“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.”

FC Edmonton accounts for 55 per cent of the domestic content in the upcoming Amway Canadian Championship.

“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.

Make no mistake. This is unprecedented stuff. In North America, sports teams’ front offices usually work behind the scenes when it comes to political issues and don’t make public pronouncements on their positions. Too many risks, too many bridges that can be burned. But this times is different.

In fact, take Montreal and Toronto away from the equation — and their collective 0-6-0 record against the West, and the East actually has a winning record (12-11-5) in interconference matches.

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.

Toronto FC fans were more than a little surprised to find out that Vukovic played in the Impact U21’s 1-1 draw last week against the Rochester Rhinos of the USL. Vukovic came on as a 65th-minute sub and provided the through ball that led to Alessandro Riggi’s equalizing goal.

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.

The Montreal Impact came to visit Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah, hoping to slay a dragon. It was somewhat of a David versus Goliath affair, and the probability of its first ever MLS win was unlikely. But, the visitors did a lot to frustrate their more experienced opponent and the effort nearly worked — yet, the home side came out with a 1-0 win.