MONTREAL – Moisés Muñoz ruffled some feathers north of the border when he said the Montreal Impact didn’t deserve to be champions after the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League final in Mexico City.
But if the 35-year-old Club América goalkeeper wanted to gloat or seek validation after his team's 4-2 CCL-clinching victory on Wednesday night at Olympic Stadium, he certainly didn’t show it.
Instead, Muñoz showered the Impact with praise after a match that saw the home side go up 1-0 in the first half via an Andres Romero stunner, only to succumb to unrelenting América pressure in the second 45 minutes.
“It is part of soccer. I never had the intention to disrespect anybody,” Muñoz said in reference to his comments following the 1-1 draw at Estadio Azteca. “This team deserves all my respect; it is a great team. They made it to the final on their own merits, nobody gave them anything.”
Las Aguilas didn’t give the Impact any quarter, either.
Despite an unbelievable first-half Dario Benedetto miss that caromed off the crossbar and allowed Montreal to head to the locker room up 1-0 in the game and 2-1 on aggregate, América made their opportunities count almost immediately in the second half.
The Argentine got things started in the 50th minute with an acrobatic scissor kick that Kristian Nicht couldn’t keep out. Oribe Peralta added a second, and Benedetto tacked on two more to complete his hat-trick and give the visitors a comfortable 4-2 victory that they celebrated with a large contingent of yellow-clad supporters.
Still, despite his much-discussed prediction coming good, Muñoz took the high road, walking back his comments about the Impact’s style of play and congratulating them on a tournament run that nearly saw Montreal make history.
“They played an excellent game in Mexico, and they did it here too,” he said. “Fortunately we did here what we didn’t do in Mexico. We were powerful. All my respect for this team, they had a good tournament, and to be able to make it to the final, it was a great achievement for them.”
