MONTREAL – Club injury reports can sometimes be misleading.
No names appeared on Montreal’s latest list of wounded, filed on May 9. Designated Player midfielder Hernan Bernardello and winger Sanna Nyassi weren't listed, and they duly made their first league appearance in five and nine weeks respectively. Center backs Adrian Lopez and Nelson Rivas were scratched from the report as well, but they’ve been restricted to training sessions.
But while forward Marco Di Vaio and center back Matteo Ferrari were nowhere to be found on the injury report, the two veterans skipped Montreal’s 3-0 defeat by Sporting Kansas City on Saturday. Both scratches were gameday decisions: Ferrari due to a calf knock and Di Vaio because of hamstring tightness that would have likely hampered his contribution as Montreal played on the counter against Sporting KC.
“I don’t know if it’s the turf that we’ve been on, or whatever, but I think this situation is day-to-day and we'll see how they feel,” head coach Frank Klopas said in his postgame press conference on Saturday. “But today, they were not ready to compete.”
Montreal are, however, almost done with turf for this season. They started training on grass at Complexe Sportif Claude-Robillard last Friday.
With defenders Eric Miller (injured) and Hassoun Camara (suspended) out as well, Klopas turned to youth on Saturday. Despite the heavy loss, Klopas heaped praise on Wandrille Lefèvre, Karl W. Ouimette and Maxim Tissot, three Homegrown Players that made up Montreal’s backline with the more MLS-experienced Jeb Brovsky.
“It is [frustrating to have key guys out], but I think that, throughout the year, there’s a lot of games coming up, and the amount of travel that you do with the league, you have to be able to rely on your whole team,” Klopas said.
“There’s positives when you see three young guys who have a bright future in front of them. You can have continuity when you build a team with guys like that which you can have around for 10, 12 years.”
