The Impact’s coaching carousel keeps on spinning — but Mauro Biello hopes to bring it to a stop. The much-loved Impact legend hopes to see the “interim” tag removed from his job title

The Impact and MLS did all they could do; surgery was conducted on the Impact’s domestic schedule so they would have weekends off leading up to and during the CCL final. They had bye weekends, while Club America had no such advantages. While the Impact spent the weekend prepping for the second leg of the final, Club America had a Sunday match against its fiercest rival, Chivas. That gave the Mexican side little time to get to Montreal and get used to the turf.

“After Evan had finished warming up, it was time for me to go in and face the shooters,” recalled Smits, who was back in Edmonton on Thursday. “And, any time the ball went over the goal, the fans on that side weren’t trying to just toss the ball back; they were trying to hit me. They were throwing it as hard as they could. They were throwing objects at me.”

This teams goes from “off” to “on” so often, it’s like the soccer version of a strobe light. It’s not as if this team goes from good to bad from game to game; you see the Jekyll-and-Hyde transformations at least a few times per game.

When a rabbit is seen at the stadium, good things happen for FC Edmonton. Maybe it was the mystical power of the rabbit that made Montreal Impact defender Karl Ouimette blow an 89th-minute defensive header on a long kick. Maybe it was the rabbit that gave FCE substitute Michael Nonni the foresight to jump on Ouimette’s turnover, round keeper Evan Bush, and score the goal that gave the NASL Eddies their first-ever Amway Canadian Championship win over MLS opposition.

“I know Colin from the national team,” Bernier said Tuesday after he and his Montreal Impact teammates finished their training session at a blustery Clarke Stadium. “I know how he expects his team to play.”