There were a few things I felt quietly sure of going into Wednesday night’s Voyageurs Cup grudge match between Toronto FC and the Montreal Impact.
- Toronto would again control the ball well and easily against USL-1 opposition.
- Toronto would squander multiple scoring chances.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
- Toronto would win the game.
- John Limniatis would be coach of the Impact for a long, long time.
Normally, I’d be thrilled with three out of four. But in this case, losing number four – Limniatis has been axed – is a real shock.
What more, exactly, did owner Joey Saputo and crew expect this guy to do?
When Limniatis stepped in a year ago, the Impact were off to a dreadful start. Even as late as late July, there were still mired in ninth place out of eleven in USL-1.
- But then they won the Voyageurs Cup, as Canadian professional soccer champions.
- Then they started rising in the standings.
- Then they ousted Real Esteli of Nicaragua to qualify for group play in the CONCACAF Champions League.
- Then they kept rising in the standings.
- Then they advanced to the CONCACAF quarterfinals, got as far as the USL-1 semifinals, trained through the off-season, toured Italy to stay sharp, played Santos Laguna of Mexico in front of 55,000 fans (!!) at Olympic Stadium, then ran out of gas and blew a 4-1 aggregate lead in the dying moments in Mexico to finally get ousted and sent home – utterly exhausted – just a few short weeks before the new season got under way.
Pretty much all of that looks glowingly gorgeous on John Limniatis’s resume.
Sure, L’Impact are struggling now, and in a deep six-point hole in the Voyageurs Cup. But they get four shots at the Vancouver Whitecaps (league and V-Cup) in the next couple of weeks. Roughing up those guys will cure everything.
They got off to a far worse start a year ago – and lost their first V-Cup game to Toronto FC by an identical 1-0 score.
Something must be going on behind the scenes. Maybe this team has been through so much more intensity – and mileage – than it was ever built for, which utterly fried the coach-roster relationship? Does someone higher up in the organization believe this team is pole-screwed if it doesn’t get back to CONCACAF? Or do they figure changing coaches worked last year, so qu’elle-the-hell, let’s do it again?
The true story will filter out over time.
We’re left with a heavily fatigued pack of Impact, facing a brutal month of games, with everything on the line.
… Exactly the kind of situation they thrived in – under John Limniatis.
Anything you can tell us, Montreal fans?
Onward!