My Time with the Montréal Impact

From August 2009 to May 2010, I lived in Montréal, Canada, studying at McGill University as part of my university exchange program. Whilst there, watching football was a very different experience to what I had grown used to here in the UK. Due to the time difference (Montréal is 5 hours behind GMT for the majority of the year), football-watching became a morning activity.

With the North American version of Setanta Sports still alive and kicking and holding the broadcast rights to the English Premier League, they would almost always show three games every Saturday; the early kick-off, one of the 3:00pm afternoon games, and the evening kick-off. Naturally, when circumstances came together to produce a bumper crop of three mouthwatering games featuring teams that my friends and I all supported, this led to an all-day drinking session in the pub beginning at 8:00am. Perfect.

Weeknight Champions League fixtures would, of course, be kicking off at around 3:00pm Montréal time, but this posed its own set of problems as I (and all the other Brits) would often find ourselves with university commitments at this time in the day.

The next logical step to all of this was to try and find a local team to go and watch in the flesh. And find one I did; the somewhat ludicrously-monikered Montréal Impact. As it becomes somewhat difficult to play football outdoors during the Canadian winter (what with its sub-zero temperatures and mountains of snow), the Impact’s season was winding to a close not long after I arrived in Montréal in August.

In the year I arrived in the city (2009), the Impact were competing in the United Soccer Leagues’ (USL) First Division. The USL was, at that time, the highest level of professional men’s soccer in North America below the well-known Major League Soccer (MLS).

The USL First Division employed a typically North American playoff format to decide its champions. After the regular season finished and all 11 teams knew their final positions in the league table, the top 7 teams (yes, seven) entered into the playoffs. The team who finished atop the table at the end of the regular season got a bye into the semi-finals, whilst the rest had to fight it out in the quarter-finals. Second would play against seventh to decide who faced the winners, whilst the remaining four teams (from third to sixth) played off their own mini-bracket to decide who would prevail to face the winners from the top half of the draw. Got it? Not the simplest system in the world, I grant you, but it is possible to see the logic in using this if one insists on having a play-off tournament in an 11-team league. (See the full bracket here).

The bottom line in 2009 was that Montréal had finished 5th, meaning they would have to play the team who finished 4th, the Charleston Battery (another awfully-named team; there’s a theme here). Every tie in the play-offs (including the final) would be a two-leg home and away affair, with the away goals rule featuring in true European Cup-style.

I began to follow the Impact’s progress in the local Montréal newspaper, the Gazette. The Impact won the first leg at home, 2-0, after the Battery had a player sent off in the first half. This set the Impact up perfectly to progress to the semi-finals, which they duly did, winning the away leg 2-1 for a comfortable aggregate scoreline of 4-1.

The semi-finals were up next, and the Impact now faced the Puerto Rico Islanders, who came 3rd in the regular-season standings. After a narrow 2-1 victory in the home leg, Montréal won the away leg 2-1 with a goal in the final minute to seal their passage to the final.

In the final, Montréal’s opponents would be the Vancouver Whitecaps, the league’s defending play-off champions from 2008. Despite winning in the previous year, Vancouver had finished 7th in the regular-season standings and, as such, were far from favourites for the tournament. Vancouver had overcome the second-placed Carolina RailHawks (this name: seriously?!) and the top-seeded Portland Timbers to reach their second successive final.

Now that the game was on, the second leg was due to be at Montréal’s Saputo Stadium (this I found odd; in Europe, the lower-seeded team would always play at home first so that the higher team has home advantage in the crucial second leg. The opposite seemed to be happening here). Gathering up my British friend Matt and my Canadian buddy Charlie, we bought tickets and headed on down to Saputo on October 17th.

The view across the pitch - right next to the Olympic Stadium.

This was the first time I had seen Saputo Stadium, and I have to say I was quietly impressed by what I saw. Opening just one year earlier in May 2008, the new stadium had been built at a cost of $14 million, and had a capacity of just over 13,000. The stadium is situated on a hill in the shadow of Montréal’s famous Olympic Stadium; built for the 1968 Summer Olympics, the Olympic Stadium is rarely used now and has no regular tenant after the departure of the Expos baseball team a number of years ago. It is a shame, for it really is a magnificent stadium to look at from the outside, and deserves to be used and filled regularly.

The famous Olympic Stadium.

Saputo is a rather more modest affair, but still has its own charms nonetheless. The stadium has only three stands, with a corporate area filling in the remaining space behind one of the goals. The stand behind the other goal is where the most passionate and vociferous supporters can be found; the self-styled “Ultras”.

Modelling themselves on European-style “Ultra” supporters’ groups, these fans march to the ground before each game in an impressive display of noise and colour, chanting and singing all the way. They set themselves up behind the goal and stand for the whole 90 minutes and beyond, usually setting off a flare or two for good measure. On final day, this group were in fine voice, and rivalled any crowd you might hear at a football match in Europe.

The "Ultras".

The scene was set perfectly for the final. In the opening away leg, Montréal had travelled to British Columbia and had come away with a narrow 3-2 victory. The Impact had taken the lead on the stroke of half-time through an own goal before things took a turn for the worse five minutes after the break when Vancouver saw veteran midfielder Martin Nash sent off. Despite this setback, the Whitecaps were able to claw their way back from the brink to take a 2-1 lead, before surrendering their advantage to an 89th-minute goal from Eduardo Sebrango. Montréal had scored three away goals whilst winning the game, putting them in a very strong position for the second leg.

The second leg hinged on one hugely significant incident in the 30th minute. Former Wrexham defender Shaun Pejic, now playing for Vancouver, hacked down an Impact player who was through on goal. A stonewall penalty, and the referee had no option but to send Pejic off. Tony Donatelli cooly converted the kick to send the crowd into a frenzy.

With the aggregate score at 4-2 to Montréal (including three away goals), Vancouver needed three goals of their own to take the lead in the tie, a task made infinitely harder when they were away from home with only ten men.

The task became insurmountable ten minutes later when Joey Gjertsen made the score 2-0, before Roberto Brown made it 3-0 in the 42nd minute. 6-2 up on aggregate, Vancouver now needed four goals to win. A consolation just before half-time to make it 3-1 on the day made no difference, and the result was never in doubt.

The second half became a huge party, as everyone in attendance already knew the title would be returning to Montréal for the first time since 2004. Flares were thrown, songs were constantly sung, fans jumped up and down, and there was even a half-hearted attempt at a pitch invasion on the sound of the final whistle. The trophy presentation was made and everyone went home happy.

Even though I was very impressed by the atmosphere, it was a real shame that the game was essentially ruined by a refereeing decision so early on. The score from the first leg should have ensured the game was an open, attacking one, but the red card to Pejic, when coupled with the subsequent penalty, destroyed any hope Vancouver had of overturning the first-leg deficit. As such, the game itself wasn’t hugely memorable.

It should also be noted that the price of beer was even more expensive here than in British grounds, at approximately $8 per bottle. Still, at least you could take it to your seat to drink it here.

All in all, I was glad to have witnessed Montréal’s title-winning game, and the reaction seemed to show that there is genuine interest in football in North America (or in Montréal, at least). It’s quite something for 13,000 people to turn up for a game that wasn’t even in the top tier of professional soccer in North America. This has been reflected in Montréal’s successful bid for a MLS licence, with a team scheduled to begin playing at Saputo from 2012. This is great news for the city, and can hopefully take football to the next level in Montréal.

Check back for part 2, when I’ll look at the Impact’s brief history (including their incredible run in the CONCACAF Champions League). I’ll also see what the future holds for Montréal’s team in Major League Soccer.