Montreal Impact forward Anthony Jackson-Hamel isnāt a big name, doesnāt pull in millions and certainly isnāt getting mentioned in any conversations with David Villa, Josef Martinez or Sebastian Giovinco.
The 24-year-old isnāt even a regular starter for the Impact.
But what the Canadian international lacks in star power heās more than making up for in productivity. The Homegrown striker ranks third in MLS in goals per 90 among players with at least 10 goals since the start of the 2017 season, trailing only Martinez and Villa and well ahead of Giovinco, reigning MVP Diego Valeri, 2017 Golden Boot winner Nemanja Nikolic and Impact teammate and perennial All-Star Ignacio Piatti.
Player |
Goals per 90 since start of 2017 (min. 10 goals) |
---|---|
Josef Martinez |
1.02 |
David Villa |
0.77 |
Anthony Jackson-Hamel |
0.76 |
Nemanja Nikolic |
0.71 |
<a href="http://www.mlssoccer.com/players/bradley-wright-phillips">Bradley Wright-Phillips</a> |
0.68 |
Ignacio Piatti |
0.65 |
Diego Valeri |
0.64 |
<a href="http://www.mlssoccer.com/players/jozy-altidore">Jozy Altidore</a> |
0.62 |
Sebastian Giovinco |
0.61 |
He improved his gaudy strike rate on Saturday, when, days after head coach Remi Garde publicly called him out for not showing enough in training to earn more playing time, he bagged a brace in Montrealās 4-2 home win against the New England Revolution.
āI wanted to prove that what happened last year wasnāt luck,ā Jackson-Hamel, who had nine goals and four assists in just over 1,100 minutes last year, told MLSsoccer.com on Tuesday. āI wanted that opportunity to start a game here at home and I think we did well.ā
The performance may also turn into a bit of a turning point for Montreal, who snapped a four-game losing skid with their win over the Revs.
Prior to Jackson-Hamelās brace on Saturday, the Impact had gotten next to nothing out of their center forwards this season. Normal starter Matteo Mancosu has been limited to four appearances due to injury and Jackson-Hamel was mostly relegated to the bench as Garde played nominal wide players Piatti and Jeisson Vargas at forward in four of their eight matches heading into last weekendās win.
The results werenāt exactly anything to write home about. Outside of the prodigiously talented Piatti, who scored or assisted on seven of Montrealās 10 goals before the New England game, the Impact werenāt getting much production from their attack. And with Mancosu and Jackson-Hamel out or on the bench, they didnāt have an outlet for possession up top. That was on full display in their 4-1 loss at Atlanta on April 28, when Piatti was left on an island and struggled to hold possession as Montreal sat behind the ball and defended deep for the bulk of their loss to the Five Stripes.
Jackson-Hamel gave them that outlet ā and more ā on Saturday. The striker did a good job of using his size and speed to occupy Revs center backs Claude Dielna and Jalil Anibaba, burning them when they played too high of a line and opening plenty of space for Piatti to operate. The Argentine took full advantage of that extra room, assisting on both of Jackson-Hamelās goals and on Raheem Edwardsā tally before scoring one of his own to give Montreal a 4-0 lead.
The standout efforts by Jackson-Hamel and Piatti and the solid performance by Edwards, who was also called out by Garde ahead of the New England game, mostly ended the stir the first-year manager created with his comments last week. Jackson-Hamel downplayed their impact on Tuesday, saying that any controversy was behind Montreal.
He didnāt want to dwell much on his performance from Saturday, either, instead looking ahead to Montrealās match at Chicago on Wednesday (8:30 pm ET | TVAS ā Full TV & streaming info) and Saturdayās home contest against Philadelphia (3 pm ET | TVAS, CTV ā Full TV & streaming info). Heās hoping to start both matches, and has an eye on using both to prove that he can maintain his excellent strike rate not just as a spot starter, but as a regular member of the Impact XI.
āFor now, itās just to keep doing well and keep scoring goals and hope that Iāll be in the XI more often,ā he said.
āPeople around me know that I can score goals. Every time Iām on the pitch, Iām trying to score as many goals as I can. And for me, I havenāt played a lot of minutes, itās not always easy, but every time on the pitch Iām trying to score and itās good to be beside those guys [like Martinez and Villa].ā