MONTREAL – Hunger does not justify the means for Wilfried Nancy.
In the week leading up to his team’s second game against Mexican club Santos Laguna, the CF Montreal head coach said very little about the result he wanted his troops to achieve, instead focusing his message around the way he wanted to see his men play.
During the first duel in Mexico, the CFM had spent most of their evening under pressure from their hosts. Nothing that had never been seen in the past. Under other coaches, the Impact has often advocated a conservative approach against so-called superior opponents or on perilous trips. The avowed plan, or in any case not very subtle, was to withdraw en bloc and wait for an error to rush into a counter-attack.
However, it is not soccer that Nancy wants to play. The coach doesn’t care about the context. Or so little, let’s say. The Montreal strategist has clear ideas about the identity in which he wants to model his group and he asks his players to assume it without complex. That doesn’t mean it will work every time. Under Nancy, the CFM will lose games. But not its principles. Be you or die trying.
“We want to play our match, said the coach a few days after the defeat in Mexico. We want to be a proactive team defensively. We want to put the opponent under pressure offensively. That’s what we want to do. I liked how we played at certain points in the match, we were able to put things in place, but we didn’t do it with enough consistency. It’s normal, it happens, especially abroad. »
“But the spirit remains the same. When we play a match, it’s to try to win it. »
In deficit before the initial whistle on Wednesday, the Montrealers wasted no time trying to decipher the intentions of the opponent or to calculate how each of their decisions could influence the different scenarios that presented themselves to them. them. They put their foot on the ball and went forward. Straight ahead, the little comedians will say.
As a slogan on a promotional poster, it’s a bit boboche. But on the ground, it turned out to be devilishly effective. The conditions were quickly dictated. The opposing team was never able to follow.
At 2-0, the hosts had the result they needed to cross one item off their list and move on to the next. But we never felt the slightest intention on their part to withdraw into their positions and protect their gains. The chances to score followed one another after half-time until Ismaël Koné, a 19-year-old discovery who had never played a professional soccer match, scored the insurance goal.
Even against an opponent who suddenly had nothing left to lose, the same CF Montreal who let so many points slip away in poorly managed endgames in 2021, never felt the danger. Goalkeeper Sebastian Breza only had to make one save in the second half. comeback? Not this time.
“Today, the team was on the mark in terms of state of mind, proudly noted Nancy. This is how we want to attack each of our matches. It’s our team. We want to score goals, we want to defend well. Tonight is one of those nights where we were able to do it successfully. »
This performance, rightly described as “near-perfect” by midfielder Djordje Mihailovic, bodes well not only for the rest of the Champions League journey, but also for the start of the MLS season. On Sunday, CF Montreal will kick off its eleventh season on the Garber circuit by taking on Orlando City SC, the same team that knocked it out of the playoffs last November.
The fact that the vast majority of players who experienced this disappointment will be back in 2022 should be one of the main strengths of this new version of the CFM. The time is no longer for acclimatization and assimilation of theory. This familiarity intentionally shaped by sporting director Olivier Renard and the coaching staff must now produce results.
The way the first test of the season was passed suggests great things for the future.
“If you want to quote me [sur le fait que tant de gens nous sous-estiment], go back and see everything I said on the subject at this time last year, said Mihailovic after his performance of a goal and an assist. But we have a good idea of what we want to accomplish this year. Last year was an opportunity to grow together. We transported this momentum in this competition and we played a fantastic game tonight. »
“We did it the way we wanted to do it,” Nancy said beforehand. The objective now is to repeat this kind of performance. »
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