One year ago, the Montreal Impact rode a win in the Nutrilite Canadian Championship series to the CONCACAF Champions League, where the team won a quarter-final leg before 55,000-plus at the Olympic Stadium.
This year, there will be no repeat.
The Impact were eliminated from the Canadian Championship on Wednesday, falling 1-0 to the league rival Vancouver Whitecaps FC before 5,134 at Swangard Stadium. Both clubs play in the Unites Soccer Leagues First Division.
“When you taste something big like we did in the Champions League last year, you want to go back,” Montreal head coach Marc Dos Santos said.
The Whitecaps face Toronto FC, from Major League Soccer, at home on Tuesday in a game that will go a long way to determining Canada’s representative in the 2009 CONCACAF Champions League.
TFC have already beaten Vancouver and Montreal, both by 1-0 scores, and are tied with the Whitecaps atop the standings at six points. TFC have a game in hand, and will conclude the Canadian series with a game at Montreal on June 18.
Both Toronto and Vancouver currently have plus-two goal differentials, which serves as the first tiebreaker should the teams finish with the same number of points.
Vancouver’s Ethan Gage, an 18-year-old who has come through the club’s residency program, scored with a 17-yard volley in the 68th minute. It was the first career goal for the Cochrane, Alb., native, and he became just the second residency player to score.
“It was a bad clearance from me,” said Impact forward Eduardo Sebrango, a former Whitecap who led the team to the USL-1 championship last season.
Gage called it the biggest goal of his young career, and added that he was determined to score after missing an easy header in the first half.
Whitecaps goalkeeper Jay Nolly saved the day with two saves in the 88th minute, thwarting Atte-Oudeyi Zanzan and Sebrango from close range.
The first half ended 0-0, but not before five yellow cards had been issued, including one to Whitecaps captain Martin Nash for dissent. Nash, who was booked in Vancouver’s series opener, will now miss the match against Toronto, and will have his iron-man streak of 68 consecutive games snapped.
“A little bit stupid on my part, but I don’t think it deserved a card,” said Nash, the brother of NBA superstar Steve Nash. “I let my team down on something that didn’t need to happen.”
Dos Santos questioned the officiating in all three of his team’s Canadian championship losses, saying he didn’t believe it was “50-50.”
In the second half, Montreal goalkeeper Matt Jordan stopped a penalty kick from Charles Gbeke. The Impact was missing three key players last night, including suspended captain Nevio Pizzolitto.
The Canadian championship is a three-team, six-game tournament that uses a home-and-away, round-robin format. The winner receives the Voyageurs Cup and a berth into the CONCACAF Champions League. Last year, TFC finished second and the Whitecaps were third.
Vancouver defeated Montreal 2-0 at Saputo Stadium last week, with Nolly playing the hero. The Impact outshot its opponent 18-6, and hit three crossbars.
Montreal also fell 1-0 at Toronto earlier this month, which prompted the firing of coach John Limniatis. He was replaced by Dos Santos, formerly an assistant.
TFC is playing to defend the honour of MLS, ostensibly a more competitive league than USL-1, but nonetheless a circuit that failed to place a team in the CONCACAF semi-finals last year.
The Whitecaps are moving to MLS in 2011, while the Impact’s owners remain in discussions with North America’s premier soccer league, even after pulling their expansion bid last November, claiming the $40-million (U.S.) franchise fee was too steep.
The Impact narrowly missed becoming the second USL-1 team in the CONCACAF semis last season, losing a tiebreaker on away goals to Mexican side Santos Laguna. The Puerto Rico Islanders, runners up to the Whitecaps for the USL-1 championship, advanced to the CONCACAF final four.
The CONCACAF Champions League winner competes for the FIFA World Club Championship, won last year by English Premier League behemoth Manchester United.
