forward to seeing a number of guys that maybe I haven't had the opportunity to see yet, like Nemeth for example.
JF: What are the Montreal players and coaches' thoughts on Sporting KC?
OT: They've spoken very little about us playing Sporting Kansas City because of all the other issues at hand. It's a team that they know they have to be very careful in terms of approach with them because they know the results against them haven't always been very good. Even at home, I still remember that Rosell master-class passing performance. Montreal are kind of wary of Kansas City in terms of how they can press high and win balls when they're not quite set in formation. They can win balls really close to your goal and find those pockets of space that they can punish you with. They're looking out for that. They want to keep a really compact and tight shape because Montreal is at their best when they're countering at speed. So in that sense it's an interesting match-up because Sporting Kansas City are known to want to take the game to Montreal, where as Montreal are going to want to break with speed. So that's something they're looking for and also something they're wary of.
JF: Who are some of the players to watch for Montreal in Saturday's match?
OT: To me, you have to look, first and foremost at the selection they're going to make on the field. They want to keep that compact shape. Marco Donadel has been improving the last couple weeks, especially since his girls finished school and his family was able to move to Montreal, that put a spring in his step. He's kind of prone to being winded and being taken out in the 75th to 80th minute. He's not quite 90 minutes fit yet, he's not in his optimal form anyway. I don't know how Montreal are going to want to approach that. That difficulty here is that Donadel scored a really good goal last weekend, so maybe you don't want to take him out of the lineup. That could be a crucial player of how Sporting Kansas City are going to be able to play around him. You've got to look at Piatti of course. It's been interesting to see how Montreal forms their counter attacks of late. Their first outlet has been very often Piatti, which is interesting because he's come under fire a little in Montreal because he's not seeming to trust his teammates as much as he trusts himself. So he's going to want to take an extra player on and the play is going to break by him putting in the first outlet and the counter attack kind of forms from him making a decision, but the more he is on the ball, it's forcing him to make better decisions as well. He sends that outlet that has been able to put Montreal forward at speed that has led to some goals for Montreal. That is the kind of thing that will be crucial for Montreal if they want to get a result against Sporting Kansas City. They're going to be under pressure a lot, so I would assume Ciman would have a large role in the match, given his situation allowing him to play is in question, maybe forcing the coaches to make an other change.
