Saturday, August 29th, BMO Field, Toronto, 4:00 p.m. ET
In this Canadian Darby, Toronto FC is hosting for the second time this MLS season rivals Montreal Impact. This is the second meeting of this MLS season for the two Canadian sides. In their last meeting in June, Toronto won at BMO Field 3-1.
Host Toronto is fourth in Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference (10-10-4), tied at 34 points with fifth place New England Revolution. Toronto had lost 3-0 at New York Red Bulls in August 15th, but a week later recovered and marked a 5-0 victory at home against Orlando City SC. The club celebrated the first time in its history to score five goals in an MLS league game.
Visitor Montreal Impact had lost 0-1 to Philadelphia Union at home last Saturday, and continued to lose to 2-0 away to fellow-Canadian team Vancouver Whitecaps this past Wednesday. Montreal Impact is ranked sixth in Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference (8-10-4) and is tied with seventh place NYCFC at 28 points. This puts Montreal dangerously close to the red line, and means it needs to fight hard for a playoff position.
Since Joining the MLS, Montreal Impact had never won Toronto at BMO Field. With nine games across all competitions, with five losses and four draws in a total of nine matches.
Although the Impact now boast ex English Premier League Chelsea’s legend striker Didier Drogba, he will not be playing due to a toe injury. Montreal will also miss influential playmaker Ignacio Piatti due to calf injury.
So it will be a tough matchup against Toronto’s lethal trinity: Atomic Ant Sebastian Giovinco (who is the second goal-scorer of the MLS this season with 17 goals), magician playmaker Michael Bradley and powerful forward Jozy Altidore.
