You MONTREAL – The Montreal Impact bench? That's of no interest to Jack McInerney, who wants to impress right away after Friday’s blockbuster trade that sent forward Andrew Wenger the other way to the Philadelphia Union. He may get to.
His new head coach, Frank Klopas, said Impact fans would have to “come out and see” whether McInerney would join Marco Di Vaio up front this Saturday at the Olympic Stadium against the Chicago Fire, but there’s no doubt in his – and McInerney’s – mind: it’s bound to happen sometime.
“We could play them together,” Klopas told reporters after training on Tuesday. “We’ll see through the week and, obviously, that’s the reason we have him here. I think that they can play well together, but it’s stuff that we have to do at training this week.”
McInerney met his new teammates this Tuesday, and if Klopas’ comments weren’t encouraging already, the new arrival had to be delighed with those of the man he put among the best-ever finishers in MLS, Di Vaio.
“He kind of just said hello, said ‘We’ve been wanting you, we’re happy to have you, and hopefully you score some goals this year,’” McInerney told reporters.
While McInerney had already met Di Vaio at the 2013 MLS All-Star Game, he’d only had contacts as an opponent with others such as defender Hassoun Camara, who sounded relieved to face McInerney in intra-squad scrimmages only from now on.
“He’s a good player, really a good player,” Camara told reporters. “I’m happy to see him amongst us, because I can tell you he's one of the players that will most make life difficult for you in MLS with his movement and his thirst for goals. He’s got the same profile as Marco, I’d say: hugging the offside line, asking for the ball in behind defenders.”
Providing such assists, as well as easing McInerney in, are tasks that former Philadelphia teammate Justin Mapp will be happy to fulfill.
“He’s a young, hungry player,” Mapp said of McInerney. “A quiet guy, but I know he wants to get here and prove himself to a new team and new fans. He’d been in Philadelphia since the beginning of his career, so it’s kind of a new chapter and I know he’s hungry to score goals and prove anybody who doubted him or whatever wrong.”
Olivier Tremblay covers the Impact on MLSsoccer.com
