Last Saturday was the beginning of the USSDA season for the U16 and U18 Montreal Impact teams, who were hosting Beachside SC at the Centre Nutrilait.
The U18 team was the first to take on the field at the Impact’s training centre. After a scoreless first half, the Bleu-blanc-noir’s patience paid off when Vincent Lamy, who entered the game in the second half, scored after a pass from Raphaël Garcia in the last 15 minutes of play. Montreal’s defence held on for its first victory and clean sheet this season.
“Everyone was excited to get the emotions from this competition and you could see it on the field,” said Impact U18 head coach Yoann Damet. “We were satisfied as the players confirmed the good preparation we did with quality in the content, but also with the win. We showed character and quality in the build-up. I also liked our capacity to defend well together and anticipate the loss of the ball, while putting efforts in repositioning. We were mature in the way we dealt with weaker moments and with the end of the game. Now, we need to keep working. There are also things that were not as good, where we need to bring adjustments.”
The Impact U16 game had a lot more goals on both sides of the field. After allowing the first goal at the start of the game, Montreal scored three unanswered goals before halftime, coming from Yohan Le Bourhis, Moulay Kanzi Belthiti and Youssef Mouelhi.
Mouelhi added his second goal of the game on a penalty in the second half, before seeing Beachside SC score one consolation goal at the end of the game, but it was too little too late. Nicolas Gagnon’s team won its first game by a score of 4-2.
“The group had a good performance and was strong together against a team that could have caused us more problems if we had let them,” said head coach Nicolas Gagnon. “We are globally happy with our game, but also saw some indications that we need to be more consistent and deal better with the weaker moments in the game.”
The Impact U18 doesn’t have a USSDA game this weekend and will take this time to prepare its next game, on Saturday, September 24, against BW Gottschee. For the U16 team, they will face New York City FC this Saturday, at 1:30pm, at Centre Nutrilait. Don’t miss it!
