Final thoughts:
Well that was closer than it needed to be in the end, and Montreal hearts must have been in mouths after that McDonald stoppage time goal, but perhaps its appropriate that they went through on away goals, as for all Alajuelense’s pressure, Montreal created two great chances and scored two crisp goals, which was great efficiency on the road.
The conditions were difficult, the crowd were hostile and the second half did see the Impact ship four goals, but the substitutions by Frank Klopas were, in the end, enough to get his men through and become the first Canadian team to reach the Champions League final, where they’ll face Herediano or Club America.
Thanks for joining me. See you at the final.
Full-time: Alajulense 4-2 Montreal (4-4 Montreal advance on away goals)
Montreal are through! Final thoughts in a moment...
GOAL! Alajuelense 4-2 Montreal (MCDONALD!)
A low shot into the corner from the edge of the box and the ghosts of Champions League matches past haunts Montreal...
Updated
90 mins +3: ...Venegas drives it into the box and it’s kicked clear. That should be that, surely....but...
90 mins +2: Tissot fouls on the left corner of the box and it’s another dangerous free kick...
90 mins +1: Montreal have been here before of course, but they see out the first minute in scrappy possession.
90 mins: Toia is caught in possession and as he scrambles to recover, Alajuelense burst forward in numbers, forcing Bush to make a save low at his near post.
Another half chance for an offside McDonald, just as the board goes up to say there’ll be four added minutes.
88 mins: Another Alajuelense free kick wide left, but it does;t clear the first man and Montreal come forward through Piatti. They can;t retain possession though and are defending again — looking desperately tired in the heat and humidity.
Still, they’re running down the clock now and a Gabas shot flies well over for a few more seconds, and now they’re even happier to get the benefit of an offside decision to slow things further.
86 mins: Alajulense camping in the Montreal half and a dangerous Matarrita inswinger goes just past the far post with Ortiz hovering. And now another one, as Matarrita cuts in again. Again Bush lets it float past him and out of play.
84 mins: Piatti busts a gut trying to race clear at the Alajuelense defense and earns a throw deep in opposition territory. Alajuelense force the ball clear at the expense of some seconds being eaten up but their attempt at a counter ends with a clearance by Cabrera.
82 mins: Oduro, who’s been lively, tries to force a reply but Matarrita does well to block.
At the other end McDonald tries to flick a ball goalward, only to see it sail well past the far post. Tissot is coming on for Oduro for the final Montreal substitution.
GOAL! Alajulense 3-2 Montreal (GUEVARA!)
Alajuelense still pushing and now the substitute Guevara greets a low cross along the edge of the six yard box with the simplest of tap-ins to keep the game alive!
78 mins: Alonso turns in space on the edge of the box and drives a shot over the bar. More objects clearly being thrown from the sidelines now...this is getting ugly.
76 mins: There’s a pause in play as an object is thrown from the stands that replays clearly show has hit Bush in the back of the head. The referee runs to the sidelines to hand the missile to the assistant referee. The atmosphere has curdled in the wake of that Montreal goal.
GOAL! Alajuelense 2-2 Montreal (ROMERO!)
Killer goal? Montreal hold possession and Oduro, Piatti and Bernier combine to find Romero wide open on the left of the box. He coolly steps inside Lewis and with the keeper sprawling hammers home a second for Montreal!
Updated
72 mins: McDonald rips a shot from a narrow angle that’s parried by Bush and hoofed clear by Soumare...
70 mins: Bernier’s in for McInerney, who picks up a yellow as he leaves the field, along with Gabas, who shows his displeasure at being booked by immediately smacking a fierce shot just over the bar from distance.
68 mins: McDonald goes close again as another low cross from Venegas is steered just past the near post by the danger man.
Reo-Coker races towards the corner with the ball, and seems to have done wall to evade a handful of challenges only to be penalized as he seems to be the injured party in a clash outside the Alajuelense box. Montreal need more of that sort of self-belief though and it’s no surprise to see the veteran Patrice Bernier warming up.
