They will meet in the most high-profile match ever between two Canadian club teams.
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Drogba clarified that Tuesday’s match was his last in Montreal, but he said he was looking forward to the second leg in Toronto next week. The victor will play in the MLS Cup final in Seattle or Colorado on the 10th of December.
For two weeks, much of the talk from Reds coach Greg Vanney and his players centered around stopping the Impact’s vaunted counterattack. Everybody talks about it. “For me, the big takeaway tonight is how easy it would have been for us to pack it in [at 3-0] and feel sorry for ourselves”. It’s exceptional for soccer in this country.
Even the side of the TFC.
“For Canada, this was flawless”, Bernier said about the game being an advertisement for the sport in the country.
Howard, who appears on “Soccer Is A Kick in the Grass”, the longest running radio show for soccer in North America, said what also helps to stoke the Impact-TFC rivalry is the rivalry in other sports-notably hockey between the Canadiens and Maple Leafs. Certainly it will promote the development of sport.
“I’m not sure if it’s at the same level for soccer, just because the two teams haven’t been around long enough, but it’s getting there”, explained Plekanec, who has faced off against the Toronto Maple Leafs 67 times over the course of his National Hockey League career, albeit never in the playoffs. I repeat: he has been a fantastic player, a legend for this club. Seattle’s story is the team’s incredible rebound from last place in the conference and the dismissal of longtime coach Sigi Schmid.
A sellout crowd of 61,004 at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium waited through a 40-minute delay to repaint the mis-marked penalty areas and watched the host Impact seize a three-goal edge thanks to Dominic Oduro, Matteo Mancosu and Oyongo.
The CFL comparison is one to look at because it is with that league that MLS is battling to be best of the rest after Canada’s “big three” of hockey, baseball and basketball (though NBA ratings are not huge either). “Our guys have played in environments similar to this and I think it’s motivation one way or another. Legendre said that was later than usual because of traffic, adding it was not the officials” fault.The error was repeated at both ends of the pitch and went unnoticed by both clubs during practice Monday.”The mistake was well-done”, he said wryly.Legendre said the measuring device used was flawed.
Making goals – and celebrating them – is open to one and all in a Toronto shirt.
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Impact captain Patrice Bernier, a native of Brossard, also acknowledged that the moments he is now experiencing will be a highlight of his career. I have great respect for him.
