MONTREAL ā Ignacio Piatti and the Montreal Impact need little incentive to get motivated for a game against Toronto FC, and theyāve got plenty heading into the latest edition of the Canadian Classique derby, as part of Heineken Rivalry Week, on Saturday (8 pm ET | TVAS, TSN4/5 - Full TV & Streaming Info).
āWe always want to win against Toronto, thatās true,ā Piatti said before practice at Centre Nutrilait on Thursday. āItās a rivalry that we have a clasico match, so we have to win.ā
Montreal (33 points, 10-13-3) are currently in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, the last berth for a playoff spot, as they prepare to face their biggest rivals at BMO Field.
āWeāre going there to take the points to get to the playoffs, the goal that we set at the beginning of the season,ā Piatti said. āSo we have to go to Toronto to win. I know that Toronto is below us, so theyāre going to want to win to put pressure on everyone that is front of Toronto to go to the playoffs, but we know that if we win there, for us itās really good, and for them itās worse.ā
TFC (24 points, 6-12-6), the 2017 Supporters' Shield and MLS Cup champions, are in ninth place, nine points behind the Impact with two games in hand.
āI think theyāve taken pride in the past in kind of sticking the nail in our coffin,ā Montreal goalkeeper Evan Bush said. āAnd I think it was 2014, the season that we had a really poor run, where we went there and I donāt know if it was the last day of the season or the second-to-last day of the season, but we got a result there that knocked them out of the playoffs and we took a lot of pride in that.
āSo itās still early. Whatever result happens isnāt going to be a death sentence for either side. But itās certainly, especially from their standpoint, I think theyāre nine points behind us right now, so if we can get a result there, it certainly puts a little bit more pressure on them to get full points moving forward.ā
The Impact will not have to deal with Reds forward Jozy Altidore, who is suspended for a second straight game after the Disciplinary Committee suspended him an additional game for violent conduct.
āHeās a very good player,ā Piatti said. āHeās big and strong so itās good for us that he wonāt be in the starting XI, but they also have a lot of solutions up front.ā
While Bush acknowledged that Toronto will miss out on Altidoreās dynamic combination with Sebastian Giovinco, he was also wary about overstating the impact of his absence.
āYeah, it certainly seems that way but at the same time they have a lot of quality players on the team,ā Bush said. āAnd in many ways I think that they would say that they underperformed this year and whether thatās with or without Jozy on the field, thatās for them to speak about. But Jozyās always been a thorn in our side. Weāre certainly not upset that he canāt play, but at the same time we need to be aware of the guys that are on the field because they still pose a lot of different threats and have a lot of qualities.ā