New Major League Soccer Ad "90 minutes"

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Thoughts?

A lose-lose situation..

I will be at the Impact's final Canadian Championship game tomorrow and it will feel weird, awkward and demoralizing. Let me explain; As a good supporter of my team, my duty is to cheer on my team to victory no matter the circumstances, right?! However, if the Impact come away with the win against the Whitecaps, Toronto FC our biggest rivals will be crowned champions. We don't want that. If we lose, well...we lose and that still kinda sucks!

Unfortunately, these are the type of problems that can happen with a 3 team "tournament". With the "Gulls" (new team nickname for the Impact that fellow blogger/supporter Curtis Mesher is trying to push) already eliminated, anything less then a Vancouver win tomorrow night will hand the trophy to that team down the other side of the 401. It also causes the last game of the NCC in Toronto to be well, meaningless.

The Canadian Soccer Association briefly mentioned that the format of the V-cup will be changed next year as FC Edmonton (very original name) is scheduled to make their NASL debut, thus making it a 4 team competition. I'm not a proponent of any particular format for 2011, but something must be done to eliminate these "useless" matches where B-teams are fielded and fans feel cheated.

So either way, when I leave Saputo Stadium tomorrow evening, it will be with a bitter taste in my mouth.

Bush league tales : AC St-Louis to fold?

It seems that another chapter in the book of bush leagueism is about to be written in North American 2nd division soccer, as it was reported that AC St-Louis is on the brink of folding.

Apparently the USSF and the NASL are presently in talks about how to insure they can play out the 2010 campaign. Usually a bond has to be deposited to the league by each team prior to the season to keep a team afloat in this type of situation. If they were to fold now it would be a huge black eye for the NASL, as AC St-Louis was looked at as being one of their flagship franchises in their bid to gain official D2 status in 2011. Jeff Cooper, who is supposed to be the interim-commissioner of the proposed league has been unreachable and appears to have disappeared. Perhaps that explains why Nike backed out at the last minute and sold the USL to Nurock over Cooper and certainly goes a long way towards proving that Don Garber was right on when he stated that the Cooper led MLS bid for St-Louis did not meet the financial requirements back in 2008.

I feel for the fans in St-Louis. I really do. We've been there before in Montreal, what with that whole Ionian fiasco in 2000-2001. But unfortunately for St-Louis, it doesn't appear that there's a white knight waiting in the shadows to take over.

All the more reason to be thankful Impact fans, we have a healthy team to support and these garbage league stories will soon be a thing of the past.

2010 Concacaf Champions league Preliminary Round Pairings

Concacaf held the draw today to determine the match-ups for the 2010 Concacaf Champions League preliminary round.

Interesting matchups:

The Puerto-Rico Islanders will take on the Los Angeles Galaxy. Can Bill Gaudette stand on his head again?

And a much tougher then expected opponent for the lone Canadian Representative, as either Toronto or Vancouver will face CD Motagua of Honduras. If the 2008 edition of the tournament can be taken as an example, Motagua is a tough but ultimately beatable opponent. As we all remember, the Impact faced CD Olimpia in the group stages and came out with a win in Tegucigalpa and a tie at Stade Saputo.

You can check out the complete pairings here.

Thoughts, ramblings and other stuff..

I'm back! Not that any of you noticed or were overly concerned that I was missing in action.. I am in the process of working with an outside company/sponsor to relaunch my online presence with a more professional site with extra bells and whistles (everyone loves advertisers) and possibly a new domain name. I also have a few radio appearances lined up for the World cup starting next month, so you'll all have ample opportunity to listen to my babbling and praise/criticize/make fun of my predictions.

All is not well in Impact land, with the "Montreal Eleven" (Hey, it sounds good in french o.k.!) already eliminated from the Canadian Championship following their 1-0 loss to TFC, leaving them with a dismal 1 point in 3 games. So far, most of the action in the tournament this year has been in the stands, as supporter groups from both teams battled it out at Stade Saputo with smoke bombs, flares and the usual 90 minutes of chanting (at least from the Montreal supporters) :





Ok, the Toronto supporters put forward an awesome flare display as well, but since this is Soccer Montréal you'll have to look elsewhere for those vids. Being in section 114 that evening with UM02, I couldn't help but think that this rivalry will be absolutely insane come 2012. It will probably be up there with Seattle-Portland as the 2 biggest and most intense derbies in MLS.

Speaking of the Timbers, the Impact is set to kick off in Portland tonight at 10:00pm ET and you can catch this game live on the Portland Timbers website. The "Boys in blue" ( trying to find an alternative to that Montreal eleven thing) are undefeated in USSF D2 competition since that opening day loss on that vomit-inducing pitch in Austin. Ironically, it is also their first game on artificial turf since that loss so it should be interesting to see how the team responds. Looking forward to hearing the Timbers Army, the only other supporters group worth noting in USSF D2 outside of Canada.

More later.

Montreal to be announced as the 19th MLS franchise (Finally!!!)

Montreal will be announced as Major League Soccer's 19th franchise tomorrow May 7th at 10am. The team will begin play in the North American 1st division in 2012.

The press conference will feature MLS commissioner Don Garber, Quebec finance minister Raymond Bachand and obviously Joey Saputo. The press conference will make clear all details in regards to the franchise, stadium expansion and an indoor training facility.

The press conference can be followed live at mlssoccer.com or at radio-canada.ca.

Montreal MLS 2012.

Roberto Brown suspended for 2 games

The CSA suspended Impact forward Roberto Brown for the next 2 games of the Canadian Championship for punching much appreciated Toronto FC defender Nick Garcia in the face.

So in addition to the automatic 1 game suspension he will be serving on Wednesday against Vancouver, he will also be unavailable for the following game Vs TFC on May 12th at Saputo.

Despite being a huge homer at times, even I must admit this is more then well deserved.

Feuerstein's Fire Radio Show: Canadian Soccer Special

I have been invited to appear on Feuerstein's Fire blog talk radio show on Tuesday May 4th at 2:00pm. So if your unemployed, bored or like the sound of my voice, tune in and give it a listen ( my segment featuring the Impact starts at 2:30pm).

Daniel Feuerstein of Major league Soccer talk and Impact supporters favorite blogger Duane Rollins of the 24th minute,will be asking me questions related to the Montreal Impact and Montreal soccer.

You can access the show here.