The Montreal Impact will play its first Amway Canadian Championship game as an MLS side against Toronto FC this Wednesday, at Olympic Stadium, but the team has a storied history with the competition.
The Impact took the first ever Canadian title back in 2008 as a second division club, and had been the only Canadian side until TFC did it this year (2011-2012) to advance to the group stage of the CONCACAF Champions League, and then qualify for the quarterfinals of the tournament against Santos Laguna.
“There were two games that I feel were defining moments in our club’s recent history,” said Impact director of soccer operations Matt Jordan, who was the team’s starting goalkeeper that year. “The first was when we won the Canadian Championship in Toronto. That game gave us a lot of credibility in MLS circles.”
“To be a second division club that qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League group stage and advance to the quarterfinals against Santo Laguna gave our club more international recognition. Hosting the first leg in front of a 55,571 spectators; that is what put us on the map, especially throughout the CONCACAF region. Those events helped us get to where we are today.”
Those two moments were defining ones for the organization. Now, the Impact gets set to redefine some of that history with the first two games of the Canadian cup coming in the month of May (away leg on May 9).
With that, the Impact will be playing five games in its next 15 days, which will force the technical staff to use a multitude of different players.
“The Canadian Championship is a very important competition for us,” added Jordan. “There is a rich history and rivalry between the three MLS clubs in Canada, and that’s the reason why we’ve worked so hard to build this team with depth. We know that we are going to call on every player throughout the season and in particular in the month of May with so many games in a short period of time because of this tournament.”
Amway Canadian Championships backgrounder
The four-team tournament, which includes the Vancouver Whitecaps FC and FC Edmonton (NASL), will determine which club will lift the Voyageurs Cup and earn the right to represent Canada in the 2012-2013 CONCACAF Champions League.
Montreal will try to beat Toronto for the very first time in Canadian Championship competition. The club’s record against TFC is 0-5-1 since 2008.
The winner of each semi-final will face off on May 16 and 23. The team with the better record will decide which of the two games will be played at home. Clubs were seeded based on their 2011 league results in MLS and NASL. Toronto FC won the last three editions of the tournament.
