In 2019, Ariel Lassiter did not play with the Montreal Impact when the team began its MLS schedule with six matches abroad before playing its first at Saputo Stadium. Five years later, the Costa Rican striker is able to testify to how demanding the exercise is.
After having crisscrossed the United States from east to west since the start of training camp in mid-January, CF Montreal players are starting to regain a little normality. On Tuesday, they began back-to-back training sessions in Montreal in preparation for the local opener on Saturday against FC Cincinnati at Saputo Stadium.
“It feels really good to be able to stay at home. It feels good physically, that’s for sure, but much more mentally for everyone, as much for the players who know the environment here, the stadium, the atmosphere, as for the new players, the new staff, the new coach. Everyone is very excited, that’s for sure,” admitted midfielder Samuel Piette after Wednesday’s training at the Nutrilait Center.
The Montreal team returned to Montreal after a scathing 5-0 loss in Seattle last Saturday evening. The previous weekend, CF Montreal had suffered a much more honorable defeat, but a defeat nonetheless, this one by a score of 1-0 against DC United.
These two failures cast a shadow over a sequence of six matches on enemy territory which looked promising for Laurent Courtois’ squad.
After a draw at the curtain-raiser for the 2024 season, the Montreal team won the next two matches and was heading towards a third victory in a row, in Chicago, before a massacre which toured the MLS, concluding in an interminable match, which led to a 4-3 defeat.
In the end, CF Montreal (2-3-1) completed this journey with a total of seven points, and Piette and Lassiter were asked if mental fatigue can explain the results of the last two games.
“It’s not just that. Mental fatigue plays a certain role, perhaps, in certain performances, both individual and collective,” Piette first noted.
“In DC and Seattle, it was two completely different games, two completely different scores. There was some good, there was some bad, obviously. Yes, the 5-0 loss in Seattle hurts, but at the same time, it’s a very good “wake-up-call” before returning home,” added the Quebec midfielder.
Turn the page
Piette played with the Montreal Impact in 2019, but he has a rather vague memory of the team’s start to the season that year, which posted a 2-2-2 record for eight points in its six first outings.
As for Lassiter, he had never experienced such a streak since his arrival in MLS in 2015.
“I believe without the slightest doubt that playing six games in a row abroad is extremely difficult, and [la fatigue mentale] plays a role,” Lassiter said, noting that distance from family, friends and extended stays in hotels eventually take their toll.
“But at the same time, we are a professional group and a group of players who want to win every time we step on the court, no matter where or against whom. But I know overall we’re happy to be back home, playing in front of our fans on Saturday, and we want to put in a good performance. »
Piette and Lassiter now want to turn the page on this first segment of the calendar and attack in a positive way the team’s next two games, which will take place at Saputo stadium.
“The season is long in MLS and is not determined after the first six games. We know it, I know it,” Lassiter said.
“We just have to take advantage of the fact that we are going to play the next two games at home. If we sign two consecutive victories, the picture will change completely. We have to stay in this state of mind, correct the little details and be ready for Saturday. »
This first local match for CF Montreal should represent a good test since FC Cincinnati (3-1-3), after dominating the Eastern Association in 2023, already has 12 points after seven matches.
“To play at home against one of the best teams in the league, I think it’s a very good moment to bounce back from this last defeat and show that it was a misstep, that we are capable of better and that we are capable of getting a result against a big team,” said Piette.