April 16, 1999
Let’s pick up where we left off last week, shall we? The Impact has knocked out the Harrisburg Heat and is now up against the Cleveland Crunch in the Conference Semis. And what a start it is! The Bleu-blanc-noir gives up a “fluke, shorthanded 3-point goal with less than five minutes left to play,” reports The Gazette’s Randy Phillips, but the home team hangs on. The Impact wins it 10-9 to take a 1-0 series lead, Mauro Biello scores two “really huge goals” (direct quote), and the Crunch’s Goran Vasic “[brilliantly recreates] the death of John the Baptist at the referee’s feet to draw a penalty,” says Richard Labbé in La Presse, proving that he did, in fact, have fun at least once while watching soccer.
April 19, 2008
Five changes per game. Nonsense? Of course not. Only years ago, that was what the rules allowed an Impact coach to do. And La Presse’s Hugo Fontaine, the morning after a 2-1 Impact win in Miami, reminds readers that head coach Nick De Santis does not refrain from taking advantage of that rule. The Montreal boss sends Dwight Barnett on in the 79th minute, then Charles Gbeke in the 82nd. And in the 83rd minute, these two “join forces to create Barnett’s game-winner.” Gbeke’s pressure onto Miami ‘keeper Josh Saunders causes him to flub his clearance. The ball falls for Barnett, who chips everyone to clinch a Bleu-blanc-noir win. This win is made even more remarkable by the fact that the home team had gone ahead in the 16th minute and missed excellent chances in the second half, after Roberto Brown had pulled the visitors level.
April 21, 2007
We’ll let La Presse’s Sophie Allard set the scene. “When the PA announcer shouted his name during the pregame presentations last night, Daniel Antoniuk puffed up his chest and thumped his fists against it, like a gorilla. Like a Silverback. The forward had been traded to Atlanta after a year in Montreal, and it looked like he wanted to show that he wouldn’t back down against his former teammates.” As fate would have it, Antoniuk scores his team’s two goals that night in Atlanta. But vengeance is a dish best served cold: Matthew Palleschi and Leonardo Di Lorenzo score twice in the last quarter-hour, and the Bleu-blanc-noir leaves Atlanta with a 2-2 tie – and that without six squad members, including Nevio Pizzolitto, Zé Roberto and Jason Di Tullio, all dealing with knee injuries.
