25 years since its first home game. That’s the milestone the Montreal Impact celebrated this Monday, in the second of four thematic games, against the LA Galaxy. Players and coaches have come and gone in that span, with some lucky enough to have marked the club’s history forever.
One of those players is Evan Bush, and his story is still going.
“Sometimes I think about it, and I tell myself that I’ve been here for a third of the club’s existence,” said goalkeeper Evan Bush. “That’s insane to me. I’ve seen a lot of people come and go in the time I’ve been here. I’ve learned a lot about the game, other people, and about myself in that time, and all those people have been very influential.”
Bush had started coming to Montreal as of 2009 when he was a part of the Cleveland Internationals. Little did he know that it would become his home just a few years later.
“It was always the trip you wanted to make because the city and the fans appreciated the team compared to the other USL or NASL teams,” added Bush. “Right from the start, I thought there was a great fanbase here. Then, when I got here in 2011, that got confirmed.”
Developing a foot culture
Bush’s time in the metropolis puts him in an interesting situation. He is the only remaining player on the Montreal Impact’s squad that was with the team before it made the jump to MLS. The Ohio native has seen a large difference in the soccer culture in and around the province in that time.
“Ever since I got here, there has been drastic growth,” said Bush. “The attention, understanding, and appreciation from the fans to local business owners are amazing. If I were to walk down the street seven years ago, people wouldn’t recognize you or say anything, and now there’s certainly a difference there.”
The American goalkeeper spoke about his first years in MLS and playing next to players with world class reputations such as Alessandro Nesta, Marco Di Vaio, and Didier Drogba to name a few. If it was an honour for Bush to be in the same locker room as these players at first, he also spoke of the impact legends like Eduardo Sebrango and Nevio Pizzolitto had on him in the first few years.
“The growth of the game is a good thing, because you want to do something with a purpose, and I feel over the past seven years, whether you look at the training facility or the stadium or simply where we are now, there have been huge improvements,” said Bush. “And the reason there’s improvements is because they can be justified. The justification comes from the attention surrounding it.”
