Montreal Impact – Toronto FC
Saturday, March 16, 4pm (ET)
Olympic Stadium
Broadcast: TSN/RDS, CJAD 800, 98,5FM
Also available on: illico web
MONTREAL – The Montreal Impact and Olympic Park confirmed on Friday that the home opener versus Toronto FC will be played as scheduled this Saturday, at 4pm ET (live on TSN/RDS, CJAD 800, 98.5FM), as weather conditions will be suitable to host an event in the main area of Olympic Stadium.
It is recommended that spectators arrive early; doors open at 2pm. It is also recommended to use public transit. Olympic Stadium is accessible from two metro stations, Pie-IX and Viau, as well as via bus 34-125-132-139.
Less than 3,000 excellent tickets remain in the 100 and 200 level seats for the matchup.
Read: How to buy tickets
Pre-game comments
Schällibaum: "We have to put the pressure"
“I’m looking forward to playing our first game in front of our home supporters,” said Impact head coach Marco Schällibaum. “The stadium has a lot of tradition and to have a crowd of 40,000 people behind you instead of against you is very special. The rivalry between the two teams is good because it creates competition and brings a lot of emotion.”
“I think I’m adjusting pretty well to the North American style of play,” said midfielder Andrea Pisanu. “I have to run a lot more than I’m used to, but we’ve won, so it makes it easier. Now to play at home, we have that little extra motivation to win in front of our supporters.”
“I have a lot of respect for their coach (Ryan Nelson) who played in MLS and on big teams in Europe,” said Impact captain Davy Arnaud. “His mentality is that he wants his team to be difficult to play against and we saw that against Kansas City, so we are expecting a tough match. But, we don’t have to change our style that much at home. It’s normal that on the road you concede some possession, but we want to have more possession of the ball now at home.”
Impact news
The Impact will be playing its home opener with its recently unveiled black and blue stripped third jersey, celebrating the club’s 20th anniversary.
The home team is coming off two road wins to open the season, matching the total of victories away from Montreal for all of last season, sitting first in the Eastern Conference as the only team to have two wins in 2013 in the east.
READ: Impact, TFC chime in on style debate
After beating the Sounders in Seattle 1-0 on opening weekend, the Impact bested the Portland Timbers last Saturday 2-1 at JELD-WEN Field, marking the first time since 1996 that an Eastern Conference team has come away with two straight wins on the west coast to start the season.
In its inaugural season in 2012, the Impact had one of the best home records, going 10-4-3 in 17 games in Montreal and a record of 2-1-3 in six games last year at Olympic Stadium. The club also finished third in MLS with a total of 387,124 spectators at home and an average of 22,772 spectators per game.
Injury Report: OUT – M - Sinisa Ubiparipovic (calf); D - Nelson Rivas (knee); QUESTIONABLE - M – Justin Mapp (calf)
Head to head
The Impact and Toronto FC faced each other three times in MLS regular season play in 2012. The Impact won the first game 2-1 on April 7 at Olympic Stadium before losing 3-0 on June 27 at Stade Saputo. Their final matchup was a 0-0 tie at BMO Field on October 20.
READ: Impact vs TFC - More than just a game
The Impact and Toronto FC will meet two other times in regular season play, on July 3 and October 26 at BMO Field. These teams will meet again in the home and away aggregate goal semi-final series of the 2013 Amway Canadian Championship, on April 24 at BMO Field and May 1 at Stade Saputo.
Toronto FC news
Toronto is coming off its first regular season win since July 18 of last year, beating Sporting Kansas City last weekend 2-1 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Player of the Week winner Robert Earnshaw scored both goals for TFC.
Earnshaw, a Welsh international striker, is one of many newcomers to Toronto FC for the 2013 season, which began by bringing in former Queens Park Rangers defender Ryan Nelson as the team’s new bench boss.
Following his hire, Nelson was influential in bringing in two more players from the English leagues in former teammate at QPR, midfielder Hogan Ephraim, along with fellow midfielder John Bostock from Cardiff City.
Toronto also brought in Canadian international midfielder Kyle Bekker through the draft, selected MLS veteran defender Danny Califf in the waiver draft and acquired midfielder Julio Cesar from Sporting KC in a trade.
The Reds also shipped out last season’s starting goalkeeper Milos Kocic and forward Ryan Johnson to Portland, forward Eric Hassli to FC Dallas and lost DP Torsten Frings to retirement.
TFC forward Justin Braun played 12 games and 494 minutes, including five starts with the Impact in 2012, recording one assist, but will most likely miss the game due to injury.
Travelling supporters
Some 3,000 TFC supporters are set to make the trek down the 401 to Olympic Stadium to watch Toronto take on the Impact, breaking the MLS record they set with 2,400 away supporters who travelled to Columbus in the club’s inaugural season in 2008.
Next Game
The Impact will host the New York Red Bulls next Saturday, March 23, at 4:30pm (ET) in its second and final matchup of the season at Olympic Stadium.
Then, the team hits the road to face Sporting Kansas City at the newly renamed Sporting Park, in Kansas City, on March 30, at 8:30 pm (ET).
