Rhinos, Montreal to heat up feud
The Impact will host Rochester in front of a sold-out crowd tonight
By JEFF DIVERONICA
Staff writer
(July 7, 2004) — The Rochester Rhinos and the Montreal Impact each have several new players who have never experienced what is arguably the A-League’s best rivalry.
But that won’t matter tonight when the teams square off for the first time this season at sold-out Claude-Robillard Stadium.
”This is the atmosphere you want to play in,” first-year Montreal coach and former midfielder Nick DeSantis said of what should be a raucous crowd tonight and also on Friday night at Frontier Field when the teams play again.
If any players still don’t understand the intensity on which this rivalry thrives, they will after the first hard tackle. And that probably will happen in the first five minutes, said Montreal captain and ex-Rhino Mauro Biello.
The fact that the Impact suddenly finds itself desperately in need of a win also should kick things up a notch. Montreal is coming off its first losses - overtime setbacks last weekend in Virginia Beach and Richmond - and is 0-2-3 since an 8-0-1 start.
”Fatigue set in, but we’re 6-2-2 on the road. We have 10 home matches left. We’re playing well,’ said DeSantis, who once had to be pulled away from the Rhinos’ bench at Frontier because he was jawing with Rochester coach Pat Ercoli. “We’re creating chances. We just haven’t finished a lot of them, and that becomes frustrating.”
The Rhinos have been supremely frustrated in Montreal. Rochester has gone 1-11-1 in Quebec in the regular season (outscored 25-4, nine shutouts). It is, however, 3-0-2 in playoff matches there and currently riding a four-game winning streak.
”Their focus versus us is a lot different than it is against other (visiting) teams,” said Ercoli, whose club is tied with Atlanta atop the tight Eastern Conference with 31 points.
Rochester and Atlanta are only one and three points ahead of Richmond and Montreal, respectively, but the co-leaders have played two fewer matches than third-place Richmond and one fewer than fourth-place Montreal.
The Rhinos and Montreal have each added speed, and the Impact is playing a more offensive-minded style under DeSantis than it did under former coach Bob Lilley.
”They probably are a little more offensive,” Ercoli said, “but when you do that you give up more in the back.”
But Montreal, with goalie Greg Sutton (league-best nine shutouts) and central back Gabriel Gervais anchoring the defense, allowed just three goals before its last two matches. That’s despite losing defenders Abraham Francois and David Fronimadis and midfielder Jason DiTullio to anterior cruciate ligament tears and playing a few times without Biello and forward Eduardo Sebrango, who are back from leg muscle strains.
Like Biello, Gervais and Sebrango are former Rochester players. Another ex-Rhino, Fred Commodore, leads Montreal with six goals.
The Rhinos will be without defender Carlos Semedo (knee, ankle) and midfielder Adauto Neto (ankle), who are injured. Newly acquired Bolivian midfielder Roland “Pato” Aguilera also didn’t make the trip to Canada because he lacked the proper visa, a problem the team says will be solved by playoff time.
JDIVERON@DemocratandChronicle.com
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Rhinos at Montreal
Matchup: First-place Rochester (10-2-1, 31 points) vs. the fourth-place Montreal Impact ( 8-2-4, 28 ) in A-League soccer.
Time/site: 7:30 p.m., Claude-Robillard Stadium.
Listen: WYSL-AM (1040), WBER-FM (90.5) or
www.WYSL1040.com
Series: Montreal leads 14-11-2.
In Montreal: The Rhinos are 1-11-1 (nine shutouts) and been outscored 25-4 in regular-season matches in Quebec.
Next up: Montreal at Rochester, 7:35 p.m. Friday.