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Analyst, TSN Radio 690 Montreal

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Not every football fairytale has that dream-like ending. Sixty-one thousand-plus of us received a ruthless reminder on Wednesday night.

This most noteworthy of voyages that began under a setting Edmonton sun on May 7 of last year, reaching its heartbreaking dénouement for the Impact during a brutally short 15 or so-minute span at Olympic Stadium on Wednesday night.

Not ever before does the cliché, ‘Couldn’t have happened at a worse possible time’ apply for a professional Canadian football club in the 100-plus-year existence of the beautiful game in a nation we are all so very fortunate to call home.

Along the way, the Impact’s 2014-2015 CONCACAF Champions League campaign contained far more twists and turns, shocks and surprises than any World Cup Finals or previous UEFA Champions League campaigns has ever provided or one which I can ever remember. Quite coincidentally, and with Estadio Azteca in mind, it was Mexico 1970, which provides the backdrop to my very first vivid World Cup recollections.

Going all the way back four decades and more to the very first time I attended a professional football match - and, most wonderfully, it was with my entire family and - even when factoring in the outcome the second leg, the CONCACAF Champions League Final is right up there.

The words "exhilarating" and "breathless: come to mind. An adrenaline-fueled roller coaster of a ride if ever there was one. Tell me again about football being a game of two halves.

Taking in the first half from a seat positioned in very close proximity to the half-way line - the sheer relentless end-to-end action and pace of play as the first 45 minutes played out - required you to twist your head constantly from left to right. At one stage, I thought I was on the Centre Court at Wimbledon. 

As the half-time whistle sounded, I felt drained myself. I could only imagine at this stage how both sets of players were feeling, physiologically and emotionally - the coaching staffs for that matter, too. All I did know at halftime, and remarked to a friend, was that this was not sustainable and we would see an entirely different approach in the second half.

Moving location to seats in the temporary stand located close by the tunnel and alongside the penalty area the Impact were to be attacking, I just wasn’t ready or expecting what we were to witness from Club América. After all, if we listen to Arsene Wenger, le soccer professeur himself, what players need following a match is rest and recuperation.

Well, Mr. Wenger, please explain this then: On Sunday evening, as you were going through the motions of your team yet again failing against a Mourinho-inspired Chelsea and the Impact were "resting and recuperating,"Club América were going right at it hammer and tongs with Chivas Guadalajara in a match they tag "El Clásico de Clásicos." Failing to secure the vital three points, Club América then had to haul their sorry selves onto an aircraft to make that 4,500-kilometere journey up to Montreal.

So much for genius me and the belief Olympic Stadium turf would work in the Impact’s favour and against Club América’s silky one-touch, give-and-go football. A forcible argument could certainly be presented the Impact didn’t help themselves in the second half and their approach played into their opponents' favour. Given that opportunity, not many clubs across planet futbol could have lived with their quite breathtaking joga bonito.

Dario Benedetto was different class and most certainly now goes down as the best pick-up in this January’s transfer window - the $20-million investment in his purchase and salary repaid in a single tranche Wednesday night. It’s not hard to imagine some of world football's very wealthiest won’t now be requesting tape and queuing up this summer for the 24-year-old Argentine.

Club América’s manager, Gustavo Matosas, will also be a name in summer conversations.  I must say the 47-year-old Argentine-born Uruguayan cut a very debonair figure in the face of adversity as he walked along the touchline in his club-issued suit to take up his position for the start of the second half. No one could have thought that this was the man most under pressure, as he gave the appearance of a man free of care or worry. 

Cool as cucumber, mustard on the hot dog - whatever Matosas was feeling inside, he was not showing it.  Nor, most importantly, was he projecting any of it on his players. He had only joined the club in January, taking over from a manager who had just delivered a title. Now we know the right man for the proper occasion.  Benedetto’s goals provided his club with their sixth continental crown, Matosas and his tactics the real game changer.

The Impact was very graceful in defeat. Frank Klopas refused the accolades. Instead, the Impact’s head coach choose to deflect and defer them to his entire coaching staff.  Not only does it say a lot about the work they each contributed, individually and collectively, this gave us a very public sneak into the personality and character-type Klopas truly is.

Can’t say I was his number-one supporter through his first season, but from whichever Kool-Aid fountain he drank from in the offseason, I suggest the club bottle, brand and sell it over at Stade Saputo during this MLS season.

They say it’s not what happens, but your response to what happens that counts - for this, you have to commend how Joey Saputo reacted at the final whistle. He could have stayed in his seat to take in the post-match ceremonies where, from that vantage point, he could have found comfort in the arms of his family. Saputo, though, chose to make his way down to the pitch to shake the hands and have a few quiet words, individually, to his players and coaches.

The Impact president stayed on the pitch to take in the post-match ceremonies, observing all around as he silently took in the proceedings.  Then, following his team receiving the rightful plaudits from the Impact supporters who stayed in their seats, Saputo led his team on what must have seemed an eternit,y as they made the long walk back towards the tunnel area and into the solace of what must have been a most despondent dressing room.

Although fans started streaming out well before Club América smashed in their fourth, the much greater percentage stayed until the bitter end. These proper supporters, you can be assured will be back in their droves through spring, summer and fall. 

The final chapter in the script did not have the Impact victorious in their, Canadian soccer ‘s and MLS’ pursuit of a very first Champions League crown, but there is indeed victory in defeat.  They are numerous, many not becoming apparent until the fullness of time.

Liga MX Twitter didn’t take long to get their cheap thrills at the expense of Major League Soccer. Their official Twitter account remarking that MLS will again be taking its vacation in December, a reference to this year’s FIFA World Club Cup.

It’s well past time Major League Soccer affords the most prestigious competition in our part of the football world the full and proper respect it richly deserves. Postponing fixtures and kicking off a social media #MLS4Montreal campaign were nothing more than reactive to the Impact’s successes alone.

Now it's time for Major League Soccer to get fully proactive. This, after all, is a league which has mandated 2022 as the deadline for when it’s mentioned in the same breath as the world’s very best football leagues.

Thanks entirely to the Impact, I have a sneaking feeling the rest of Major League Soccer may get the last laugh on Liga MX, as it finally awakens from its slumber to now fully realize how valuable a tournament the CONCACAF Champions League truly is. 

Now, as for what awaits the Impact and Montreal?

It might be the end of the 2014-2015 Champions League, but a new soccer dawn has risen in La Belle Ville. Something tells me we are in for some right proper football greatness this summer.

Noel.Butler@BellMedia.ca 
@TheSoccerNoel on Twitter