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Analyst, TSN Radio 690 Montreal

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It would be nearly impossible to overstate how excited Montreal soccer fans were to see a marquee footballer finally suited and booted in Impact blue.

For the first time in almost exactly two years, ticket demand outstripped supply for a match at home.

The Impact’s public waited with bated breath. Even the mayor felt compelled to attend.

That excitement barely waned when head coach Frank Klopas disclosed on the eve of the game that Didier Drogba would start on the bench. We are, after all, talking about a compulsive winner with a brand cache that resonates globally.

The buildup surrounding the Ivorian icon last week was quite palpable. The intensity ramped up as the week wore on, with newsrooms across the city seeming purely focused on the striker’s debut. Drogba felt like the only sports story in town. There was no better time, even in the immediate aftermath of a superb road win, for the Alouettes to fire Tom Higgins. 

Last Saturday evening, as kick off approached, a cauldron-like atmosphere built at and around Stade Saputo. How wonderful to witness such a colourful display, as the orange jerseys of Les Éléphants contrasted brilliantly with those of the Impact faithful.

It was a cacophony of football noise for Drogba’s Impact debut. Truly fitting for a footballer who almost singlehandedly delivered his then-club their only European Cup and a man who, a few years earlier, pleaded on live television with warring factions to lay down their arms and end a civil war that had ravaged his nation.

Shortly after 8pm, referee Edvin Jurisevic blew the whistle. We had kick off and the expectation that we were about to witness a new world football order at the so-termed Fortress Saputo.

Instead someone threw away the script. Joie de vivre replaced by floundering football.

This was a moment to show to a sold-out house that this was a team with true intentions of not only moving up the standings to a more valuable seeding in the playoffs, but to do so with a soccer exuberance to lift bums of seats, especially of those who had quite likely not ever previously attended an Impact match.

It should have been a watershed moment. Instead, it was more painful than watching paint dry on a parked bus.

There was no inventiveness, the side’s creativity sucked completely dry. I can only imagine what was going through Drogba’s mind as he watched on from the dugout during the first half.

While all other Impact substitutes warmed up during the interval, Drogba stayed in the dressing room. Oh, to be a fly on that wall.

It had been expected Drogba would be introduced at around the hour mark. A few minutes into the second half, the sign came in and off the bench all the Impact players rose to head off to their warmup drills. As Drogba ran along the touchline, the crowd rose in unison. Meanwhile, on the pitch, it seemed apathy had set in.

Then, just before the 60-minute mark, up came the man of the hour. A standing ovation greeted him as the PA announcer made it official. Almost exactly three months after his final appearance at Stamford Bridge, Drogba trotted on to the Stade Saputo pitch he will call home for the next 18 months or so.

As we are all acutely aware, there would be no fairytale ending. Instead it was another home defeat, a result that is becoming more familiar as this long and gruelling season has worn on.

This season has plummeted from those unprecedented highs of late April’s Champions League final to where we are today - so much for momentum. Back-to-back wins at the end of July at home were followed by a fine performance at Yankee Stadium on Aug 1.

The good ship Impact has taken on so much water in the month since. For all intents and purposes, the Impact ran aground in Vancouver on Wednesday night.

This from a team that took a mulligan for how poorly it played early on in the MLS season, chalking it up to a “Champions League hangover.” There can be no excuses, not even in the wake of yet another Ignacio Piatti absence. Blame officials all you want, but that, my friends, is a zero-sum game.

Losing matches is part and parcel of a sporting life. It’s the manner of the performances, coming at such a critical juncture in the season, which provide the deepest concerns. Shapeless and disjointed, some are questioning if certain players no longer wish to put in the requisite 90-minute effort for their manager.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, but finally changing up the formation for the second leg of the Canadian Championship smacks of too little, way too late. Observing Klopas at the final whistle told me everything. You just have to look at those images.

It has been clearly evident in recent weeks that Klopas, who just four months ago took his club to the verge of a very first Champions League triumph in MLS history, has taken the Impact as far as he can.

We’re at the start of the business end of the MLS season, with the Impact on a run of one point and a single goal in the last three matches, all played at home.

Saturday afternoon in Toronto, and with Drogba not available as he wasn’t in Vancouver in midweek, we may well be witnessing the final throes of Klopas’s tenure in Montreal. They say a week in politics is a long time. Try explaining what’s already happened to the Impact this week, with the distinct possibility of yet another abject performance and fan disappointment on the immediate horizon.

In seven days, the team has gone from the highest of highs to plummeting and in free fall ahead of the so-called 401 Derby.

Sebastian Giovinco, Jozy Altidore and the rest of Toronto FC likely can’t wait for what lies ahead at BMO Field. With the Impact’s attack of late so anemic, the only thing likely threatening the Toronto goalmouth will be the streamers raining down from the jubilant hometown supporters.

Still, with 12 matches left,and the comfort of four matches and four points in hand over the two clubs sitting directly behind them, it would take a run in of calamitous proportions for the Impact not to make early November’s MLS playoffs.

Mediocrity, though, is not the Montreal Impact way.

Noel.Butler@BellMedia.ca 
@TheSoccerNoel