TORONTO, Ontario – The Montreal Impact heads to BMO Field to take on its biggest rivals, Toronto FC this Saturday, at 2pm EDT (RDS, TSN, TSN 690 Radio).
Toronto defeated the Impact last year in its final game of the campaign and forced IMFC to wait for a result from an Eastern Conference rival to make it into the playoffs. Saturday the bleu-blanc-noir will have the chance to officially eliminate the Reds from playoff contention.
“Our main focus is to get a result to knock them out of the playoffs,” said goalkeeper Evan Bush. “With the rivalry we have with them, it would be special to knock them out. They tried to do it to us last year and they didn’t feel bad about it.”
TFC has lost its last three contests, having been outscored 7-1 by LA, Houston and New York respectively. Mathematically, the team is still in the running for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot sitting in sixth place, six points behind the Columbus Crew. TFC would have to win their final two games against Montreal and New England, but also hope that the Crew will lose its final two games.
IMFC has been trying to rise under pressure on the road.
“Our approach will be to continue to work on some of the things we’ve worked on recently and get a result there,” said assistant coach Mauro Biello. “It’s so hard to win on the road in this league. We have to focus on what we are doing and learn to get better results. We have to learn to manage the momentum and rise above those moments when momentum is against us.”
While TFC will be without Michael Bradley, who is serving a one-game suspension for yellow card accumulation, and most probably Jermaine Defoe, who aggravated his groin injury, the Impact will have its 12th player to help build momentum as some 1,500 travelling members are expected at BMO Field.
Following this game, the team will travel to New Jersey for a midweek clash with the New York Red Bulls on Wednesday night, at Red Bull Arena, in the team’s final game of the CONCACAF Champions League group stage.
Then the bleu-blanc-noir will return home to close out the 2014 campaign on Saturday, October 25 at 4pm against D.C. United in what will be Marco Di Vaio’s final game of his illustrious career. Excellent tickets for this game are still available on ticketmaster.ca or at the Stade Saputo ticketing office prior to the game.
