A couple weeks ago, I wrote an article titled Fire Your Big Guns in the Voyageurs Cup. As the title will no doubt suggest, I wanted Vancouver, Montreal, Edmonton, and Toronto to take this competition seriously. To come out with their best players and try to snatch the Voyageurs Cup from each others' grasping, desperate hands.
To my delight, this is more-or-less what's happened. And as a result we have what's shaping up to be a tournament for the ages.
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I realize that for Toronto FC fans, the first round against FC Edmonton was a bit of anticlimax. Taking on the tournament newcomers, the first round for you was full of historical significance but not much excitement and no actual tension. Winning 3-0 on the road in the first leg will do that. The second leg was closer fought but still not exactly close and Toronto FC breezed through with a 4-0 aggregate win. If you weren't enjoying that for the historical significance, you probably weren't enjoying it at all. But even in the second leg, with Toronto's advancement all-but-assured, Aron Winter played it safe and put out quite a strong lineup to entertain the fans at BMO Field. He's taking this tournament as seriously as anybody.
In the other semi-final, of course, Vancouver and Montreal battled to a classic finish. Old rivals showed their mutual quality, two teams struggling in their respective leagues showed off that they both have all the skill in the world. The first leg was a see-saw affair eventually won 1-0 on a goal by Terry Dunfield, and the second leg was the sort of instant classic that would be replayed on Sportsnet for years to come if Sportsnet was the sort of channel that would rebroadcast an old soccer game. The Whitecaps wound up taking it thanks to Mouloud Akloul goal/act of sublime redemption in extra time, but with just a little more luck the Montreal Impact would have got through. Take that, "MLS teams are inevitably better than NASL teams" crowd.
Then the first leg of the final last night. As an unflinching partisan of the Whitecaps, I was horrified. I stood and cheered and sang for ninety minutes in front of a surprisingly-strong crowd of 15,000+ then slumped onto my bench as surely as if I'd been shot. I can barely even talk about that game without replaying the frustrations in my mind and wanting to slam my head into the desk. But for a neutral, it must have been great viewing. For a Toronto FC fan, it would be almost as good as a win. And the result leaves both teams with the proverbial "everything to play for" heading into Fortress BMO Field on the 25th, where the trophy will be handed out to one team or another that's clearly going to have to bloody earn it.
This is a great tournament, and this has been a great year for a great tournament. All because four teams decided to take it seriously. Who among the fans would dare say it should be otherwise?