66 mins: Piatti goes for the Hollywood pass for McInerney when Reo-Coker was better placed.
Alajuelense have another free kick wide right now. Montreal clear it, but only to the edge of the box and as the ball is chipped over the top McDonald charges Bush as he jumps to claim the ball. The Montreal keeper falls to the ground wincing as the referee blows the whistle to offer a little relief for Montreal.
64 mins: Andres Romero comes on for Duka to try and relieve some of the pressure. Right now McInerney’s goal is looking particularly vital as Montreal look shaky.
They have a free kick in the Alajuelense half now, but Ciman elects to hit it from distance rather than hold possession and it flies well wide.
Now it’s Alajuelense’s turn from similar distance, but for once Bush claims without undue drama. But the final whistle must look a long way away for Montreal right now.
GOAL! Alajuelense 2-1 Montreal (GABAS!)
Gabas greets the cross with a tap in off the underside of the bar! Well then...
Updated
60 mins: So an hour gone and Alajulense need three goals to advance. Jose Ortiz (who scored twice against D.C.) comes on for Calvo to try and find some of them.
Montreal have a corner to face now as Toia races across to head a cross free...
58 mins: Montreal looking more nervous now with each Alajuelense attack, and they’re relieved to see another Venegas cross go past the far post. At the other end, at the moment Duka looks like the coolest outlet for the Impact — making smart plays to keep possession when he gets a chance.
56 mins: Mallace does well to keep long corner in play and feed Piatti, who cuts inside and drives a low shot to force Lewis into a save.
At the other end McDonald is briefly at the byline looking for the killer ball, but there’s nothing there for him.
54 mins: McDonald tries to flick the ball goal wards from a driven cross, but his shot’s well off target. Alajuelense stretching Montreal now though and Venegas drives another wonderful cross over the six yard box, but there’s no red and black shirt there to finish it.
Duke makes a smart move now as he sees that there’s nothing on from his run down the left and elects to kick the ball off his marker to earn a corner and kill some seconds.
52 mins: Acosta gets a little receipt for his first half tangle with Piatti as the same player gives him a little kick as they chase a long ball over the top.
Another long ball to the other hand has Soumare stretching to poke out for a corner. Montreal get it clear eventually but they’re very deep at the moment and there’s no outlet — not the pattern they want to set for the second half.
50 mins: Long ball forward for McInerney to chase and he looks to be pushed over in the box, but the flag was already up for offside to save the referee a decision.
Dour does well to hold up the ball for a throw down the right, and the Impact work the ball left for Duka to run goalwards and send a shot just past the upright. positive response to the goal so far.
48 mins: Alajuelense still need another three, but their fans sound a lot more chipper about that prospect, while Montreal fans will be trying not to think of Santos Laguna, after that terrible start to the half for them.
GOAL! Alajuelense 1-1 Montreal (GABAS!)
Gabas batters it into the top right corner!
Second half starts
Right. We’re off again. And straight away it’s yet another free kick for Alajuelense right on the edge of the D...
Hair
Soumare pulled some. McDonald’s pony tail to be precise. It was like he was auditioning for the finals of “Extreme gifs” or has a prior engagement that clashes with the next round. He got away with it for now...
Twitter stirs
I’m having a little trouble embedding twitter links right now. But rest assured that @wmckdc has been covering all the salient analytical points I’ve been missing:
“This “synthetic grass” sure is sparkly. It reminds me of the disco shirts I wore back in the 70’s.”
It possibly has the same potential for horrible chafing.
Half time thoughts:
That’s a perfect outcome for the first 45 minutes for Montreal as they absorbed the Alajuelense pressure and then made the most of their limited chances on the counter. Jack McInerney wasn’t necessarily the most effective of hold up players to relieve pressure in the first half, but as a poacher he always has something to offer and frankly, if all he did was score that goal just before half time, Frank Klopas will be very happy with him.
The opening moments of the second half are huge now. Montreal committed some careless fouls outside their own box as the first half went on and sooner or later, if they keep giving Alajuelense looks, you’d have to imagine they’ll make the most of one.
