Welcome to another edition of "Discuss,"in which MLSsoccer.com editors debate the topics of the moment in MLS. Today, we turn our eye to Wednesday's Audi 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs Eastern Conference Championship second leg between Toronto FC and the Montreal Impact (7 pm ET; FS1 | TSN, RDS in Canada).
One team is already in MLS Cup, and another will join them on Wednesday night. Logic dictates that one of the star playmakers on either side – Sebastian Giovinco or Ignacio Piatti – will have something to say about the result, but soccer is a team game and the playoffs are a time for new heroes to emerge. So we wanted to know, which player besides Piatti or Giovinco will have the biggest say in the outcome of Wednesday's game?
We polled Senior Editor Matt Doyle, New Media Editor Nicholas Rosano, Senior Editor Ben Couch and Contributing Editor Alicia Rodriguez for their thoughts. Be sure to leave yours in the comments below, too!
DOYLE: Tosaint Ricketts (TOR)
Montreal's whole defensive scheme is based upon keeping the game tight and compact, and defending zones. Ricketts has the physicality to just burst right through that and either get a goal himself, or open up space for the other TFC attackers.
ROSANO: Dominic Oduro (MTL)
Matteo Mancosu has been the Impact's go-to goal man throughout the postseason, but Oduro's raw speed could be the turning point in this one. Toronto are behind on aggregate and will surely have to push forward at some point – we've seen Oduro punish that kind of gamble many times before, and the series could well turn on whether he's able to do so on Wednesday evening.
COUCH: Jozy Altidore (TOR)
Well, just by talent (prodigious) and opportunity (ample), gotta tab Jozy Altidore, who’s spent the second half of the season and now the playoffs in hold-up beast mode. Montreal knows. Especially Victor Cabrera.
RODRIGUEZ: Tosaint Ricketts (TOR)
Tosaint Ricketts has been a timely signing for TFC this year and seems to be the man in place who can come off the bench and link up immediately with his teammates when a goal is needed. And if he came up with the goal to clinch an MLS Cup berth ... it would be a pretty sweet ending to a year where finally coming home to Canada paid off in a big way for Ricketts.
