There’s little doubt that Sebastian Giovinco and Ignacio Piatti are two of the main reasons that Toronto FC and the Montreal Impact will be facing off in the Eastern Conference Championship on Tuesday (8 pm ET; ESPN and ESPN Deportes in USA; TSN1, TSN3, RDS in Canada).
Despite both players being left off the list of finalists for the Landon Donovan MLS MVP award, it's obvious any of their teammates would have put them at No. 1 on their lists.
Giovinco finished the year with 17 goals and 15 assists, the most combined goals and assists of any player in MLS this season, while Piatti had 17 goals and six assists in 32 games.
Both are clearly outstanding players, but which one is more important to his team? It’s a tough question to answer but here’s an attempt at it.
The case for Giovinco
Sebastian Giovinco is arguably the best player in MLS, bar none. The Atomic Ant followed up a historic debut season in 2015 with an almost equal 2016. He had the most combined goals and assists of any player in the league despite missing six games.
Though his goalscoring is often the first thing people talk about when discussing Giovinco, his chance creation is almost just as strong. His 15 assists were by far the most of any Toronto player, with three other players on the team only mustering five each. While his 51 chances created aren't a staggering number (Jonathan Osorio, for example, had 37) the quality of chances he created was clearly better.
All you really have to do to show how valuable Giovinco is to his team is to look at their record when he wasn’t available. In the six games the Italian missed this year, Toronto won just once, while drawing four others (1-1-4 record). Keep in mind that four of those six games were also at the friendly confines of BMO Field, where the home team posted a record of 8-3-6 this year.
The case for Piatti
Without Ignacio Piatti, the Impact would have to play a completely different style of soccer. The Argentine dynamo has shown time and time again that he is the deadliest force in MLS on the counter.
Because of Piatti’s abilities, Montreal sat back against an attack-minded Red Bulls side in the previous playoff round, essentially parking Hernan Bernardello, Patrice Bernier and Marco Donadel in front of their backline. While they were able to shut down the Red Bulls attack, nearly all of the attacking responsibilities were placed on Piatti’s shoulders.
He did not disappoint. While he didn’t directly contribute to Matteo Mancosu’s goal in the fist leg, he did score both of the Impact’s goals in the second leg at Red Bull Arena.
This is nothing new for the man from Argentina. His 30 goals, 15 assists and 122 chances created are all the most of any Impact player since he started his first game on August 16, 2014. His 122 chances created especially set him apart, as no other Impact player has more than 66.
So who is more valuable to his team?
Clearly both are outstanding players, integral to their team’s success. While I honestly don’t know what the Impact would do without Piatti, the sheer dominance of Giovinco is simply overwhelming.
