MLS Picks for Kicks: No More Montreal Impact Road Woes?

Major League Soccer Preview and Odds

Life on the road wasn’t pretty for the Montreal Impact last season. They won just twice away from Montreal and claimed just nine points as visitors. The Impact often faded and lost focus late in matches last year – especially on the road – and fumbled away a playoff spot during a rotten slump down the homestretch.

However, that was then, this is now. And now looks very promising for this Impact side after dropping the powerful Sounders 1-0 in front of 40,000 Seattle fans last weekend. Montreal showed some real counterattacking power with long runs through the middle of the pitch and captain Davy Arnaud capitalized on one of those with a lovely chip, notching the squad’s first goal of the season. From there, Montreal’s back line held off Seattle’s advances in the second half and came away with a victory.

“We’ve got a lot of guys with experience, we have a full season under our belt and our new coach insists a lot on staying mentally focused, staying strong,” midfielder Patrice Bernier told MLSsoccer.com. “And the four guys we have at the back show those characteristics that allow you to play well defensively. Today, we showed that we’ve grown. That we’ve learned our lessons.”

Sure, it’s just one game, but don’t sleep on this Impact team. Last week I felt they’d earn a draw against Seattle and they were even better than that. This time, I won’t make the same mistake. Oddsmakers aren’t giving Montreal much respect with a +205 price tag, but I’ll take a shot with them to put a 2-1 win in the books.

Columbus (+195) at Vancouver (+120) Draw (+210)

The face of the Vancouver Whitecaps, central defender Jay DeMerit, saw his season come crumbling down last weekend, just minutes after it started. The captain ruptured his Achilles tendon six minutes into the club’s 1-0 victory over Toronto FC, an injury that will keep the 33-year-old on the shelf for at least six months. Now, while losing a man who has worn the armband for three years is always going to be a major blow, this injury won’t sink the Whitecaps.

“From a team perspective, Jay’s obviously an important person and player for our team,” manager Martin Rennie told reporters. “But I actually think we can cover in that sense. It’s more just a disappointment for him. Obviously it’s the first few minutes of the game and the first few minutes of the season, but we have people who can play in those positions and we do have good leadership on our team.”

Brad Rusin filled in admirably for DeMerit last week alongside Andy O’Brien and looked comfortable. Expect the Whitecaps to be fine at the back and push forward a bit more than they did last week against Toronto. Thinking a 2-0 Vancouver result.

Sporting Kansas City (+105) at Toronto FC (+205) Draw (+205)

We’ll try not to dump on TFC every single week in this space, but we’re issuing no promises at this point. Sporting KC is far and away the better side and hasn’t lost a regular season fixture in 13 matches. There isn’t much danger in that streak ending this weekend. Sporting Kansas City wins 2-0.

Last week Frank hit on Vancouver’s win, but missed on L.A.’s win over Chicago. He had Montreal to draw in its win over Seattle.

Season record: 1-2.