Montreal Impact will be at home to New England Revolution as America's Major League Soccer kicks off this weekend. The two sides will each be looking for a better run this time round after a near-disastrous campaign last year that saw Montreal finish ninth out of twelve teams in the Eastern Conference and eighteenth overall.
Montreal Impact had a torrid pre-season time, that saw them lose three of four friendly matches, including losses to Tampa Bay Rowdies, Philadephia Union and Nashville. They only managed one victory when they beat DC United 3-1 in January. The team goes into the MLS after registering two draws against Saprissa in the first round of the Concacaf Champions League. In the first match, at Saprissa, Okwonkwo and Quito put Montreal ahead but defensive blunders saw them soak in two goals in the last ten minutes of the match.
New England were seventh in the Eastern Conference last year and qualified for the playoffs from which they were eliminated in the first round. But the team has has been active in the pre-season playing five friendly matches against various league rivals and winning twice while losing a similar number of times. Most recently, New England beat Portland Timbers 3-1 thanks to a Bou brace that paired well with a Buksa strike for the victory.
The entry of French superstar Thierry Henry as Montreal's manager is expected to give his team some air of confidence and we suspect he has a great strategy for winning MLS matches having played in the competition for the New York Red Bulls.
While New England have had a more exciting pre-season compared to Montreal, we believe the entry of a new coach and former Barcelona man Bojan Krkic will give the hosts the edge they need to carry the day.