Jesse Marsch has had his Montreal Impact players in a week-long evaluation camp ahead of their debut season in Major League Soccer and admits he is impressed by the results thus far.
The Quebec outfit are set to become the third Canadian club in North America's domestic league when they enter for the 2012 season and Marsch has his work cut out for him as he goes about deciding who he will and won't keep from the current NASL squad.
"Everybody's come and put a lot into it, so from that starting point it's been great and that's what we're going to need next year," Marsch said.
"Soccer-wise, when you see things up close you get a better sense of things, so there has been some good surprises."
Asked if a week was long enough to make solid evaluations of players, Marsch admitted it may not be but indicated his hands were tied from a time constraints viewpoint.
"You could argue that it is or that it isn't," he added. "But it's a time restraint we have, and I don't think for now it's fair to bring guys in for certain situations for too long.
"But we've given them a chance, given them some ideas to understand what we think is important. Then we throw them out there to see if some of that can come out with higher level of training, games and whatnot.
"It can give you a window as to how they might be able to progress in the future," Marsch added. "For the most part, I've watched all these players before they've come here, so it's not like it's the first time I've seen any of them. Now it's trying to work closely with them and seeing how it goes."
