NBA sold out crowd in Montreal

What an evening! I enjoyed it more than expected I must say. It was more that a 108-103 Raptors win.

The first impression, the crowd. Thousands of NBA fans all over the Bell Centre with all kinds of NBA apparel shirts and hats, not only Raptors fans but from all around the league. It was impressive how the Stoudemire shirt #1 was already popular when the star has been in Knicks a few months.

Once you are inside the arena the feeling is even better, more than 22.000 fans sheering at every play, every point. The first idea that comes to your mind is why Montreal does not have a NBA team? With a crowd that support with that energy two teams which most probably will not make it to the playoffs is certainly a good sign. But is very different support a team all season long, specially at the same time you support the Canadiens, than go and enjoy an exhibition game. We can see the same effect with soccer and the Montreal Impact which can't take more than 9,000 fans in a semifinals game (we hope that change when in MLS though).

The game was a fun one, even when Raptors seamed to win easily on the 3rd quarter the Knicks recovered the distance and put the game by 4 points with 2 min left. Being able to see an all star like Stoudemire score 24 points in 26 min was just amazing. Also the 11 (8 offensive) rebounds by Evans from the Raptors give a difference in Toronto attack. A 3 pointer with 0,1 sec left from Calderon in the 3rd quarter was also one of the highlights of the night.

At the end we hope that next year we can have more preseason games to continue enjoying the show that the NBA is.

The season is over for the Impact of Montreal. Thanks to the referee?

It's been a wild disappointing Sunday night in the NASL with 2 dramatic finishes in the 2nd leg of the semifinals.

The good news is that Vancouver lost! Come on!, don't say you are not a bit happy because our only Canada rival in NASL just did not make it either. Also, I think they hate us more than we do, specially for the Nutrilite cup 1-6 against Toronto.

The bad news, we lost the chance to go to the finals for a 2nd year in a row. I must say we only play good football the first half in Montreal. Since then, 2nd Half in Montreal Carolina could have won and they even score a legitimate goal that referee called back because it was offside (yes, we have to remember that), and the entire 90min in Cary, NC were mostly dominated by the Railhawks, at least the the ball movement towards the attack. Carolina played good football and never gave up, that is true.

Even though we know we were not deserving qualify to the finals, being eliminated in the 89min by an offside goal hurts deep in the heart. But it can kill you the fact that Montreal scored an "on side" goal in the 92min to pass to the finals and it was called back. Certainly this is like a horror movie, the same movie we saw in the 2nd leg of the Concacaf Champions League Quarterfinals against Santos Laguna, where we were up by 2 goals with 5min left and the Mexican team scored 2 goals to eliminate us.

We can judge ourselves the plays in the following link:

http://le12ejoueur.ca/2010/10/video-limpact-elimine-decisions-douteuses-de-larbitre/

The season is over and we still have one more year in the NASL before take the expected journey to the MLS. I hope we can have some work to expand the number of seats in Saputo stadium and start testing our attendance to the stadium before jumping to the big league. I recall several sold-out games this season, meaning we might be able to seat more than 13,200 fans if we complete the new terraces.

The Impact on semis

One thing that really annoys me of the NASL is the TV coverage. You have to struggle to see a low definition video through the internet in order to watch the match live. I'm really looking forward MLS era to arrive in Montreal, from their webpage you have the support of a wealthy and very well organized league that allows you to go mlssoccer.com/videos and watch the highlights in HD and really enjoy the competition. For personal reasons I could not see the Impact game saturday night and I have no comments on the away match.

There is a big difference in the current Montreal Impact vs the one saw on May 2010 and there you realize that players can change the team's attitude, we should not put all that weight only on Dos Santos. I know President Saputo is also taking credit in this change since he addressed to all team personally asking for changes. In my opinion, the faces that gave all the change needed are Ribeiro and Gerba. Of course, there are players that were doing it all right since the beginning like Billy (don't count his first 3 games), Donatelli, Pizzolitto and Jordan but a team should be inspired as a team all that was achieved since then. It is amazing how easy can Gerba score in small spaces and the energy Ribeiro put in every play.

In first quarterfinals game played in Montreal we saw a team that can create spaces with 2 or 3 touches, it was a well packed midfield but I should say Di Lorenzo has lost his capacity of outplay the opponents, we haven't seen that this season. He's been so passive that I don't even think he is one of the key players in the Impact. He was only trying to make crosses, but could not get one done right. We hope see something more promising in the semifinals.

If want to take advantage of Phillie Billy's talent, we need to use him on the right flank. He plays well the left, but we get way much better results when he plays on the right, I suggest switch him with Braz.

I must say, even when David Testo is playing at 70%, he always make a difference in the defensive midfield and I must admit we are fragile if there is not a similar player on the field, for example Simon Gatti. I just hope Donatelli and Ribeiro can offer the solid game supporting defensemen like Testo does.

Eduardo Sebrango had an outstanding performance in Montreal that night. I'm still thrilled how a 37 year old can perform like he did, too bad he could not get his goal.

To finish, Le Gall. What a skilled player, he plays with a lot of confidence. I hope he just feel he can be one of the stars of Montreal Impact like Billy did, that day he will delight the entire Saputo Stadium.

The Montreal Impact plays tonight NASL semifinals against the Carolina Railhawks and we all hope we stay focused on defense, specially on the midfield in order to protect our own net the way we did versus the Aztec.