Impact short on talent
The opener of the CONCACAF Champions League qualifiers (I am not using the corporate sponsor's name; that company's not paying me) showed that effort can't trump talent.
There was no doubt that the Montreal Impact, perennially one of the elite franchises in the lower-tier United Soccer Leagues, ran more, offered more tackles and dominated the territorial battle in the game with the big boys from the MLS, Toronto FC.
But, even with players missing due to international duty, TFC's talent was enough to overcome Montreal's hard work. The Impact could easily have been up 2-0 in the first 20 minutes, but point-blank shots by Rocco Placentino and David Testo both missed the TFC goal by wide margins. Placentino, a Montrealer, had played with some lower-division Italian clubs, but, with a total of three career goals in his USL career, showed that the challenge of playing an MLS club may be beyond him. Testo, meanwhile, has 60 goals in a long USL career; but the former University of North Carolina star has never been able to make the jump to the MLS.
Toronto got fewer chances, but looked more dangerous — and actually scored — in the few times it did get close to goal compared to all the times Montreal got into opposition penalty area.
The Saputo family has done a wonderful job with the Impact; they have transformed the team into one that hires the majority of its players from the community. Heck, coach Nick De Santis, who I remember covering back in the mid-'90s during the inaugural season of the Edmonton Drillers of National Professional Soccer League, is a Montrealer. And that's a major reason why the Impact can get more than 12,000 fans out to Stade Saputo and regularly sold out its old Claude Robillard stadium.
But, if Montreal was to realize its MLS dream, it could not field the kind of homegrown team that it tried to use against TFC. Just like TFC learned last season, the Canadian-first attitude, at least at this point, can't work in the MLS. So, players like Placentino or Adam Braz, the Montreal native who played with TFC last season, probably wouldn't make the cut.
The question, would Montreal support a team of imports as fervently as it does its lower-tier team filled with hometown heroes?

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