MONTREAL – The Impact wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him. But they’re without him, now.
So, how has Cameron Porter been?
The truth is, the voice over the phone is lively, and you can tell Porter is smiling. How could he not be, with his team on the brink of CONCACAF Champions League glory?
Well, injury could be an answer. But Porter refuses to let that be. He has shaped this CCL run already, scoring the late equalizer that got Montreal past Pachuca in the quarterfinals on March 3. Only 18 days later, Porter went down on the Gillette Stadium turf in New England, his ACL torn.
Porter experienced, in a single month, the highs and the lows of pro soccer. Watching “crazy games” in CCL has helped keep his morale up as he rehabs in Montreal, trying to recover as much mobility as early as possible.
“It’s amazing,” Porter told MLSsoccer.com earlier this week. “Coming to this city, you don’t really know what to expect, having never been there before. The amount of support we’ve received – the whole team, not just me individually – is just unbelievable. Going to the viewing party [last Wednesday for the first leg] and hearing them chanting at the television screen the entire game, it’s unbelievable to see the city light up like this.”
On Wednesday, 61,004 people will fill the Olympic Stadium for the second leg of the CCL final against Club América. Porter will be there, probably with one or two family members. Though he did get (gently) mobbed at the viewing party, he still managed to cast an interested eye on the game.
“Club América were impressive going forward,” Porter said. “They created a lot of opportunities, a lot of set pieces, especially from corners. Our backline did a good job to manage it. It was a tough thing to see Hassoun [Camara] go down, but overall, watching the game, one standout performance – besides Evan Bush who’s been utterly impressive – was Calum [Mallace]. I think he really stepped up from Costa Rica to Mexico, put in a full workrate offensively and defensively, moving the ball around and creating space for his teammates.”
It was Mallace who put Porter through on goal against Pachuca. But no more of that duo until 2016. Part of Porter, of course, wishes the injury had never happened, if only for a chance to keep on taking part in a history-making run.
“But you really don’t know how things would go,” Porter said. "Maybe if I was playing, things wouldn’t have turned out the way they are right now. Things are going so well.”
But, in a way, that’s also thanks to Porter.
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