Impact start second half on right foot
Bill Lee attended his first pro soccer game Wednesday night at Saputo Stadium.
The former Expos pitcher — known as Spaceman — was invited to the Major League Soccer game between the Impact and Philadelphia Union by the 1642 Montreal Supporters Group, which has a different celebrity guest join them each game to ring the North Star Bell after an Impact goal.
Lee didn’t have to wait long. In the 19th minute, Michael Salazar got his head on a cross into the box from Chris Duvall and beat diving goalkeeper John McCarthy. Lee would get to ring the bell again in the second half after Blerim Dzemaili scored in the 51st minute to give the Impact a 2-1 victory over the Union, who got a goal from Fabrice-Jean Picault in the 43rd minute.
The Impact improved their record to 6-6-6, including 5-2-1 at home, as they kicked off the second half of the MLS season in a fight for a playoff spot. They play six of their next eight games at Saputo Stadium, with FC Dallas visiting Saturday (7:30 p.m., TVA Sports, TSN Radio 690).
Lee was standing in the first row behind the Union net when Salazar opened the scoring. With a can of beer in his right hand, Lee used his old left pitching hand to ring the big silver bell as the 1642 Montreal group was singing, dancing and banging drums. The 70-year-old Lee, wearing his old blue Expos jersey with No. 37 and his name on the back — along with a 1642 Montreal scarf around his neck — took off his Expos cap and waved it to the celebrating crowd of 16,660 as blue and white smoke bombs went off around him.
Lee didn’t appear to spill a drop from his can of beer.
It appeared the Impact would take the 1-0 lead into halftime, but a brutal defensive breakdown in the 43rd minute allowed the Union to score.
Duvall had the ball along the right sideline, halfway to midfield in the Impact zone, when teammate Laurent Ciman pointed his right arm in the direction of Impact goalkeeper Evan Bush, directing Duvall to play the ball back. Union midfielder Picault was standing behind Ciman and saw what was coming, jumping in to intercept Duvall’s back pass and go in alone on Bush, beating the goalkeeper with a low rightfooted shot. It was Philadelphia’s only shot on target during the first half.
“It was a bad play … it was a bad ball by Duvall,” Impact coach Mauro Biello said after the game. “What I said at halftime is we recover a lot of balls and instead of playing forward, we kept playing back.”
There’s obviously still room for improvement on the Impact, who had an 86th-minute goal by the Union called off on an offside and needed a desperate final-minute save from Bush to preserve the victory.
But Lee seems to have mastered ringing the North Star Bell and appeared to be enjoying himself throughout the game, talking with fans, shaking hands and posing for photos.
Biello, who grew up in Montreal as an Expos fan, wasn’t aware Lee was ringing the bell.
“It was Bill Lee? I didn’t know,” the coach said. “Awesome. Spaceman.”
Dzemaili’s winning goal came on a beautiful individual play as he beat a defender one-on-one just outside the box to gain space before belting a right-footed shot into the corner of the net. Lee used both hands to ring the bell at the opposite end of the field after Dzemaili scored his fourth goal in eight games since joining the Impact.
“I’ve never been to a pro soccer game before,” Lee said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon from his home in Vermont. “It will be my first. I think it’s really neat having that old bell.”
Lee had planned to stop by the Bar 99 Brasserie on nearby Hochelaga Street late Wednesday afternoon for a pre-game beer. The place was called Brasserie 77 back on May 8, 1982, when Lee committed his final act with the Expos, showing up there in full uniform during a game after a disagreement with the club following the release of second-baseman Rodney Scott, one of Lee’s closest friends on the team. Lee, who was furious with manager Jim Fanning, was released by the Expos the next day and never pitched again in the majors.
Lee remains a passionate baseball fan and will be in Cooperstown, N.Y., later this month for the Hall of Fame induction of former Expos teammate Tim Raines. Lee said he never used to be a soccer fan, but the sport is starting to grow on him.
“I am getting more and more into soccer as I get older ... I don’t know if I’m getting more patience or I really don’t have much to do,” he said with a laugh.
While Lee will be thrilled about watching the Impact win, he said Tuesday that he wished the game was against Toronto FC.
“It’s too bad we aren’t playing Toronto,” Lee said. “But as W.C. Fields said on his gravestone, I’d rather be here than Philadelphia.”
When the final whistle blew, Lee was ringing the North Star Bell again.
I am getting more and more into soccer as I get older ... I don’t know if I’m getting more patience or I really don’t have much to do.