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Analyst, TSN Radio 690 Montreal

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Celebrating a 40th anniversary next summer, over these intervening years Montreal's Olympic Stadium has just about witnessed and hosted it all on the sporting and entertainment fronts including that now infamous Guns 'N Roses riot back in 1992. Even a visit from Pope John Paul II in 1984.

Wednesday evening, Olympic Stadium will play host to one of the most unlikely of sporting events anyone could have dared to imagine, let alone voice. Wildest dreams, unrealistic goals and irrational targets included.

Almost an entire year in the making, through the toil and troubles of thirteen matches later, an entire squad makeover and with the beauty of the away goals rule coming up trumps not once, but twice - to here we are now on the threshold of knowing if the destiny of the 2014/2015 CONCACAF Champions League trophy will have the name Impact Montréal FC engraved upon it.  

Will it all come down to the ninety minutes, or perhaps will this football fable include that dreaded penalty shootout which over the course of time has claimed most of world football's most illustrious clubs and nations.

The Impact stand on the threshold of not only creating history but re-writing the entire centenary plus historical reference guide for Canadian soccer itself. This all coming on the very eve as a nation we get set to welcome the world and the 24 competing nations to the FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015.

Then factor in what this would mean and do for Major League Soccer. Driving the price of an expansion franchise through the $100 million mark is one thing, but to finally sit at the table marked FIFA World Club Cup will surely shake off any lingering doubts which still shockingly exists that MLS deserves its rightful and credible place in the mindsets of the rest of world football.

This for a league celebrating only its 20th anniversary this season - with the Impact playing the role of its slightly older sibling.

The Olympic Stadium's highest ever paid attendance was for a 1997 Pink Floyd show when close to 79,000 packed the building out.  Like rock shows, football appears very prominently on the Top 25 list of highest attendances.

From the well over 55,000 who attended the Impact's Champions League Quarterfinal in February 2009, through to the Impact's MLS home opener in March 2012, which drew a record crowd for a professional football match at 58,542. That record was beaten just a few short weeks later when Beckham-mania arrived in town where 60,860 were on hand to catch a glimpse.

That record gets eclipsed once more Wednesday night when a crowd of almost twice the size and noise as who attended the Champions League Semifinal just over a month ago will descend from all corners on Olympic Park Wednesday night. The Impact announcing Monday all 61,004 tickets which were put on sale were sold.

 

What a football feast they are all in for. The upstart Montreal Impact within feasible distance of pulling off quite likely the grandest shocks since continental club football's very first tournament was invented. According to the purists, that goes all the way back to 1897's Challenge Cup, which was the precursor to UEFA's European Cup won by Real Madrid in 1955.  

Along the way, as you would expect and as they have always done throughout the entire course of their history, the Impact have ruffled some mighty fine feathers. Wednesday night represents that Rolex moment.

Club América are the industry standard for CONCACAF club football. They've won as many Champions Cup/Champions League titles as Liverpool. Who could ever forget Istanbul in May 2005? What Liverpool pulled off that night won't ever get repeated. Anywhere.

Whilst the Impact can't compete in the $50 million salary department they certainly matched and bettered on that fabled Estadio Azteca pitch a mere week ago. Surely if it was Mayweather vs. Pacquiao the Impact would have prevailed with the unanimous decision.

Most say 2-0 is the hardest lead to defend in all of football. The Impact's response to going the early goal up wasn't to defend it, but to attack it. Piatti's gilt edged opportunity following a mesmerising run his fellow countrymen Maradona and Messi would be proud of, could and should have put the Impact up 2-0 close to the half hour mark. How Martinez stayed on the pitch following what ordinarily is a red card for his tug and pull-back of Oduru, just outside the box on the stroke of halftime, only a higher power could fully comprehend and understand.

Yes, the Impact was on the ropes through large swathes of the second half, but they did so 'sans autobus'. They showed Club América the wide areas and did a most stellar job in ensuring they cleaned up the high crosses and allowed their opponent barely a few sniffs from inside the box. That was until Peralta rose highest and mightiest in providing the equalizer.  

Las Águilas had finally landed.  

Speaking of a week ago when I, along with one other adjourned from an Impact screening, which took place at that very same pub MLS Commisioner Don Garber and Joey Saputo held court back in April 2011 with Impact Supporters, we managed to catch the end of a Mexican broadcast replaying the match.

Can't say my Spanish especially gone midnight is that good, but my, oh my during the post-game show did some of Mexican football's legendry broadcasters let Club América have it square on the chin. Questioning their priorities and commitment to the Champions League, a final at that. On the contrary they were most respectful of the Impact and how they had equipped themselves during that 1st Leg.

Having been up close and personal at home matches since 14th May 2014 when the Impact clawed their way back against FC Edmonton in that Canadian Championship Semifinal 2nd Leg, no matter what the circumstances, no matter who the opponent is - as a team they have not at all been fazed.

Go out there and thoroughly enjoy themselves they absolutely have done to a man.

Even with standout goalkeeper Evan Bush suspended for the 2nd leg, a player who has been so instrumental for his team mates and club during this most improbable of runs and remember back in May 2014 Bush was only getting his starts in the Canadian Championship so as to rest first choice at the time Troy Perkins, I do not expect for one moment that anything will change to effect that impeccable mood and attitude.

Not now, not at this the most pivotal of football moments. Why would they. I'll say it, and I'll say it again this club operates and performs at its very highest when under siege, in a crisis. Joey Saputo's February 5th Roundtable was that moment.

It's not what happens, think of all that 1st Leg adversity, but only how you respond which counts. Those fortunate enough to have a ticket get to experience that response first hand Wednesday night.

No matter what happens on the pitch at Olympic Stadium, let us each hope that come the final whistle it is not the match officials which are at the forefront of our minds. Plus neither a disputed, nor controversial moment which ultimately proves decisive to the outcome and destiny of the premium club football tournament that we have in our football continent.

Or post-game Montreal endures yet another riot attaching itself to a momentous sporting occasion.

Instead it is purely the football, the individual stand out moments, names of certain players and all that drama inherently exclusive to sport which are at the forefront of our collective minds, ears and voices.

That, and of course sparing a thought for a most disconsolate runner-up.

World football is watching. Its spotlight fully trained on Olympic Stadium in Montreal Wednesday night.

The CONCACAF Champions League trophy is in la belle ville, it will not leave without every single Impact player leaving it all out on the pitch. If need be.   

We shall always remember.

Noel.Butler@BellMedia.ca
@TheSoccerNoel on Twitter