Vancouver Whitecaps vs. Montreal Impact | Canadian Championship Preview

Vancouver Whitecaps FC vs. Montreal Impact
Canadian Championship Semifinal - Second Leg
BC Place — Vancouver
July 25 - 10 pm ET
WATCH: CanadaSoccer.com, Yahoo Sports Canada

The Montreal Impact take the slimmest of leads to BC Place for the second leg of the Canadian Championship semifinals, after beating Vancouver Whitecaps FC, 1-0, in the opening leg at Stade Saputo last Wednesday.

Alejandro Silva scored the game’s lone goal in the 58th minute to lift the Impact, who also saw Anthony Jackson-Hamel hit the crossbar, put a glancing header off the post and had a goal called back for offside.

• Montreal set to welcome veteran French striker?
• Robbo mum on Davies saga, expects more news soon
• Robinson: 'I'm not sure how it's going to play out'

Vancouver Whitecaps FC      

Back in league play Saturday, the Whitecaps (7-9-5) dropped their second straight MLS contest, and fourth in their last five league games, losing 2-0 at Cascadia rival Seattle Sounders at CenturyLink Field.

The Caps, who were reduced to 10 men when Efrain Juarez was sent off for bumping referee Chris Penso when arguing a call, have scored just once in their last three games and didn’t have Alphonso Davies in the 18-man roster amidst rumors of a transfer to Bayern Munich.

“Vancouver, since I’ve been here have been a team that’s hard working, hard to play against, not nice to play against, hard to play against, difficult to score on and then obviously trying to score goals on the other end,” Carl Robinson said. “Yes, we’ve had problems scoring goals on one end, we know that, but we’ve gone away from being hard to play against…We need to sort that out and go just back to basics.”

• Suspended: None
• Suspended after next caution: None
• International duty: None
• Injury Report: None

Projected Starting XI
(4-4-2, right to left)
GK: Stefan Marinovic — Jake Nerwinski, Aly Ghazal, Aaron Maund, Brett Levis — Cristian Techera, Russell Teibert, David Norman, Brek Shea — Anthony Blondell, Nicolas Mezquida

Montreal Impact

It took 22 games, but the Montreal Impact (9-12-1) finally drew for the first time this season, tying the Portland Timbers, 2-2 at Providence Park Saturday night.

The Impact, who have now taken 16 points from their last seven games, took the lead in the 23rd minute on Saphir Taider’s fifth goal of the season — four coming in the last four games. Two minutes after Samuel Armenteros leveled for the Timbers, Matteo Mancosu gave the visitors the lead in the 41st minute.

Diego Valeri scored the lone goal of the second half to extend the Timbers' unbeaten streak to 13 games in league play and was only the seventh point earned away from Stade Saputo for the Impact.

“It was a crazy game, but a very good game, where two teams wanted to play," said Remi Garde, who was ejected after Valeri’s equalizer. “It was perhaps our best away game this season against an undefeated team in the last [13] games. The task was difficult, but the game plan was respected with discipline. There was tremendous solidarity on the pitch and there was no chance in our game tonight.”

• Suspended: None
• Suspended after next caution: None
• International duty: None
• Injury Report: OUT: D - Zakaria Diallo (ruptured Achilles tendon), D - Kyle Fisher (tibia injury), M - David Choiniere (ankle surgery), M - Louis Beland-Goyette (foot injury)

Projected Starting XI
(4-3-3 right to left)
GK: Clement Diop — Michael Petrasso, Victor Cabrera, Rudy Camacho, Daniel Lovitz — Ken Krolicki, Samuel Piette, Saphir Taider — Alejandro Silva, Anthony Jackson-Hamel, Jeisson Vargas

All-Time in Canadian Championship

• Overall: Montreal Impact 9 wins, 39 goals … Vancouver Whitecaps FC 14 wins, 44 goals
• This is the fifth time in the last eight years the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps FC meet in either the Canadian Championship final or semifinals. A year ago, the Whitecaps won the opening leg, 2-1, at BC Place on May 23, 2017 before the Impact took the second leg, 4-2, at Stade Saputo on May 30, 2017 to advance to the final 5-4 on aggregate.