Sixty nearly flawless minutes from the Montreal Impact were undermined by a calamitous five-minute second-half stretch as Toronto FC came back from 3–0 down to trim its Eastern Conference final deficit to 3–2 in Tuesday night’s wild first leg.
A night that began with a grounds crew mistake and a 40-minute delay ended with U.S. national team stars Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley recouping two pivotal away goals to set up a finely-poised second leg next Wednesday in Toronto.
Montreal, in front of 60,000-plus raucous fans at the Olympic Stadium, overwhelmed TFC from the opening whistle, and went in front after 10 minutes through Dominic Oduro:
Before the blue-clad fans had settled, and seemingly before Montreal’s bell had stopped clanging, the Impact grabbed a stunning second.