Impact hope dropping reserve team, deal with Ottawa, will add homegrown talent
MONTREAL — The Montreal Impact squad that reached the MLS Eastern Conference final should look much the same next season — a veteran unit with only two North American players in the starting 11.
And the club will add to the international flavour when Swiss international midfielder Blerim Dzemaili joins from Bologna FC in the summer.
That makes the club’s decision announced this week to drop its reserve team FC Montreal and have some prospects assigned to the Ottawa Fury of the USL all the more curious, although club president Joey Saputo said the team’s long-term goal is to have more home grown talent on the squad.
The starting 11 that brought the team to its first conference final since joining MLS in 2012 is made up of Europeans, Africans and Latin Americans except for American goalkeeper Evan Bush and 37-year-old midfielder Patrice Bernier of Brossard, Que.