Drogba bids farewell to Montreal

Montreal counters with a veteran squad – with nine of 11 starters age 30 or more – that has played in big games at Olympic Stadium before, especially in its run to the CONCACAF Champions League final in early 2015 when it lost in the final to Mexico’s Club American before 60,004.

Jozy Altidore pulled TFC back into the contest with a close-range strike, and USA teammate Michael Bradley pulled another back – with what could be a decisive second away goal – with less than 20 minutes to play. Thereafter, the Impact clung to its lead in annoying the pillars of TFC, especially Sebastian Giovinco who took Victor Cabrera in his legs throughout the evening.

“There wasn’t a TFC team before this that probably would’ve been able to dig themselves out of a hole like that”, Toronto coach Greg Vanney said after Tuesday’s contest. I think it was a great start obviously coming to this place obviously with the many variables that make it hard to play her.

The Impact has played games at the Big O, so the home-field advantage is still there, but the condition of the artificial turf – which lies atop concrete – might be a factor. In the Western Conference finals, the Seattle Sounders FC faced the Colorado Rapids on Tuesday night.

Colorado, which finished 15-6-13 in the regular season and narrowly missed out on the Supporters’ Shield, got a knockout-round bye as the second seed in the West.

“They have to beat us, that’s all”, Biello said. If the Reds are to limit Montreal’s chances next week, they’ll need to be better prepared to deal with the threat. “[It was] obviously not a good start to the game, but we set ourselves up extremely well for the return leg”. This sequence has collapsed in the time to say against the fascinating speed of Dominic Oduro. A team that doesn’t have the characters and the drive that we have, maybe folds there and throws the towel in.

They will have to be.

Montreal and Toronto put on a show at the Big O and have set up another potential classic at BMO Field in Toronto on November 30.

“We are going to prepare the team for this game”, Venney said. “We’ve been in situations like this before [at Olympic Stadium] where we have 61,000 fans”.

The match got off to an embarrassing start for the home side as the lines for the 18-yard boxes were too narrow and had to be repainted.

Local boy Patrice Bernier slid through a ideal pass, and Oduro was in on goal to slot a shot past Irwin. Montreal looking confident were unprepared for the arrival of Tosaint Ricketts and Will Johnson into the game. Toronto’s defenders were slow moving to the ball and Mancosu got there first and scored from close range.

Chelsea legend Didier Drogba has announced he’s leaving Montreal Impact.

Didier Drogba, the 38-year-old Ivory Coast forward who starred at Chelsea, entered in the 71st minute to cheers but was thwarted twice in the dying minutes.

“The positive is we scored three goals and we won”, Drogba said. There’s still 90 minutes to play and a lot of things will happen in those 90 minutes.

Drogba is expected to feature in the second leg of the Eastern Conference finals tie in Toronto next week as his side look to reach the final of the MLS Cup.

With last week’s Federation Internationale de Football Association global break, it had been 16 days since either team last played a match.