Of course Montreal’s own traumatic history in this tournament will stop them thinking the job is done until they’re on the plane, but this is a great platform for the Canadians to make history from. What can Aljuelense do?
Half time: Alajuelense 0-1 Montreal (0-3 on aggregate)
Half time thoughts in a moment...
45 mins +2: Montreal in possession in the Alajuelense half, and now a sharp ball forward looks to release McInerney in space. He’s mistakenly called offside when in fact he was being played on and should have been free on goal.
45 mins +1: Venegas beats Soumare on the outside but can’t find a red and black shirt with his low cross and Montreal briefly look like breaking again only for Matarrita to haul down Oduro. We’ll have two minutes of added time.
44 mins: Alajuelense have their first corner as they try to take something out of this half, but Venegas handles the cross. The ground is virtually silent right now.
Updated
GOAL! Aljuelense 0-1 Montreal (MCINERNEY!)
Montreal get forward for once and after a crisp give and go Oduro drives a low cross across the box and McInerney just redirects it perfectly into the near corner from near the spot to stun the hosts at the perfect moment!
40 mins: Reo-Coker is penalized at the end of a rather scrambled sequence on the edge of the Montreal box, with the Impact’s defense looking stretched. Another free kick outside the D and this time it’s Rodriguez to take it...but he blasts it wide.
38 mins: Some aggro in the corner flag as Acosta stamps on Piatti in the corner of the field as he tries to hold up play. Not even a card given by the referee though. Acosta can count himself very lucky, especially as the replays show him grabbing Piatti by the neck in the aftermath.
36 mins: ...great save from Bush as he dives to his right to parry away the driven free kick, before Oduro hoofs it out for a throw.
The next half-chance goes Montreal’s way as Piatti races behind the Alajuelense defense on a diagonal run that’s taking him away from goal. He tries an ambitious shot but it’s weak and hooked well wide.
34 mins: Well, that’s been coming. Bush gets a card for time-wasting. It;s hardly been egregious, but once the referee spoke to him about it, he was always on thin ice.
And now he has a very dangerous situation to deal with as Alajuelense pick up a free kick just on the edge of the D...
32 mins: That was dangerous for Aljuelense! A quick free kick and suddenly Alonso is racing through — his shot is charged down but then ricochets back off him goal wards and Bush is relieved to see Toia clear off the line. In the aftermath we see a replay of Soumare, who’s on a yellow, clearly pulling the hair of an opponent. He may hear about that if Montreal get through.
30 mins: Alajuelense fail to clear the ball properly and Montreal force it forward into the path of Reo-Coker, who’s briefly split the defenders in his surge into the box, only to get tangled up as he shapes to shoot. Half a chance there though. Speaking of halves, there’s half an hour gone now and it’s still 0-0on the night.
28 mins: Pressure beginning to build a little, but not many clear looks at goal for Alajuelense. McDonald gets down the left, but can’t keep the ball in play as he tries to drive the ball low across goal.
26 mins: Slight panic for Montreal as Matarrita floats a header to the back post over the head of Bush, but not quite on target. It goes out for a goal kick, and Bush immediately saunters over to the other side of his goal to take it, in the time-honored Concacaf time-wasting fashion.
24 mins: McInerney crowded out in his own half as Alajuelense pick up possession again. He’s had mixed results in holding the ball up so far.
22 mins: Nearly halfway through the first half and so far the visitors will be happy with their disciplined performance to frustrate Alajuelense, while the hosts, as per that last incident with McDonald are getting a little frustrated with how things are going so far.
20 mins: Ball flying around the artificial surface a little and now it’s slid into the Montreal box, to cause some brief chaos before Bush goes low to claim it, at the expense of a late tackle from McDonald, who picks up the game’s first yellow card.
18 mins: ...it is floated in, but doesn’t clear the first man and as a frustrated Alajuelense try to recover the ball Cabrera is sent sprawling for a soft Montreal free kick. Bush takes his time over taking it and earns a chat from the referee about time-wasting.
