“We expect a very defensive game on their part, and we’ll get ready for that,” Giovinco said through an interpreter as part of an MLS conference call previewing the conference final.

The director of Canada’s Women’s World Cup stadiums said Tuesday that the much-maligned turf at BC Place will “likely” be replaced before the tournament kicks off in June.

Cautious optimism. That’s the best way to describe Montreal’s reaction to Canada’s 2026 World Cup bid. No letters of support have been written. And, in a city and province that still feel the costs of hosting the 1976 Summer Olympics, big events like a World Cup can feel like déjà vu all over again...

According to the information provided by MLS, the venue for Toronto FC’s March 9 home opener is “to be decided.” But according to the MLS schedule posted in French on the Montreal Impact website, the venue is confirmed as Rogers Centre.

But these ticket prices beg the question — now that the Montreal Impact gives local soccer fans MLS action on a weekly basis, will we see the same kind of “friendly fatigue” there that’s become so evident in Toronto, where so many of these international games are now greeted with cynicism?

“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.

The Montreal Impact held its pre-season open house on Thursday evening in front of about 2,000 of its most devoted fans at a poster-festooned Olympic Stadium, many drawn by the news that 1,000 tickets for Saturday’s opener were to be given away to the first folks turning up.

The Impact will play at the Big O until the Stade Saputo renovations are done during the 2012 campaign. But the team struck a deal with the Olympic park, which guarantees games will be played at the Big O in 2013, 2014 and 2015 as well.

In a pre-game press conference Sunday afternoon, Impact President Joey Saputo and Richard Legendre, Executive VP of the Impact and Saputo Stadium, announced modifications to both the schedule of activity and the design parameters of the upcoming expansion to the team’s home field. Disappointed in the offers received for the initial tendering of contracts for the project, Saputo told the media that in order to respect the $23-million budget, the construction will begin in September, rather than in July as announced earlier, and that the refurbished stadium would not be ready in time for opening day of the Impact’s first MLS season.

Now, the next part of the debate: Which cities will get the plum games — Canada’s home games, semifinals and final? FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association released the names of the seven “candidate” cities to host games. Toronto wasn’t on that list, as expected, because of the conflict between the WWC and the Pan Am Games. The seven cities: Halifax, Moncton, Montreal Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver.