MONTREAL—It’s a class tale of one team wanting what another team has and doesn’t want to give up without a fight.
The Montreal Impact are attempting to win their third consecutive Amway Canadian Championship. Standing in its way are the Vancouver Whitecaps, who have yet to lift the Voyageurs Cup.
These long-time Canadian rivals will meet Wednesday in the first leg of the Canadian Championship final at Stade Saputo.
Here’s what you need to know about the game…
Wednesday programming alert: Watch Montreal Impact vs. Vancouver Whitecaps on Sportsnet World at 7:30 pm ET. You can also watch on live web stream at sportsnet.ca || Broadcast schedule
HOW IT WORKS
This is a two-game, home-and-home final, with the winner based on aggregate score being crowned Canadian champions.
Vancouver hosts the second leg of the final on Aug. 26.
WHITECAPS VYING FOR FIRST TITLE
While both the Montreal Impact and Toronto FC have been crowned Canadian champions, the Vancouver Whitecaps have yet to win it. What’s worse, they watched the Impact hoist the Voyageurs Cup at their home stadium in the 2013 final.
As far as Vancouver is concerned, enough is enough.
“Toronto and Montreal have been winning, so for us this is the first stop in making history—and we want it a lot,” defender Pa-Modou Kah told the Whitecaps website.
Forward Kekuta Manneh added: “Since the beginning of the season, we’ve talked about how we have something special here. But we want to win something with the group we have. So we’re going to put everything in it to try and win this championship.”
MAPP BACK IN ACTION
Montreal midfielder Justin Mapp is available for selection after a lengthy injury layoff.
Mapp has been out since suffering a dislocated and fractured shoulder in Montreal’s first game of the MLS season on March 7. He’s been training with the team since June and was finally cleared by doctors to play again.
Will he see action on Wednesday?
“Maybe,” Montreal coach Frank Klopas said with a coy smile and a shrug of his shoulders, not wanting to tip his hand.
Klopas called Mapp “a real difference-maker,” and not without justification—the Mississippi native has been named MVP of the Amway Canadian Championship in each of the past two years, helping the Impact win back-to-back titles.
“He’s been training for a long time and he’s looked sharp. I think it was just a matter of his arm strengthen getting there. He’ll be available (on Wednesday) so that’s great news for Justin and for our club to have an important piece like this, a real difference-maker, for our team for the second half of the season,” Klopas said.
NO DROGBA, NO BERNIER
Montreal will have to make do without captain Patrice Bernier who is suspended due to yellow card accumulation
Also, it looks as though new Designated Player Didier Drogba will have to wait until Aug. 22 to make his debut, although Klopas didn’t explicitly rule the Ivorian striker out for this game when speaking to the media on Tuesday morning.
WHAT’S AT STAKE
The winner of this tournament will receive the Voyageurs Cup, which was originally funded and awarded by the Voyageurs, a Canadian soccer supporters group founded in 1996.
Since 2008, the Canadian Soccer Association has presented the Voyageurs Cup to the tournament champion.
The tournament winner will also qualify for the group stage of the 2016-17 CONCACAF Champions League.
“We want to win a third championship in a row and get back to the Champions League,” Montreal midfielder Maxim Tissot said.
“The first one we won on their field in dramatic fashion, so we’ve done it before. They have a great squad and are first in the Western Conference. They are a young and fast team, but if we can hold off their midfield, we can be successful.”
HISTORY OF THE VOYAGEURS CUP
The Montreal Impact won every Voyageurs Cup from 2002-2007 when it was awarded to the best Canadian team in the old USL First Division.
A formal tournament was first held in 2008, a year after Toronto FC entered MLS. Montreal won the 2008 Cup to continue its dominance, but TFC won the next four tournaments in a row. The Impact are the reigning two-time champions.
Vancouver has never won the Voyageurs Cup.
WHAT’S NEXT
Vancouver resumes its MLS campaign on Saturday when it visits Sporting Kansas City.
Montreal has a bye this week, and returns to MLS action on Aug. 22 at home vs. Philadelphia.
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