Pachuca vs. Montreal Impact
Estadio Hidalgo, Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico
CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals, first leg
Feb. 24, 10 pm ET (Fox Sports 2-US; Sportsnet One-CAN)
An evolving Montreal Impact – one of only two MLS clubs to advance to the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals despite finishing with the league’s worst record last year – will kick off their competitive schedule looking to become the first Canadian team to win on Mexican soil when they take on Pachuca. The first leg of the tie will allow the Impact to get a first look at some of their new pieces brought in by head coach Frank Klopas for his second year at the helm.
Belgian international center back Laurent Ciman and Italian midfielder Marco Donadel were probably the prize signings of the offseason for Montreal. The speedy Dominic Oduro and Bakary Soumare, who both played under Klopas with the Chicago Fire, were also brought on board this offseason. And those are just four of the 12 new faces who joined Montreal this preseason.
Montreal are also back in the knockout stages of the tournament since their memorable run as a second division team in the 2008-09 tournament. Back then, when the top two teams in a group advanced, they finished second in their group to Mexico's Atlante only on a tiebreaker and made an even bigger splash when they beat Santos Laguna 2-0 in the opening leg of their quarterfinal. But they would fall in heartbreaking fashion in the second leg in Mexico, conceding two stoppage-time goals to fall 5-2 on the night and 5-4 on aggregate.
Back to the present, Pachuca are coming into the match on a bit of a hot streak. After losing three of four matches to open the 2015 Liga MX Clausura, the Tuzos defeated Atlas 3-1 on Feb. 14 and Leon 2-1 on Sunday to make it two wins in their last three and unbeaten in four of their last five.
Like any MLS team facing a Liga MX side in the CCL quarters, the Impact face an uphill battle. They did set up shop for the past two weeks in Mexico, which included a friendly against Cruz Azul, so that will certainly help. And the changes under new head coach Frank Klopas finally started taking root toward the end of the season, and they finished the season unbeaten in six of their final seven league matches.
How they qualified:
- Montreal: Group 3 winner, seed No. 4 (3-0-1; 10 pts, 6 GF/3 GA)
- Pachuca: Group 1 winner, seed No. 5 (3-1-0); 9 pts, 17 GF/8 GA)
The Opponent – What you need to know about Pachuca
Coach: Enrique Meza (Mexico)
Position: 10th in Liga MX (3-3-1; 7 pts, 8 GF/7 GA; Last five games: W-W-D-L-W)
Best CCL/Champions' Cup finish: Winners (2002, 2007, 2008, 2009-10)
Star Player: Jurgen Damm Rascon
The 22-year-old lightening fast winger is an up and comer in Mexico. He’s expected to get his first call-up to the Mexican national team for their upcoming friendlies against Ecuador and Paraguay and has also been rumoered to be the subject of transfer interest from the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United.
He scored in Pachuca’s 3-1 win over Atlas, while proving to be quite the handful getting up and down the wings.
You may recognize: Oscar “Conejo” Perez
The longtime Cruz Azul No. 1, who made 416 appearances there from 1993 to 2008, has been around for a long, long time. The 42-year-old, nicknamed “The Rabbit,” also was the Mexican national team starter throughout the 2002 and 2010 World Cups and has been capped 56 times with El Tri. He’s been on El Tri’s 1999 Confederations Cup championship and three Gold Cup title teams.
And he doesn’t appear to be slowing down, either. He’s started all seven games of the current Clausura and has made 22 saves while allowing just seven goals. At just 5-foot-7, there’s nothing intimidating about Perez’s size, but you can instead call him the Nick Rimando of Liga MX.
- Get the latest Montreal news at ImpactMontreal.com
Possible XIs:
- Montreal (4-2-3-1): Bush; Camara, Ciman, Soumare, Toia; Donadel, Reo-Coker; Romero, Piatti, Mapp; McInerney
- Pachuca (4-2-3-1): Perez; Pizarro, Mosquera, Herrera, Ayovi; Hernandez, Gutierrez; Damm, Sornoza, Lozano; Cano
Why Montreal will win: The Impact finished the 2014 season strong, with the freshly-signed Piatti leading the way. Piatti, meanwhile, has plenty of experience in these type of competitions, having just led San Lorenzo to the semifinals of the Copa Libertadores for the first time in 26 years, leaving for Montreal before they won it all. And after finishing dead last in MLS last year, becoming just the third team to win in Mexico in the tournament’s current format would make perfect sense. In terms of the overall series, hosting the second leg at home will give Montreal plenty of reason to be hopeful so long as they can keep it close in down south.
Why Pachuca will win: Their pedigree, for one. There are a couple holdovers from the last time the Tuzos won the CCL, and a few more players who witnessed it while toiling in Pachuca's youth ranks. Add in Walter Ayovi - a key part of Monterrey's three-peat from 2011-13 and a veteran 'keeper like Perez and you have a team that knows how to win these types of games. Throw a home field advantage that includes altitude (Pachuca sits just shy of 8,000 feet in elevation) and you have a formula Pachuca will hope they can ride to a big first-leg win so as to render the second leg in Montreal irrelevant.
