Montreal Impact are in town and eyeing their first victory of this new MLS Season.
For Head Coach Patrick Vieira, maintaining the high standards set in his team’s two opening games will be key to stopping the Canadians from storming the castle.
Yankee Stadium saw a convincing victory for NYCFC against DC United last Sunday and Vieira believes that his side will have to bring their A-game once again if they’re to make it two from two.
The Frenchman thinks it would be foolish to focus attentions squarely on dangerman Ignacio Piatti as he feels Montreal possess a number of quality individuals capable of hurting his team.
“The way we played against DC made me happy but it’s going to be a really tough game – Montreal have some really talented individuals in the group.
“Piatti is one of them but we’re going to concentrate on all of the team.
“The way we’re going to approach the game, when you look at the way we played against Orlando and DC United and the really good games that we played, it’s important for us to maintain that quality.”
Although the pessimistic forecasts proved to be slightly hyperbolic, Storm Stella transformed New York City into an Arctic tundra this week.
Not the ideal environment for gearing up to a crucial game but Vieira has been heartened by his players’ approach to their work regardless of the conditions.
“Of course the conditions have not been ideal to work but the players have not changed their attitude they’ve shown over the last few weeks, so I’m very pleased,” he said.
“We were worked with a lot of intensity which is what I’m looking for.”
Now Vieira wants to see that same mentality on the field on Saturday. The same psychological approach which he feels was key to victory over DC.
Patrick added: “It’s always good to win games and to score goals and not to concede – I’m very pleased with how we defended as a team.
“Overall, what I was happy with was the way we played the game and the way we were positive playing forward and being really brave, building up from the back.”
