With the race for the Major League Soccer Play Off places heating up, KSN has been catching up with our man at the Montreal Impact – LUIS BINKS from Gillingham, right in the middle of the fight for those places.

Last weekend the Impact earned a vital 2-1 win over David Beckham’s Inter Miami, a game that Luis admitted could prove vital. “The win was what we needed to keep us in and around the playoffs,” Luis told us.

“It was a 6 point game really as it helped us increase the gap from the teams below us but there is still work to be done if we want to finish in the playoffs.”

The winner late in the game was a goal that the visitors protested against. Luis, watching on from the stands serving a one game ban, said, “I don’t think they took it that well. but I don’t get what they had to be upset about.

“They weren’t great on the night one bit and with the players they had I did expect a bit more from them, but we dominated them on and off the ball.”

With all the COVID19 travelling restrictions still in place, the Impact’s “home” games are now being played in New York City. We asked Luis about the Big Apple, “We are staying in a hotel in Hoboken just the other side of the Hudson River,” he said.

“It’s been very different and draining at times as every day is the same. Train in the afternoon so we’re always waiting around and always around each other can be good and bad as you’re with your teammates but sometimes you just want an escape, and you can’t get that here.

“We’ve had a few days off and I’ve ventured over into the City and seen Times Square and the World Trade Centre, but I haven’t seen a lot!”

“The stadiums are amazing; they’re so big and so modern but then you have some like the Yankee Stadium and the Gillette Stadium home of the New England Patriots. I’d have to say I really liked playing in New York Red Bulls Stadium as it has a European feel to it. 

“It’s a shame there are no fans as that would be brilliant but even just seeing the stadium and playing there is great for someone like myself at my age.”

“It’s not been easy and having home games in an away stadium is weird but I think we took a while to come to terms with it and now we are playing good  football and hopefully the Miami win can be the catalyst to good things.

“We’ve been playing nice football in most if not all matches but we haven’t kept enough clean sheets and haven’t killed the game off when needed. It’s something we’re working on so hopefully in the next 4 leagues games we can do that to see us into the play offs.”

The Impact have had some terrific wins recently as they strive for the Play Offs including ending second placed Columbus Crew’s long unbeaten run, a result that not surprisingly boosted everyone as Luis explained. “Yeah that was a great win and to do it away v second place was great for our confidence as a team.

“We seem to always do alright vs teams at the top but we need to be more consistent v everyone if we want to be where we can get too. That was proved in our next game when we were edged out by Philadelphia, we probably deserved at least a point in that game but again we didn’t take our chances and we conceded silly goals at silly times.”

Commentators have been singing the praises of the Gillingham youngster, but his feet are firmly on the ground. “They are nice to hear and doesn’t hurt your confidence but for me now it’s about pushing on and now showing people why Bologna have invested in me and doing what I can to push on and try stay in Montreal’s team and then see if I can break into Bologna.”

Luis leaves the Impact at the end of the season to head to Serie A and we wondered how the Italian lessons were coming. “Molto bene”, Luis told us triumphantly!

“No, it’s going ok I’ve had to start having my lessons virtually now so that’s been a bit different than sitting down with the teacher but I’m slowly getting to grips with it. Foreign languages are so different to English there’s about 15 words for 1 word but just with different ending!”