Drogba won’t return to Impact next season

There weren’t many Canadians on the field in what really was a big night in Canadian soccer – the 61,004 crowd at the Big O matched the venue’s national record soccer crowd – but most of those involved were influential.

The Ivorian striker signed with the Impact in July of 2015, scoring 11 goals in his first 11 games.

The series victor will become the first Canadian team to reach the MLS Cup final game on December 10.

But the game turned around quickly after Toronto coach Greg Vanney made two subs. “I don’t think the adventure will end in Toronto”. Repainting them now. I’m not making this up.

Toronto striker Sebastian Giovinco came together with Montreal defender Hassoun Camara as they vied for a diagonal ball, the Impact right-back was lucky not to escape a caution or worse. “Everybody knows that it was my last game here, and that’s it, let’s focus on the conference final”.

If a team playing with a three-man defense isn’t well-disciplined and aware of their teammates’ positioning, they can get roasted down the wings. Up 3-0 early in the second half, Toronto cut the lead to 1, but wasn’t able to overcome the deficit.

It will be the teams’ sixth meeting this year.

There are few secrets between them.

They got louder as Montreal used two quick attacks against the flat-looking TFC to take the lead.

The good news for Montreal with a one-goal lead as the second leg looms is the combination of Piatti, Mancosu and Oduro was loads of trouble for TFC’s defence, especially in the first half. The Italian is equally unsafe setting up big striker Altidore, while Bradley runs the show from the back of the midfield.

Johnson, meanwhile, brought toughness to the midfield and a number of key interventions, elements that were lacking from Armando Cooper.

Once again the fierce rivalry between the Montreal Impact and Toronto FC lived up to its billing.

“He can be risky because you lose track of where he is”. It was the defender’s first playoff goal.

As for the playoff matchup with Toronto, Drogba had “mixed feelings” about the slim win at home and acknowledged the second leg could go either way. And the positive thing is that we scored three goals and we won the game.

Evidently it was more than just idle boasting.

With last week’s Federation Internationale de Football Association worldwide break, it had been 16 days since either team last played a match. The bad part is that there may be some rust.

Toronto captain Michael Bradley even raised a Montreal conspiracy theory. “With the Federation Internationale de Football Association break there was no choice”. He wasn’t as effective as perhaps most people would’ve wanted and the team was getting better results without him on the field.