Marco Di Vaio, the Montreal Impact’s first Designated Player, has been in town for less than 24 hours. But if the reception he received when he emerged from the secure area of Dorval’s Pierre Elliot Trudeau Airport Sunday night and the plaudits that were tossed his way at Monday afternoon’s press introduction are any indication, he might just be able to cross the St. Lawrence River on foot in the summertime.

Saturday’s match also ended with a Red Bulls victory, this time a 2-1 triumph that had some of the 20,373 vocally registering their displeasure at the Impact’s inability to get the desired result, even after seeing the New York side play with 10 men for the final half hour of the game.

“I think we actually did a pretty good job in the second half. Actually the whole game wasn’t too bad, the second half was great,” Landon Donovan offered. “I’m guessing that if it was any of a number of other goalkeepers playing for them today it would have been a different score and we would have won but Donovan did a good job and they held on. I think a few players thought they had him on a few plays but he made some good saves and got them a point.”

Playing to a draw is usually the best a road team can hope for. Toronto FC came out of the first leg of its Amway Canadian Championship encounter with the Montreal Impact having achieved its objective, playing to a scoreless tie and setting the stage for next Wednesday’s second game.

“They’re just here for a week and they’re heading back to Italy tomorrow. I saw my mother but my father was probably walking around the stadium somewhere. He has a difficult time watching me play.”

“When we get close to the 20,000 capacity of Saputo Stadium, above the average capacity of the league, we feel pretty satisfied,” Legendre said.

Mission accomplished, as the visitors scored first, allowed the opponents to draw even but, unlike the recent past, hung on to pick up the first MLS road point in team history. The result — a 1-1 draw.

Going into Saturday’s match in Frisco, Tex., FC Dallas had yet to lose a game at home this season while the Montreal Impact was still in search of its first point on the road.

Montreal coach, Jesse Marsch, fielded a reworked starting XI to begin the game against Toronto FC. The decisions paid off as the Impact got off to a good start, grabbed a lead in the early going and held it — despite giving up a goal in the late going — to put its historic first MLS win into the books.

It is generally considered that an official has done his job if, at the end of the game, spectators are still in the dark as to his identity.