Emotions were flowing from every angle at Stade Saputo. Down 2-0 only 14 minutes into the game and down 4-2 in the second half, CF Montréal equalized twice and finally went in front in the 86th minute to grab a wild 5-4 win over FC Cincinnati.
"Call me crazy but I loved it," said head coach Wilfried Nancy. "It showed that the squad isn’t playing pretend. At halftime I told the players that, yes, they made mistakes but I wanted them to keep at it. I prefer them to make mistakes than for them to pretend to be perfect. I want them to be genuine and to make mistakes."
Nancy expressed hope that more fans will be able to make the trek to Stade Saputo over time, and that his team can continue to match the emotion coming from the stands.
"Emotionally, that’s what I want," Nancy said. "The people that came tonight were able to see what type of emotion we wanted to give. If I could do the same, I would. Now, obviously we won’t do that for most games because it will be difficult. But that’s our line of work, that’s football."
As Mason Toye sat down for his post-game video conference, the first words he uttered were: "Craziest game I’ve ever been a part of. Not even close.”
A few records were also broken Saturday night under the floodlights of Stade Saputo. Montréal are now on a club-record six-game unbeaten streak. The club also broke their goal-scoring record in a single game with five and finally broke a record for most goals scored by both teams in a single game with nine.
Nancy also made a point to apologize to the fans for forgetting to salute them after Saturday's win.
"In the emotion, I also need to apologize to the fans," Nancy said. "The players didn’t take the time to salute the fans but they also weren’t used to it anymore but rest assured that this will be rectified."
"Just to touch on the fans, they’re unbelievable, Toye added. "There were 5,000 but we were all talking about it in the locker room afterwards and it sounded like at least 15,000 so I can only imagine if we have a full stadium, it’s going to be electric."
Among the many emotions from Saturday's memorable game, there were also plenty of thoughts reserved for assistant coach Jason Di Tullio.
Earlier this season, Di Tullio needed to leave the club for medical reasons before it was later revealed that he had contracted brain cancer. In the week leading to Saturday's game, Di Tullio met with the squad to talk to the players and staff. Following the final whistle confirming the victory, CF Montréal's PA announcer took the microphone and said "Jason Di Tullio, this one is for you my friend."
"These emotions are extraordinary," said Nancy. "We have a thought for Jason. He came over two days ago and gave us his strength. This win is for him."
"Coach Jason, he’s fighting for his life right now and his motto is 'La Grinta’ or 'The Fight,'" Toye said. "That was a big boost for us seeing him, talking about how he just loves seeing us play and that gave us a boost as well. Having that in the back of our minds, having a guy that’s fighting for his life and we’re just out here playing football. We’re giving him motivation on the pitch so that was also something that was in the back of our minds."
Going forward, Nancy and his squad would hope to channel all of that emotion and use it to prove their doubters wrong but they know there is still work to do. For Nancy, it is impossible to argue that his team didn't make mistakes. In fact, they made quite a few of them. That being said, he appreciated his team's resilience to find the win in spite of them.
"Yes, we made mistakes but mistakes aren’t an issue for me," Nancy said. "I would like to say that because of the four goals, the players, maybe they found something in their bodies to be able to score five goals. For me, this is football, this is why I’m doing this job. Yes, we conceded four goals but I prefer to concede four goals like this instead of four goals in the run of play and we had really bad defending."
"In my line of work, I want to have chills and I had chills tonight."
