This is the 10th in a series of 20 short columns focused on the things I'm thinking about as we approach the 20th season of Major League Soccer. I'm going to dig into mostly non-obvious questions here – the tertiary stuff that can become bigger over time – rather than the giant storylines (e.g., How do the Red Bulls replace Henry? What if Ozzie's injury lingers? Is this THE year for TFC?).
You can find previous installments in my story archive HERE. For this latest entry, we turn to the Great White North...
At no point during Tuesday night's 2-2 draw at Pachuca and the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals did the Impact look like the aggressors. They went down to Mexico with a game plan – sit deep, absorb pressure, counter – and executed it superbly for about 65 minutes.
Then they hung on for dear life over the last 25 as altitude and offseason rust started tilting the field. The bus was parked, and dented, but it held firm enough to give Montreal a shot in the return leg next week at the Olympic Stadium.
If this all sounds familiar, it's because that's how each of the last five games (all draws) the Impact have played across all competitions turned out. No, most of those contests weren't as egregious le parking of le bus as the game in Pachuca, but it's clear that this team has adopted a counterpuncher's identity.
The numbers back up that eye test:
This isn't ideal by any stretch of the imagination, but it's also not a death sentence. The central defense is leagues better than last season, which means playing on the back foot gets easier, which means countering teams to death gets easier. It's a simple line of arithmetic that Frank Klopas has consistently used in his years as manager, first in Chicago and now in Quebec.
It just hasn't gotten his team into the playoffs all that often. Obviously the central defense of Laurent Ciman and Bakary Soumare has to jell, as does the central midfield of Marco Donadel and Nigel Reo-Coker (I'm not sold that's going to be the long-term pairing). And if Ignacio Piatti stays healthy, he's an MVP candidate.
And then... more ifs and more questions. I'm going to be gauche and bring up the one that's on everybody's mind following the CCL game: Is that the real Dilly Duka? Forget the goals – actually, don't, but bear with me – and focus on the fact that he was still running hard 93 minutes into this one. Duka has never, in his five MLS years, been an effective second-half player. Last night, at 8,000 feet, he was arguably Montreal's best.
At some point in the last couple of years I tweeted that it's up to Duka whether or not he wants to end up as a Graham Zusi-level star, or just another guy. It looks like he's taken what's behind Door No. 1.
That's an evolution that speaks of adding maturity to talent. He may not be able to lead his team to the promised land as Zusi eventually did, but he can at least help counterpunch them into the postseason.
