MEXICO CITY – The Montreal Impact aren’t going to Estadio Azteca to merely stay alive.
Montreal have embraced the’underdog’ tag, which has served them well so far. On Tuesday, goalkeeper Evan Bush recalled with a smirk that the media suggested, before the first leg of their quarterfinal tie against Pachuca, that a 3-1 defeat would be a decent result – not unlike what some Mexican sports TV shows have been suggesting this week.
Only, that went much better than was talked about. So much so that, despite a 2-2 tie, Montreal felt disappointed with coughing up a 2-0 lead.
That night, center back Bakary Soumare sounded the most upset about the result when meeting with the press. It was thus only natural that he would be dismissive of the virtues of a “good loss” in this Wednesday’s CONCACAF Champions League first leg against Club América.
“I don’t think [losing 3-1] is a good result,” Soumare told reporters on Tuesday. “We’re not here to lose. We’re here to get a result. There’s no such thing as losing a game 3-1 and saying it’s a good result. There’s no such thing in football, at least not in my agenda. If people say that, that’s for them to think. But I know for myself, for my teammates and for the guys, we don’t look at it as a good result. It’s not what we're going for, as well.”
Added Bush: “You don’t really want to talk about what scoreline is a good loss. You never want to talk about if we lose 2-0 or 2-1. That shouldn’t cross your mind. You want to go in with a positive mindset and try to get the result we’re capable of getting.”
In the CCL era, only one team has won the first leg of a final away: Atlante, who won 2-0 at Cruz Azul and lifted the trophy after drawing the second leg 0-0. But draws in the first leg seem to advantage the host of that leg. Over three such draws, the host twice went on to win the tournament after the second leg (Monterrey at Salt Lake in 2011, and Cruz Azul at Toluca in 2014).
The two final first leg home wins, meanwhile, translated into split results.Cruz Azul beat Pachuca 2-1 in 2010 but lost on away goals, while Monterrey beat Santos Laguna 2-0 and won 3-2 on aggregate.
“If we can win the game, it'd be something extraordinary,” assistant coach Mauro Biello said. “But if we're able to score a goal and not concede any, it’d be a very important result for us. In a game like we had a Pachuca, we score two goals. It gave us the confidence, when we got back to Montreal, to win in the quarters.”
Montreal have a similar opportunity this Wednesday. But they know what kind of damage América can inflict. Not only have they watched countless videos of their final opponents in CCL, but they’ve also seen them in the flesh.
It doesn't detract from their confidence.
“When we were down here for preseason, we went to the game that they won 5-0 at home [against Chiapas],” Bush said. "Then they won 6-0 [against Herediano] at home. It’s been a little bit up and down [for Club America]. You know they’re capable of winning big, but you also know that they’re a bit vulnerable in some areas.”
