It wasn't much of a soccer game, but it made for a tasty bit of history.
Toronto FC of MLS scored a 1-0 win over the Montreal Impact of USL in the opening match of qualifying for the CONCACAF Champions League. A deeply forgettable match, but the certain herald of wonderful things to come.
Both teams are strong, well-backed, with brand new soccer-only stadiums. And even though Montreal are in a lower league, the two cities are competing straight-up for continental glory. Yeah, BMO Field and Stade Saputo combined aren't even half the size of an NFL park, but the CBC is loving soccer these days, the game got national exposure, and the times they are a changin'!
And lawdie, did it take a while for all of us to get here!
In the early days of the North American Soccer League, the Toronto Metros and Montreal Olympique staged a short and unmemorable non-rivalry.
In the 80s, the Toronto Blizzard and Montreal Manic shared the NASL dance floor from 1981 to 1983. But they were never good at the same time, and never once faced each other in the post-season. Yes, it was two top-flight teams in two big-time stadiums, but the Big Owe and the Ex were horrid places to watch soccer.
The NASL died in 1984, but bless the Blizzard for being unkillable. They survived 1985 without a league, and joined the old semi-pro National Soccer League in 1986. The team was reborn in the old Canadian Soccer League a year later, and were joined in 1988 by the Montreal Supra. Their five year “rivalry” included exactly no playoff match-ups. Toronto fans were indifferent, getting far more ruffled over the North York Rockets and Vancouver 86ers than they ever were with Montreal.
The CSL collapsed in 1992. The Blizzard survived for one further season in something called the American Professional Soccer League, knocking shins with former NASL stalwarts like the Tampa Bay Rowdies and Ft. Lauderdale Strikers. The Montreal Impact were born into the APSL in 1993, but had only one year to tangle with Toronto before the Blizzard were shovelled off the driveway of history for the last time.
Then came 1997, and the beginning of a decade of Toronto Lynx-Montreal Impact match-ups in the A-League. Montreal suffered some intermittent existence problems in 2000 and 2001, but from then on the general pattern was that they got stronger as the Lynx slowly faded out.
And as a rivalry? Neither club is even mentioned in the other's on-line Wikipedia entry.
Both Montreal and Vancouver could be excused if they feel Toronto jumped the queue getting into MLS. The Impact and Whitecaps have done well for themselves, building strong, loyal fan bases. But Toronto is where the stadium got built, and where all the necessary MLS financial concerns got answered at once. As the push for MLS expansion to Canada continues, the very existence of Toronto FC will be enough to fire up both rivalries.
The crowd for the Canada Cup opener was just over 12,000, about a grand short of a sellout. The rematch, in Toronto on July 22, isn't part of the TFC season ticket package, but should bring in a big crowd.
And if the Impact pull an upset? Well, they had a shot in the opener. Montreal carried the game for large stretches of the opening half. Toronto solidified after the break, went a man up on a red card, and won the points on yet another wonderful Laurent Robert free kick, nodded in by forward-pushing TFC defender Marco Velez.
In this double round-robin format, the road win gives Toronto a huge advantage. If they win both their home games and pick up a draw in Vancouver, they'll qualify for CONCACAF in a stroll. Ah, but it wouldn't be a rivalry without upsets, and aside from Robert's brilliant set-pieces, there wasn't really all that much to separate TFC and the Impact on the night.
Many a previous attempt to fire up bad soccer blood between Canada's two largest cities has fizzled like a firecracker in a fish tank. But now, perhaps, time and circumstance have finally aligned, and TFC and the Impact – and their fans – are ready to get in each others' grills for real.
And when they do, we'll all eternally remember opening night in Montreal – even though the game on the field would not have remained in the collective memory on its own.
Were you there? Click “comments,” and tell us all about it.
Onward!
