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.

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.”

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.

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.

But, the realist will have to admit that the Impact gave way too many gifts to the offensively charged Red Bulls. And, a team that makes as many glaring errors as the Impact can have no qualm about taking zero points from match.

A nearly full house of 58,912 fans, the most to ever turn out for a pro soccer game in Montreal, showed up for the Impact’s MLS home opener at Olympic Stadium, with very few of them returning home disappointed after seeing their team put on a solid performance against the visiting Chicago Fire.

It took just three minutes and seven seconds for the Renniessance to officially take hold in Vancouver.

Canadian Evan James rounded out the rout, converting a cross from Miguel Montano — who spent part of last season with the Impact in its final NASL season — to make the final score 3-0 Impact.

Both the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps were busy in preseason action Friday.