Major League Soccer is back in the USA this week and Gillingham’s Luis Binks is going to be right in the middle of it.

You may remember that Luis signed for Impact Montreal after leaving Tottenham and made his MLS debut when the season did start in March. Sadly, like nearly all other Leagues around the World, the Coronavirus pandemic stopped the season before it began!

For its’ return this week, all twenty-six clubs are in Florida at Disneyland for the “MLS is Back” tournament that not only will count for League points when the MLS season resumes in August, but there is also a place in next season’s CONCACAF Champions League for the winners.

KSN will be following the progress of Luis and the Impact throughout the tournament – as well as the regular season when that restarts next month – we caught up with Luis as the Impact arrived in Florida…

“I’m all good,” Luis told us, “We arrived here (in Florida) on Thursday, a week before we have our first game against New England. I know that there are reports that Covid-19 cases in Florida have risen recently and I see that the Dallas team are all isolating – obviously it’s not ideal, but I don’t know if it will cause any problems; I suppose that’s up to the medical staff of the tournament and clubs.” 

“We’re as focused as we were at the start of the season and even during the last few weeks of training we’ve done. I don’t see why anyone wouldn’t be focused or why their focus may have changed because there are points to play for and places to play for and shirts to keep. The coach (former Arsenal legend Thierry Henry) has been good, really organised and has an identity and way of how he wants us to play and I think he and the staff have been good in their ways of explaining that to us, but it’s the same as what we was doing at the start of the year so nothing has dramatically changed just tweaks here and there.”

“Kick off times are 20:00 (local time) for the first two then 22:30 for the final game. We’re fortunate in one way as there are kick off times at 09:00 and 10:00 I believe so this will definitely play in our favour as all of us are used to playing night games, so it will be easier than playing at 9am as playing at that time disrupts all of your preparation, sleeping patterns and so much more so hopefully it’ll help us. We’ve trained a few times on the training pitches but haven’t seen where the matches will take place. I doubt it’ll be a stadium, just a pitch within the complex.”

“It’s very important we get a win as that will set us up for our next run of games and will be a good boost for us!

“We start with New England on Thursday – we know a fair bit having already played them but that seems ages ago now so I’m sure they’ll of changed a bit and so have we.”

“From there we go onto face a “derby” with Toronto fc the following Wednesday… it’ll definitely be strange and not how I wanted my first derby to be as playing in front of a home/away crowd in a derby is something I’d love to experience. I expect them to be very physical and tactically very good. They’ve got some very experienced names such as Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley as well as very good players like the likes of Alejandro Pozuelo who’s previously played for Swansea.”

“We finish against Wayne Rooney’s old team DC United on the 21st… whilst it would have been nice to play against an English legend like Rooney but he has left a very good side one that is very organised and physical so again it won’t be easy but then whoever we may play out here won’t be an easy game.”

After looking at their opposition we then asked Luis who we should be looking for in the Impact squad – he told us “Victor Wanyama is perhaps best known in England having previously played for Celtic, Southampton and Tottenham – he signed in February/March time just before Lockdown and is yet to have had a run of games, only playing against Olimipa in the CONCACAF game, the final game before we had to stop.”

“So, he will be looking to make an impact. Also, Clement Diop is a goalkeeper from Senegal, who I believe could easily play in a top league in Europe with his shot-stopping and distribution, there’s not many who are good at both.”

”Then there’s me – ha-ha – seriously I’m going into the tournament here with a point to prove to the league/world that I’m good enough to play at the top and good enough to start every game and put in good performances game after game at a young age.”

With the Premier League back under way, Luis has been keeping up with the games as he admitted, “I’ve been watching; I think the quality in the last few games has definitely gone up, but still players and sides aren’t fully match fit.”

“I do prefer the natural sounds as you can hear what managers and players are saying. It’s something I hear daily what players and managers say on the pitch but to hear what some of the best players in the world are saying, is very insightful, but for a fan I think it’s very good as they can see what players/ managers are saying!”

FREESPORTS TV will be showing all of Impact’s group games in the “MLS is back” Tournament and it can be found on Freeview channel 64; SKY channel 422; Virgin channel 553; Talk-Talk channel 64 and BT-TV channel 64. It all starts with the New England game this Friday morning (01:05 start)

KSN will be following Luis’ progress throughout the Tournament and the MLS season which will follow after each game, with Luis’s exclusive reaction…