That time Montréal almost borrowed Sean Johnson for the CCL final
As the first leg of the 2015 CONCACAF Champions League final neared its conclusion, everything seemed to be going perfectly for the Montréal Impact. Head coach Frank Klopas had successfully steered the Impact through a difficult run, and they led Mexican powerhouse Club América 1-0 in the 88th minute at the Estadio Azteca.
Then, it all started to go wrong. Oribe Peralta equalized for las Aguilas, but it was not the end of the world; the Impact would still return home just needing a win in front of their own crowd. What happened shortly after the goal was instead what cost them – goalkeeper Evan Bush received a soft yellow card in the 89th minute, meaning he would be suspended for the second leg.
Backup goalkeeper Eric Kronberg was unavailable for the second leg too, so Klopas and the Impact had to scramble. The biggest game in the club’s history was just seven days later, after all, and the draw at Azteca had put them in a great position to stun América. A certain Maxime Crépeau, then aged just 20, was coming off of a long-term injury, and wasn’t in a position to play in such a monumental match.
It was at that point the Impact decided they need to think outside the box, so Klopas gave a call to then-USMNT head coach Jürgen Klinsmann.
“[Klinsmann] said to me, ‘I’m sure that Nick Rimando would love to come and play,’” Klopas recalled to MIR97 Media in a recent interview. “He had lost in the final [in 2010], and I’m sure we could try to organize something with the club where you can make a trade, and after the final, you can trade the player back.”
However, after reaching out to Rimando’s club at the time, Real Salt Lake, it was clear that would not be a possibility. Klopas next reached out to his old team, the Chicago Fire, the team he had stepped away from less two years prior, to enquire about starting goalkeeper Sean Johnson.
“I think that everything looked good,” Klopas said. “It came to the point where we had agreed on everything. But then, the league just didn’t allow it to happen…”
“I guess I can see their point where, maybe, you trade someone, you trade them back, and it looks kind of weird. But at that point, we were trying to look at every possibility to give us the best chance to win, because we were also not only representing Montréal, but I felt it was something big for the league.”
When the Johnson option fell through, the Impact quickly needed to pivot to their “Plan C or D” and find a goalkeeper from outside MLS. As it turned out, that was Indy Eleven’s Kristian Nicht, who briefly played in the Bundesliga with Alemannia Aachen but was, by that point, a USL goalkeeper.
Montréal did have “the Big O” on their side, however. Montréal’s old Olympic stadium, built for the 1976 Olympics, has consistently produced some of the best acoustics in Major League Soccer, further amplifying what is already one of the loudest and most passionate fanbases in North American soccer.
“I heard all the stories of how it was built and all this funny business,” Klopas said. “But the place was shaking. I was thinking, ‘Please don't cave in,’ because they were really worried about the roof. If you go back to the game that we beat Pachuca on the last play of the game, there are special moments there.”
“I have many experiences, obviously this year with the 4-3 against Montréal and then the other comeback that we made [against Philadelphia], but that one game and was just incredible. Sometimes I go back and just look at the videos and replay them. It was just an incredible moment, and I'm so blessed and fortunate to have been a part of it.”
Two days after signing his contract with the Impact, Nicht lined up for his debut – a Champions League final at the sold-out Stade Olympique in Montréal. And while the hosts started well, opening the scoring in the eighth minute and staying ahead until halftime, things quickly fell apart.
América exploded in the second half, scoring four times, including a Darío Benedetto hattrick; Nicht’s inexperience on such a big stage admittedly played a part, and he would ultimately be released from his contract less than a week later.
“We put so much energy into the first half,” Klopas said. “I felt that if we had the full team, I think it could have been a different outcome. But it was an incredible, incredible year and something I really will never forget.”
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After leaving Montréal, Klopas returned to Chicago in a variety of roles, at one point as an assistant coach before again taking the head coaching job in mid-2023. When the Fire take on what is now known as CF Montréal tonight at Stade Saputo, it will be Klopas’ second return to Québec as a head coach after last fall’s 0-0 draw in the same fixture.
Like last year, tonight’s game will have added significance in the playoff race, too. The Fire’s hopes of returning to the postseason for the first time since 2017 are fading at a rapid pace, and with just four games to go, anything short of a win against 13-placed Montréal would effectively end the Fire’s season, even if not mathematically.
For that reason, all hopes rest on the Fire players tonight – and even though this isn't nearly the stage that the Impact played on nine years ago, their formidable home crowd will still be sure to make it a difficult night for the Men in Red.
