So… Looks like it’s rant day.

Following hot on the heels of the temporarily handicapped Steven Beauregard, I’ve decided to try and follow his example and make “Friendly” Wednesday the annual holiday for Impact bloggers to bitch about the state of affairs in Montréal.

First of all, this man is spot on. I have never heard so many casual nonfans(I prefer to call them plagistes) talk about the Impact before. At work, hearing old Italian men saying “Oh, so are you guys going to see Milan? They’re playing the Impact.” “Who’s the Impact?”. I have basically overheard versions of that conversation about 50 times since the friendly was announced with variations being “oh, the Impact, they’re gonna get destroyed, brrrrroooooooooooooooo” and “we should go to the game and fight the AC Milan fans. Montréal Hooligans!!!” instead of “Who’s the Impact?”.

Basically, the attitude of the majority of people in this town is that of a typical North American, sports fan or otherwise. If it isn’t the best, it’s the worst. The entitlement of North Americans is amazing, anything other than top flight, is destined to fail, with some exceptions. The NFL is the best gridiron league in the world (not much competition, really), the NBA is (allegedly) the best Basketball league in the world, the NHL is the best as well( excluding a few bottom feeder NHL teams and top European sides). All this has cultured north Americans to grow up thinking that the only thing that warrants, nay, deserves their time, is the elite leagues and players, nothing less, excluding Canada’s religious obsession with hockey which allows the minor leagues to have relative success in some areas.

All this entitlement will be on display today versus ACM, as many fans will graciously give us a portion of their valuable time and descend upon the Big Nest to see their city “their (great great great grandfather’s) city” play a game. The ultimate insult is that they think that it would be a much better idea to spend 40+ dollars to sit and watch a meaningless friendly, rather than 10-20$ to see us win a cup, play a hated rival or just generally support their city.

The only suitable response is to bide our time, laugh it off(while a part of my soul dies in the process) and wait for MLS. When those same “forza milan brrrrrrrrroooooooooooo” people jump on the impact because they’re the latest Gull on the beach, we get our revenge.

Aime ta Ville

Supporte ton Club

Damned if we do…

As the ever astute Steve Beauregard says, no matter the outcome, Impact fans will leave Stade Saputo disappointed.

Disappointed because tomorrow(today actually) is pretty close to the mythical “lose-lose situation” I’ve been told exists.

If Montreal beats our westerly brothers from Vancouver, we get at least one mark in the “W” column of the Voyageurs Cup standings. Yay! But were that to happen, that would also give the V cup to our p’tit frères from Toronto, who will no doubt once again proudly carry the Canadian flag well past the group stage of the Champions League, as was the case last year…

If we lose to our lovably polite and well mannered friends in Vancouver, we’re destined to finish yet another cup in last place, which as a fan of the Gulls, I am quite unused to. But were that to happen, those ever so bland Vancouverites would be able to push the tournament to the 24th hour, taking the fight to BMO and their legions of better-check-my-blackberry-while-flares-are-going-off stockbroker fans, where they traditionally play above expectations. Making it so that the cup is once again decided, as it should be, with the final game of the tournament is not only a positive for every Voyageur, seeing that the competition is indeed capable of meaningful finishes, as well as pleasing those outside of Toronto, in the hopes that Vancouver does their usual anti-red display and do what needs to be done to prevent Toronto from hoisting the cup once more.

The fact that, essentially, the club is playing yet another useless match has left Montreal in quite an odd state. Fans have been noted online as saying they wouldn’t mind another C-team rollover a-la 2009, due to the fact it can possibly keep the red scum from the cup. Others hope to trounce the Caps, Toronto be damned, whatever it takes.

The fact that no consensus on how to handle the situation has been established as of 0400 this morning leads me to believe that, if any of you dear readers are the type to see what the stadium atmosphere is like, buy a ticket, or tune in to (sigh) Sportsnet, tonight to see what is guaranteed to be a strange, strange spectacle off the field.

I for one, will be in the stands, more confused than a sailor on shore(Newfieism) about what to hope for out of my Gulls.

Though, setting my patented Voyageurs brand pessimism aside for a second and presenting a thought that just happened to fly through my beautiful face, a fan of IMFC could also theoretically leave the stadium happy at any outcome of the game, as for our situation to be lose-lose, it must also be win-win(kinda).

Except a draw…Shit.

Here’s hoping the CSA properly handles the upcoming arrival of the enigmatic Edmontonians in 2011. The longshot hope I have for this match is going up the steps to CXIV, and seeing my beautiful Carlsberg beer girl accompany me to the party that will be 114.

So…I’m working on that updating problem.

Last time I had a gap in writing this, it was one of 6 months. Now, I have managed to cut it down to only 3 months! It’ll be much easier to regularly update this now, as I am not splitting time between the impact/school/work/friends/video games (in that order), as I have successfully done away with that pesky “school” part.

I capped off my first year of university with a 3.03 GPA. Above average, but for what I hope to do after school, it is the minimum acceptable GPA for me. To make it into McGill law, I’m aiming for at least a 3.8 GPA, along with the best possible LSAT score I can manage. I kinda wished I didnt slack off near the end of the 1st semester(new winter always does that for me) but I have come away from my 1st year with an acceptable result and I’ve learned things about uni that will definitely help me in my remaining years.

To deviate from this pretty strange blog post (a whole two paragraphs without referencing the current impact season?!?! BLASPHEMY), I’m going to try and do a more reserved view of the Impact, in an effort to try and help those in Montreal establishing a blog presence for the Impact, as we have finally been told that IMFC will officially become the 19th MLS franchise! Don’t die of a heart attack! The worst kept secret in sports is out! So now that our beloved Goélands will be joining such illustrious and storied teams as the Kansas City Wiz, San Jose Earthquakes and FC Dallas, people here in Montréal are desperately trying to claw ourselves up to their level! OK, for those of you that weren’t aware of what you were just drenched with, it was Sarcasm. IMFC is a quality team(when they want to be) with quality fans(in section CXIV…outside of that, not so much).

The big coming out party for the Gulls occurred conveniently a few days before the IMFC-TFC game at Stade Saputo. We chose to celebrate that in a very laidback, restrained way…Oh, who the hell am I kidding, we set the place ablaze:

Sure, those brits from Torontoshire had a pretty good pyro display as well, but never did they overpower us vocally, even though they had more people. No  matter what hack journalists say, put a dozen RPB up against Montrealais, and they get schooled.

‘Nough Said about that subject, true believers.

Even though our Gulls lost that particular game on the field, I and every other Ultra who was in the kop that day could walk away heads held high. Being knocked out of the Voyageurs cup last year did wonders for our season last year, so if this once again has us able to focus on and win some silverware, alls well.

I also had the pleasure of being capo for the first time in my entire 4.5ish years as an ultra, which was great. Getting up on that stand, the altar of the Blue Temple, organizing support for the Gulls, there’s nothing like it. I also seemed to be a bit of a good luck charm, the 2 times I got up there, we scored. Maybe if I had been capo vs “the FC” the result would have been different…I guess I’ll have to try it out the 26th vs Vancouver, considering I can’t get tickets to see them play the Viola on the 23rd.

Speaking of that, if anyone can manage to get me tickets to the match vs Fiorentina sunday, I will gladly name my firstborn after you!

I’ll definitely step to this more often, I’d really like to be a contemporary of the always eloquent Steve Beau and super mysterious, secretive, and definitely not Belgian HDF blogs. I may be a blogger that writes about his life, but it helps that my life is all about Gulls and dragons.

Ciao for now.