58,912 fans filled Olympic Stadium in Montreal to see the Impact draw 1-1 with the Chicago Fire Saturday night in the Impact’s inaugural home match. The crowd was the largest ever to see a soccer match in Canada as captain Davy Arnaud scored the lone tally for the Impact.
“Overall, I thought that there were many strong individual performances tonight,” Impact head coach Jesse Marsch said about his club.
With fanfare that Olympic Stadium has not been heard in years, the Impact picked up their first point in the MLS (0-1-1) and the Fire got their first point of the year (0-0-1).
The star of the first half was forward Justin Braun, who came motivated creating chances left and right, including a shot that seemed to be headed to the back of the net, if not for a spectacular save from Paolo Tornaghi in the 18th minute. Braun was fed the ball in the middle of the box, put a shot on net but Tornaghi had to push the ball over the net and kept it a scoreless match. Braun continued to be a menace in the half and would have knocked home the first goal, if not for a correctly called offsides.
Montreal controlled most of the park throughout the match, and in the 56th minute the Impact captain scored his first of the year. Sanna Nyassi floated the ball into the box and Arnaud, uncovered, finessed a header into the corner of the net past a diving Tornaghi. The record crowd erupted and, more importantly, gave the Impact their first lead.
“It was a special feeling and a special moment,” Arnaud said. “It was a special moment for the guys, for the fans and the club.”
Chicago quickly rebounded and found the equalizer in the 71st minute. Dominic Oduro made a run behind the Impact defense and deflected a centered ball from Sebastian Grazzini past a charging Donovan Ricketts for the equalizer.
For the final 15 minutes the Impact, with the help of the crowd, pushed for the late goal and nearly got it from a rocket off the foot of Josh Gardner, who clanked the long range shot off the corner of the post from distance, as the Impact head on the road for three straight, starting in Columbus on Saturday.
What is more important, is that the MLS has successfully launched team number 19 and even Commissioner Don Garber was impressed with the Canadian crowd.
“When we started this league, we never thought that we’d have north of 50,000 fans at an opening game, and now people are beginning to expect it,” Garber concluded. “We knew the residents of this country love the game, but we were hoping that they would embrace our league, and it appears that they are.”
