MONTREAL – Toronto FC expect the Impact’s league form to make them hungry this Wednesday in the first leg of the Amway Canadian Championship final (7:30 pm ET; Sportsnet One and TVA Sports in Canada, Free Stream on MLSsoccer.com in the US).
Good then. Because Montreal expect similar hunger from TFC.
The Reds, of course, cut a much different picture from last-placed Montreal in this MLS season. They could even find a cozy spot above the red line in the standings, should they take advantage of their games in hand.
Thinking about last season’s ACC, however, isn’t so comfortable for Toronto. It started well for them with a 2-0 win at BMO Field, where Montreal typically struggle. But a 6-0 stuffing followed at Stade Saputo a week later. Cue the expected hunger ahead of this Wednesday.
“If I’d lost 6-0, I’d be furious,” defender Karl W. Ouimette told reporters in French on Tuesday. “They’ll try to avenge that loss, because in the end, we won the Canadian Championship and it could have been them. They'll come at us like lions, and we'll need to come at them like lion slayers.” Defense.
If Montreal are to fight the lions’ attempts to maul them, shoring things up at the back becomes even more of an obligation than was displayed in Saturday’s 4-1 defeat at Colorado. Head coach Frank Klopas, who recognized the need to “address some situations” defensively on Monday, may explore his options with Matteo Ferrari, Eric Miller and Maxim Tissot still unavailable. While Adrian Lopez is still “a week away,” Nelson Rivas is finally “ready to go,” Klopas told reporters.
But fighting for a trophy against their antagonists in this “crazy rivalry”, as defender Heath Pearce put it, is spurring the group on to correct flaws and bring a result back to Montreal for the second leg, next Wednesday.
“We’re preparing like we always have, but you can feel there’s a little bit of a different energy, because you’re playing for something,” Pearce told reporters on Tuesday. “That’s the kind of thing that can change the season really quick. It can bring a whole other dynamic to what’s been a difficult season so far.”
But the league is not lost, Frank Klopas said, insisting that “there’s still a lot of games left.”
“This is a goal for us,” Klopas said of the ACC on Monday. “We need to do whatever we can to try to win the [Voyageurs] Cup. That's one step, and also [we need to] focus within the league. So it’s still two objectives.”
