When CF Montréal announced Wednesday that it would ban away fans from Saturday’s game against Toronto at Stade Saputo, many MLS fans were confused.
Fan bans usually only follow violence, after all–and surely the Canadian supporters wouldn’t be guilty of that.
Unfortunately, earlier this week, Montréal and Toronto faced each other in the Canadian Championship, a non-MLS tournament for Canadian soccer teams of various levels of professionalism. And despite the friendly Canadian stereotype, when Montréal knocked Toronto out 2-1 at the final whistle, things got pretty out of hand.
The in-stadium violence between Montréal and Toronto fans this week is just the latest development in a fierce, multilayered soccer rivalry that’s been brewing since the 1970s.
The two cities have traded influence, power and cultural heft in Canada for years, with Montréal leading the way throughout the latter half of the 20th century only for Toronto to snatch it back in the 21st.
But they also share an educational rivalry (Montréal’s McGill versus Toronto’s University of Toronto), a linguistic rivalry (Montréal’s Québécois French versus Toronto’s English) and, most crucially, a long-standing hockey rivalry (Montréal’s Canadiens versus Toronto’s Maple Leafs.)
These points of cultural contention created a boiling point in Canadian soccer long before both teams first faced each other in MLS in 2012.
Accordingly, this weekend’s MLS matchup between the two teams has a lot more than three points riding upon it.
Montréal and Toronto are 11th and 13th in MLS’s Eastern Conference. A win for either side could lift them into playoff contention if other MLS results go their way. Toronto will hope to redeem themselves from their midweek loss, Montréal will hope to redeem themselves from their poor season start, and both clubs will hope to redeem themselves from the regrettable violence that took place between their supporters this week.
When we think about MLS rivalries, we think of Seattle and Portland, of the Galaxy and LAFC.
But Montréal and Toronto–backed by dozens upon dozens of years of political, cultural and sporting history–continues to prove, for better or worse, that it’s the fiercest of them all.
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