Saves: Andy Gruenebaum 6 (winner), Donovan Ricketts 7 (loser).
MONTREAL IMPACT GAME NOTES:
*The Impact are the 19th MLS team.
* They are the third Canadian team along with Toronto & Vancouver.
* One former Columbus Crew on the team in Josh Gardner.
* Jesse Marsch, a former MLS player is the head coach.
* 3 former Akron Zips soccer players are on the team; Sinisa Ubiparipovic, Zarek Valentin and Evan Bush.
* Evan Bush was born in raised in Concord Township in Ohio.
* Director of soccer operations Matt Jordan was an MLS goalkeeper for two seasons in Columbus with the Crew. In the middle of 2004, helping the team win the Eastern Conference championship and the MLS Supporters’ Shield.
Olympic Stadium, former home of the Expos, will be the Impact's home until their stadium is done. (2006 photo by Tolivero via wikipedia commons)
* The Impact will play their home games at Olympic Stadium, which seats 66,308. It is the former home of the 1976 Olympic Games and MLB’s defunct Montreal Expos, who are now the Washington Nationals. For their first home game against the Chicago Fire, the Impact had over 60,000 fans.
* The Impact use a 4-4-2 alignment.
* The team’s only goal in history to date has been off the foot of captain Davy Arnaud, who scored in the 56th minute of its match against Chicago, a 1-1 tie. Arnaud took a Sanna Nyassi cross and knocked it into the upper right corner of the Fire’s net.
COLUMBUS CREW POST-GAME LOCKERROOM INTERVIEW
COLUMBUS CREW GAME NOTES:
* The Crew are 6-1-2 vs. Canadian teams overall.
* Crew Stadium will be 13 years old in May 2012.
* Crew captain Chad Marshall made history in the season opener in Colorado. He became the third Columbus Crew player ever to make 200 appearances with the franchise. He joins Jeff Cunningham (203) and Mike Clark (221) who have played more games than any other with the Crew.
The 27-year-old Marshall will have plenty of time to catch those players.
* The Crew honored the NCAA Division III National Champion Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops at halftime of FIRST KICK 2012. OWU WENT 23-2 en route to winning their second men’s soccer title in school history.
Crew Soccer Academy product Travis Wall led the team with 19 goals and 15 assists, including a goal in the 2-1 win over Calvin College on December 5, to win the title.
* The Crew uses a 4-5-1 alignment on the field.
Milovan Mirosevic scored his first goal of season
Olman Vargas scored an insurance goal
Andy Gruenebaum in a rare start shows he's a capable goalkeeper, shutting out Montreal
The Columbus Crew have added another forward to help put more points on the scoreboard next season.
The team has signed Olman Vargas, a 25-year-old who is 6’2, 174 pounds and is a physical, scoring striker.
Eventhough Andres Mendoza, the team’s highest-paid player and scoring leader had 13 goals, the Crew finished 11th out of 18 teams with 43 goals and were eliminated from the MLS playoffs in the first round.
Vargas will be teamming with Emilio Renteria, who scored eight goals in 2011.
