Add the Montreal Impact Academy to the list of teams not returning to the CSL for the 2013 season. The club has made the news official on Thursday afternoon. The plan is to have the U21 squad play a series of 30 friendlies this summer against NCAA, NASL and USL Pro sides.
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The CSA decision to cut ties with the CSL came as no surprise to Montreal, who has been putting these plans in place over the course of the off season, the staffer revealed to SoccerPlus.
The promotion of keeper Maxime Crépeau and field players Maxime Tissot and Wandrille Lefevre to the Impact’s first team has left holes in the U21 lineup and with the Canada Games in Sherbrooke and the Francophone Games in France, the club is expecting to lose a few more bodies from mid July until the end of September.
The team would be so depleted on certain weekends that it would make it complicated to field a complete squad in any league it could have entered into, said the club official.
Also, first team head coach Marco Schällibaum has already opened the door to bringing up a few U21 players for his reserve team’s 14-game schedule.
PLSQ: Not an option, for now…
Last season, the Impact Academy played a few games against Quebec Premier Soccer League (PLSQ) teams, but the experience was judged as counterproductive by the technical direction in light of the upcoming season.
It’s still too early to speculate on any future Impact representation in the PLSQ.