Titles and bragging rights on the line as Impact, America battle for CCL title

Photo: Club America twitter

More often than not, a match is more than just a match. While it would be easy to say that a title is just a giant trophy and a fat bonus, there are broader implications to a team being crowned champion.

On Wednesday night, the Montreal Impact and Club America will play the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions League final. With both teams looking to win their first CCL title and with the Impact looking to give MLS their first title as a league, the stakes will be very high at Olympic Stadium in Montreal.*

If last Wednesday night’s 1-1 draw between the two is any indication, this match will be very physical and intense. Both sides employ a very physically grinding style on defense which can take a toll on their opponents attack. Obviously the lack of decisions by the referee was infuriating for both sides of supporters, don’t expect either team to take it easy on the other in this match.

For Club America the question will be if head coach Mario Matosas chooses to play his first team. In last week’s match, notable players like center-back Ventura Alvarado and midfielder Moises Velasco were rested while star forward Oribe Peralta came on as a late substitute.

Matosas had to grapple with playing the CCL on Wednesday and then playing Chivas, their top rival in Liga MX, on Sunday. America should be fully rested and ready, which is very bad news for the Impact.

Although Impact supporters should be very afraid of the combination of Peralta and Dario Bennedetto up front, the biggest concern will be who will be stopping their shots. Starting goalkeeper Evan Bush is suspended after accumulating two yellow cards in successive matches and without their back-up Eric Kronberg (cup-tied to Sporting Kansas City,) the Impact had to go on a quixotic quest to find someone to play.

The Impact were able to pick up Indy Eleven goalkeeper Kristian Nicht yesterday to pair up with loanee John Smit. Both have spent some time on loan with the Impact this season but Smit is the more recent signing and will likely be more comfortable in working with center-backs Laurent Ciman and Bakary Soumare. It would be easy to say that the Impact are safe with their road-goal advantage, but that would be a discredit to America. If Nicht or Smit cannot get in sync early, Montreal may join Real Salt Lake of 2010-2011 as MLS teams who could not win the CCL title in the second leg.

The key for the Impact in this match will be patience and trying to dictate the tempo of the match. In the first leg the club were at their best when Ciman and defensive-midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker would work with one another on simple one-two passing combinations designed to make America be more aggressive. It will be very difficult for the Impact to match that same level of patience in this match, given their new goalkeeper. But even giving 70-80 percent of the same effort might produce a positive result.

Those simple passing plays freed up center-midfielder Ignacio Piatti to take it to America. His work with Andres Romero in stretching the America back four gave Montreal their best chances in the match. These were not quick plays, but rather slow building drives aimed at making America play on their terms.

While Montreal will certainly have their opportunities, do not expect this team to break any scoring records in this match. Much of their work will be in limiting Peralta and Benedetto’s shots inside the penalty area. If Montreal can build a sustained possession look for forward Dominic Oduro to try and spring a counter-attack.

What will also be interesting to see is how the officials call this match. To say that the previous match had some bad calls for both sides would be an understatement. CONCACAF referees generally tend to be a bit more strict when playing in the United States and Canada than they do in Mexico or Central America. Expect set pieces and cards to play a significant role in this match.

This is obviously a very important match for both America and the Impact. While there are forces outside of Olympic Stadium that will have vested interests in this match, what matters most are the players on the field. The team that can deal with these distractions the best will have the best chance of pulling through and achieving glory.

*=This does not include the CONCACAF Champions Cup, which preceded the CONCACAF Champions. In the Champions Cup history there were two MLS sides to win the title (D.C. United in 1998 and Los Angeles Galaxy in 2000). Club America also won that title five times. Since it was a very different tournament from the one currently being played, it was not mentioned.