Santos Laguna 5 : 2 Montreal Impact (5-4 on aggregate).

Benitez 16 (San), Brown 24 (Mon), Sebrango 38 (Mon), Vuoso 52, 75 (San), Quintero 90*, 90* (San)

Montreal's dream came to an abrupt end in the most heartbreaking of fashions. After going down early, the Quebec side managed to peg back Santos twice to find themselves leading in Torreon. It was done by taking the game to a Santos side which found itself forced to attack having lost the first leg 2-0.

Montreal seemingly caught a break in the first half when Mexican international goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez was subbed off after a leg injury, no word on how serious the injury is. The Impact quickly took advantage of his replacement Miguel Becerra when first leg hero Eddy Sebrango made it 2-1.

Despite all of this, Montreal abandoned their plan in the second half and resorted to defending, a move which proved deadly. Santos equalized early in the half through Matías Vuoso, and took the match lead through him on 75 minutes. At this point it still seemed unthinkable than Santos would find two more goals and Montreal continued to defend as the Mexicans heaped on the pressure. Many times Montreal found themselves saved simply by their height advantage granting them the ability to clear crosses and corner kicks, but soon Santos found a way to break Montreal's backs through Carlos Quintero. The Colombian striker netted twice deep into injury time to break Montreal's hearts and seal a place for his side in the semifinals where they will face fellow Mexicans Atlante.

It meant the end of the road for Montreal's unlikely journey, but they won't be without pride. The Impact represented Canadian soccer in a better light than anyone involved could have hoped, and for that they should keep their heads head high.

As for the United Soccer Leagues, they still have an interest in the Champions League as Puerto Rico managed to top Marathon of Honduras 1-0 (3-1 on aggregate) to claim a spot against Cruz Azul in the other semifinal.

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?"?