Montreal - For general manager Nick De Santis, it's a little too early to decide what the Montreal Impact roster will look like when they enter Major League Soccer in 2012.
He's been too busy trying to shake the defending USL-1 champions out of a season-long lethargy, which included a dizzying spate of personnel changes that makes it hard for some to tell what they look like now.
A team that was en route to missing the playoffs in the newly formed USSF Division 2 responded to a public tongue-lashing from team president Joey Saputo last week with a 5-0 win over Baltimore and a 2-0 victory over Rochester to put itself back into playoff territory with five regular season games to play.
It was done with some familiar faces gone and a handful of newcomers on the field.
"We still have a full season to play before we go into MLS," De Santis said this week. "We have to analyze who has the potential.
"In 2011, most of the players we have will be the ones we feel have a chance to go to MLS. And we have to recruit younger players and give them an opportunity to play and see how they develop."
Whitecaps, Timbers switch first
The Vancouver Whitecaps and the Portland Timbers are preparing for a jump from USSF-2 to the MLS next season, while the Impact will join on their own in 2012, after Saputo Stadium is expanded from 13,000 to 20,000 seats.
The Impact had a weak first half last season, but used a late rush to make the playoffs and then roll to their third championship since 1994.
This year, the problems ran deeper as arguably their two top defenders, Frenchman Cedric Jaqueveil (family matter) and Italian Stefano Pisoli (contract dispute), left the team. The two strikers, Peter Byers and Roberto Brown, were released for sub-par play.
That sparked a run of signings that brought striker Ali Gerba and midfielder Antonio Ribeiro back to the team after stints in MLS and sparked the signing of veteran former Whitecaps defender Wesley Charles and ex-Minnesota forward Marco Terminesi of Woodbridge, Ont.
There's was also the new-found French Connection.
Looking abroad for prospects
Last winter, the Impact signed Philippe Billy and the midfielder from French Ligue-2 club Stade Brestois became a key playmaker.
With the team on the hunt for prospects, 28-year-old Billy put them onto a pair of Stade Brestois products -- 25-year-old forward Anthony Le Gall and 21-year-old defender Richard Pelletier -- who had been placed with other teams. Le Gall has already impressed in game action, while Pelletier is considered a longer-term prospect.
"It's different from last year, when we were in the same situation but we saw signs that we could get out of it," said De Santis. "This year we felt changes were needed for us to have a chance.
"Plus we have injured players coming back. Our depth and the experience we have will take us through the last five games of the season and hopefully the playoffs."
Team needs a system
Coach Marc Dos Santos said the 8-10-7 team was starting to come together even before Saputo's outburst, in which he called out several underperforming veterans, including captain Nevio Pizzolitto, by name.
"It's finding a system of play that suits everybody with the changes we had," the second-year coach said. "It takes time and patience and work.
"If you think you're going to get three or four guys who come from another country and another system and coaches, and after two or three days they're doing everything you want them to do, it's a lie. We're working well every day and now it's paying off."
The French trio are the sort of players who may be around for the move to MLS, as are two of the Impact's young home grown products: defender Reda Agourram and midfielder Pierre-Rudolph Mayard. Mayard recently returned after he was loaned for five months to the Charleston Battery, where he scored six goals and made the USL-2 all-star team
De Santis said much depends on how they, as well as team mainstays like Leonardo Di Lorenzo, David Testo, Tony Donatelli, Rocco Placentino and goalkeeper Matt Jordan, play in the time remaining before the jump.
"Starting in November, we'll start scouting and maybe bringing in a player or two at the next transfer window, which is June 30, 2011, " De Santis said. "Those players will have a two or three-month adjustment period with the team going into MLS in January (2012)."
Asked to access how far from MLS-calibre his team is now, De Santis said it's hard to tell.
"Sometimes we look like a really good team and with the addition of two or three players it could be a good MLS team," he said. "But sometimes you question how many can make the jump.
"We hope that a core of these players will make that jump. It would make it an easier transition for us."
The league roster freeze comes into effect Friday but De Santis said he has likely finished making deals.
