The Montreal Impact started the 2013 season under some difficult conditions, travelling to two of the toughest cities to play in Portland and Seattle.
Seattle had over 38,000 spectators for their home opener, while the Timbers army were as loud as advertised, having arrived 90 minutes before the game to start singing, chanting and booing the Impact players as their bus pulled in to JELD-WEN Field.
“I know it’s not easy to play in these two places, but I think we have a team that’s capable of going on the road and getting results,” said midfielder Davy Arnaud. “Six points is huge. It’s a huge achievement for us on the road.”
With the two victories away from the friendly confines of Stade Saputo, les onze montrealais equaled its total of road wins for all of last season. But, that’s not even the most impressive stat.
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According to the sports statisticians Elias Sports Bureau, the Impact is just the second team from the Eastern Conference ever to start the season with two consecutive wins in the Pacific Time Zone since the New England revolution did it way back in the MLS’ inaugural campaign in 1996.
And the team did it with defence.
“We were solid defensively,” noted the captain after the game in Portland. “We didn’t give up a ton of really good chances and we had quite a few really good chances ourselves. They had a lot of the ball and they pushed the game, similar to Seattle, but I thought defensively as a group again, we were very solid.”
