Bakary Soumaré 5 and Calum Mallace celebrate the Impact’s late comeback against Pachuca A first-leg draw on the road was a promising result for the Impact However in Montreal for the rematch Pachuca’s Germán Cano converted a penalty kick in the 80th minute That lead stood as the game entered stoppage time The 38,104 fans in Montreal’s Olympic Stadium were desperate for a goal At any moment the referee might blow his whistle to end the game But then Montreal midfielder Calum Mallace took possession in his team’s defensive end 6
He saw 21-year-old Cameron Porter streaking down the left side of the field Mallace lobbed a long ball over the defense Porter managed to stay onside and settled the ball off his chest at a full sprint just outside the penalty area He brushed off a defender and shot the ball between the legs of the Pachuca goalkeeper Olympic Stadium erupted Porter was buried under his ecstatic teammates The Impact had tied the score When the referee ended the game moments later the crowd set off smoke bombs Blue and white flags waved The noise inside the stadium was deafening It was only a 1 1 draw But that was good enough for Montreal to advance The teams had tied 3 3 on aggregate or total goals in their two games However the tiebreaker fell in Montreal’s favor The Impact had scored twice in their game in Mexico and Pachuca had only scored once in Canada Montreal was the winner on away goals ON TO THE FINAL FOUR The victory sent the Impact to the semifinals of the tournament which featured the top clubs in North America Central America and the Caribbean Montreal was only the 7
Impact goalkeeper Evan Bush makes a diving save in the first match against Alajuelense fifth MLS team to get that far Not bad for a club with the worst record in MLS a year earlier In 2014 the Impact won only six of 34 games They were outscored 58 38 So Montreal was certainly not considered one of the top MLS teams Yet here it was in 2015 two steps from going to the Club World Cup 8
Two weeks later the Impact hosted Alajuelense of Costa Rica in the first leg of the semifinals Once again the game was at Olympic Stadium which held more fans than the Impact’s usual home field nearby The crowd of 33,675 was in for a treat Ignacio Piatti and Victor Cabrera scored first-half goals and Montreal won comfortably 2 0 9