16 mins: So still 0-0 after quarter of an hour. Alajuelense trying to raise the tempo though and the crowd trying to raise the energy. A few crisp passes allow McDonald to draw the foul some 30 yards out and at an angle for the ball to be floated in...
14 mins: Cabrera sends a hopeful punt forward that has Oduro And Matarrita both jumping for the ball, and the latter goes down hard, looking for a foul. It was a fair challenge from both though and the referee doesn’t give anything.
Decent chance now for Montreal as Mallace floats a dangerous free kick onto an unmarked McInerney’s head, but he seems surprised to be in such space and gets underneath his header, which goes over the bar.
12 mins: So Montreal have come through the opening minutes unscathed and if anything have sent one or two reminders to Alajuelense of the dangers of over-committing.
Reo-Coker wins the ball and pushes it straight forward for McInerney, who wins a throw under pressure that Montreal are in no rush to take.
10 mins: Acosta has to step across sharply with McInereney looking to pounce on a ball forward. Montreal attack again, but Oduro’s cross is behind McInerney and rather wasted.
Another Montreal foul from Mallace and Alajuelense take the free kick quickly, but Mattarita’s shot from the edge of the box is charged down and Montreal break. Nothing comes of it though.
8 mins: Venegas lets fly from distance and his low shot skims just past the post with Bush at full stretch. Alajuelense just beginning to get glimpses of the Montreal goal, but this is by no means a siege yet. Montreal doing well so far.
6 mins: Duka and Oduro combine at speed to set up Reo-Coker for a low shot that forces a save. Montreal not wasting any time looking for shots on goal when they get a chance.
They have a free kick to defend now though as Reo-Coker tackles clumsily in his own half. It’s a poor delivery from Rodriguez though.
4 mins: Oduro earns Montreal an early corner, but Alajuelense clear their lines and McDonald is fouled to relieve the pressure via a free kick for the hosts.
Montreal play a high press early and seem to be doing well enough at keeping Aljuelense well away from goal early on, but that’s a sloppy pass from Piatti to gift back possession.
2 mins: Early wildly optimistic shot from Aguilar attempts to silence crowd by novel strategy of attempting to directly hit one of them high in the stands. Rather wild that.
Kick off
Peep and we’re off!
Getting close to kick off
Alajuelense going through a very lively warm up in a circle right now. And the energy is reflected in the stands — where there’s a large red and black tifo display honoring the hosts. Quite the atmosphere.
We’ve also just been reminded that tonight will make history — no Costa Rican or Canadian team has ever made a Champions League final.
Team news
Alajuelense: Lewis; Gutierrez, Lopez, Acosta; Matarrita, Venegas, Rodriguez, Gabas, Calvo; Alonso, McDonald
Montreal: Bush; Cabrera, Soumare, Ciman, Toia; Mallace, Reo-Coker, Oduro, Piatti, Duka; McInerney
Jonathan McDonald may be the man to watch if Alajuelense are to make a breakthrough against the Impact, while Montreal would dearly love Jack McInerney to repeat his opportunistic improvised chip out of nothing that he fashioned against Orlando in their last game before this week’s off-weekend (that said they can probably do without the whole letting-a-2-0-lead-slip aspect of that particular game.
Odura and Duka will look to spring out out on counters, and as mentioned before Piatti will be the key link up man if the Impact hope to get a crucial goal tonight.
If Alajuelense can get their wide men of Matarrita and Calvo up the field more often than not, it could be a long night for Montreal.
What’s at stake
Well a place in the final obviously, and with Herediano holding a 3-0 aggregate lead over Club America before tomorrow’s second semi-final, the most likely path to the title is fairly apparent. And beyond that, there’s a chance at the Club World Cup for the winners.
And Montreal’s Dominic Oduro has already forgotten the golden rule of knockout soccer...
“There have been times when we’ve talked about winning the whole thing and probably going to the Club [World Cup] to play against those big teams...”
