Montreal’s magical run cheered by rival
Lenarduzzi tips his cap to gritty Canadian MLS squad for reaching CONCACAF final
Their own CONCACAF Champions League games won’t begin until late summer, but the Vancouver Whitecaps say the Montreal Impact’s magical run to the 2015 final has heightened the anticipation.
The Impact, the first Canadian team to reach the club championship final, earned a surprise 1-1 draw Wednesday in the opening leg against Club America before 100,000 raucous fans at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.
The return leg goes next Wednesday in Montreal, where a sellout crowd of 59,000 will be at Olympic Stadium. If the Impact can prevail and become the first non-Mexican side to win the CONCACAF Champions League since Costa Rican club Saprissa in 2005, they’ll be off to Japan in December for the FIFA Club World Cup.
“I think we were always going to be enthusiastic about what outcome could happen with that championship,” said Caps midfielder Russell Teibert, the young Canadian from Niagara Falls, Ont.
“But it gives us hope,” added Teibert, whose club faces D.C. United in a Major League Soccer game Saturday night at BC Place Stadium. “They’re the first ones to do it, to go that far. But that’s just the beginning — that’s the tip of the iceberg. I think it’s going to happen more and more as the years go by.”
The Impact finished last in MLS’s Eastern Conference last season at 6-18-10 and are just 0-2-2 to start this season. But they upset Mexican side Pachuca in a quarter-final and Alajuelense of Costa Rica in a semifinal this year to reach the final.
“It’s great for MLS and great for Canada,” Caps president Bob Lenarduzzi said. “Despite the fact we’ve had our issues over the years, I am absolutely ecstatic for them. Anything that’s good for the growth of the game in this part of the world, you have to support.”
Lenarduzzi admitted he thought the Impact would be fortunate to just “keep it close” in Mexico.
“They far exceeded my expectations and the expectations of most people.”
Interestingly for Whitecaps fans, one of the Impact’s strongest players has been midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker, the former Cap who has been serving as Montreal’s captain.
“I’m delighted for him,” said Caps head coach Carl Robinson, who traded Reo-Coker to the now-defunct Chivas USA last August for winger Mauro Rosales. “He’s played in the Azteca and he put on a very strong performance.”
Robinson said the Impact’s run is all the more remarkable given how close they were to not even representing Canada. Montreal needed a Patrice Bernier penalty kick in extra time to beat second-tier FC Edmonton in a Canadian championship semifinal last season.
“It makes me chuckle. Against Edmonton, they were on the verge of going out in the last minute. Football is about fine lines, and that proves it,” he said.
“I hope they can finish the job off now next Wednesday because it would be great for Major League Soccer.”
MLS has tried to give Montreal every chance to succeed, rescheduling the Impact’s April 18 home game to September to allow the club to go to Mexico a week before Wednesday’s game to get acclimatized. The league has also rescheduled a game the Impact had for this Saturday against San Jose to September.
But the stunning run to the final has cost the Impact in league play, something Lenarduzzi and Robinson are very conscious about.
“There are probably things you’re sacrificing along the way,” Lenarduzzi said. “If you look at Montreal right now, not that I want to put a negative on it, but their domestic form has suffered as a result of what they’re going though.
“And after next Wednesday, they’re going to have to make games up. And there’s (this year’s) Amway Cup (Canadian championship) coming up. They’re going to be in tough.
“From our point of view, that’s why it’s important to have a deep roster because we’re going to get tested as well once we get to Champions League. But it has to be something that, based on what Montreal has done, everybody is excited about because you can see: ‘Whoa, that’s the potential.’”
Montreal needs a scoreless draw or a win Wednesday to claim the CONCACAF title.
Lenarduzzi believes the Impact can get it done.
“I’ll quote my good friend (psychologist) David Cox here: ‘Now it becomes psychological.’ Now you’re actually in the driver’s seat,” he said. “Club America has Chivas, their most bitter rival on the weekend, so the ability to rest players is going to be difficult for them.
“You have to feel good about Montreal’s chances.”