Montreal Impact 2 : 0 Santos Laguna
Thursday, 26 February 09, 12:53 AM · Comments (3)
55,571 fans made up the third largest soccer crowd in Montreal history Wednesday night as the home side Montreal Impact defeated visiting Mexican giants Santos Laguna 2-0.
The goals both came from former Vancouver Whitecaps player Eddy Sebrango, and though neither will win any goal of the year competition it's unlikely that anyone associated with the Impact cares.
Sebrango's first goal came almost out of nowhere on five minutes as the former Cuban international combined with Roberto Brown take advantage of some lackadaisical Santos defending to slot the ball to the right of Mexican number one Oswaldo Sanchez.
Throughout the game it was evident that the artificial surface was a factor with the bounce of the ball being hard to judge.
Aside from a stray looping header, Montreal found it hard to trouble Sanchez for the remainder of the first half and the story was much the same at the other end with only Chucho Benitez testing Matt Jordan.
Santos seemed to pick up the pace in the second half, actually forcing Jordan into action several times, including a fabulous low save off a Pedro Quiñónez free kick. But again it was Montreal who would find the net, and again slack defending was to blame when Nevio Pizzolitto's long ball was headed on by Brown and eventually tapped over a hapless Sanchez by the head of Sebrango.
The lead gives Montreal a comfortable, though far from safe advantage heading into next week's second leg at the Estadio Corona in Torreon.
The night's crowd was the largest in this year's Champions League, in stark contrast the Houston Dynamo assembled a crowd of just over 10,000 as the drew with Atlante on Tuesday at Robertson Stadium. There was talk that MLS commisioner Don Garber was among the 55,571, but should the question be "Montreal for MLS?", or "Does Montreal need MLS?"?
Like this blog? Help spread the word: 
-
BradleyelBradley said:He Clearly takes down the man even in the Angle on the Arsenal website you can ...
susan01 said:I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would...
-
Bobby
Charlotte, US
Random rantings about football
3 Comments · Add yours
This is really interesting. I think that means that the MLS build their league exclusively based on business and ignored the true root of football which is passion. The USL with its first and second divisions make much more sense to me than the MLS. Go Montreal!
The one thing in MLS rhetoric that annoys me is the use of the word "market", instead of "city" or "state". I know, that's business lingo, but still. There's obviously great passion among MLS fans (Houston included), but the front office isn't approaching it correctly. Cannibalizing the USL towns for money's sake serves only to hurt the sport. For the sake of football all the conflicting bodies (MLS, USL, USSF/CSA, and even the tiny NPSL) will need to work together.
AGREED!