Actually, strike that, he’s just remembered it...
“...But at the same time, you also have to know you have to take it one step at a time.”
Don’t mention history...
So...if you’re a Montreal fan you might want to look away now...
In 2008-2009 the then non-MLS Impact had a 2-0 lead over Mexico’s Santos Laguna in the quarter finals of this tournament, and things looked even better when they were 4-1 up on aggregate halfway through the return leg.
And then Santos Laguna scored four unanswered goals, including two in stoppage time.
It’s perhaps partly why Cameron Porter’s late late equalizer against Pachuca in this year’s quarter finals was greeted with such joy — Montreal have been needing some catharsis in this competition.
Though as D.C. United’s experiences from that same round might also remind them, there’s plenty of potential for trauma at the Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto. D.C. were battered 5-2 in Alajuela in the first leg, and Montreal can expect a rough ride in front of 18,000 partisan fans tonight. Alajuelense’s fans have already greeted them at the airport with enthusiastic predictions of a 3-0 home win tonight.
Previously on Alajuelense vs Montreal...
Ignacio Piatti opened the scoring after just 9 minutes in the first leg, and Piatti will likely be the danger man for finishing of Montreal counters tonight. How well he plays may determine just how confident the hosts feel in committing men forward to chase the deficit.
They’ll need to be more inventive than they were in Montreal. Alajuelense managed just one shot on goal in the first leg, and Montreal will be hoping their well organized defense maintains their discipline through what will undoubtedly be a tougher night tonight.
Montreal’s task is made harder by the absence of the promising young Cameron Porter and the creativity and directness of Justin Mapp — both of whom are out with longterm injuries. But other than that they’re at full strength. Still, the absence of Porter in particular has been seized on by the local press as a big loss for the visitors.
Preamble
Evening all. And welcome to Alajuelense vs Montreal, aka the Guardian’s latest experiment in finding out whether 2-0 really is the most dangerous scoreline in football (and indeed exactly what the danger is — a certain smoldering quality about the 2? Or perhaps the nihilistic edge of the 0? Is it structurally unsound?)
Montreal lead 2-0 after stunning Alajuelense with two quick first half goals in the first leg in Montreal, and given the Impact’s preference for counter-attacking play you’d think this second leg was ideally set up for them, with the hosts having to attack.
And it may well be, though D.C. United’s experiences in the last round should be a warning to the Impact about what Alajuelense can do, and it’s going to take a lot of concentration and coolness from the MLS side if they’re to match Real Salt Lake’s appearance in the 2011 final — the closest an MLS side has come to winning the trophy since the switch to the modern format.
Indeed there was a nagging feeling as that first leg went on and Alajuelense settled that Montreal might just live to regret not getting a third goal to really open up some space on the Costa Ricans. They certainly can’t afford to concede early tonight, though Frank Klopas might be daring to hope to snatch an away goal early on.
I’ll be back shortly with more build up and team news. In the meantime, get your predictions, hopes, fears and stories of that time you were badly scared by a 2-0 scoreline, coming in to graham.parker@theguardian.com or @KidWeil and I’ll see you in a bit.
Graham will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s a little something on our friends at Fifa:
Every one of Africa’s 54 member countries will vote for Sepp Blatter in next month’s Fifa presidential election, the president of the Confederation of African Football, Issa Hayatou, said on Tuesday.
“Africa is comfortable having you. Africa stays with you,” Hayatou said in a speech to open Caf’s annual congress in Cairo, at which Blatter is present.
Although the individual countries do not have to follow Hayatou’s directive, Africa is expected to be a strong base of support for Blatter. With 54 of the 209 Fifa member countries eligible to vote in the presidential election in Zurich on 29 May, Africa is the largest of the six continental confederations.
Blatter is seeking a fifth term in office to extend a reign that began in 1998. The Fifa vice-president Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, the Dutch FA head, Michael van Praag, and the former Portugal international Luís Figo are standing against him. Those three challengers will not be addressing Caf delegates.
