Nothing brings out the vibrancy of football like a rivalry. Things are no different in north America but, for the first time, the two clubs battling it out in the spotlight are Canadian. This contest did not start in football – the modern iterations of the two clubs have only been playing each other since 2007 – but Montreal and Toronto are not cities that had to learn to hate each other.

The roots of the rivalry between Montreal Impact and Toronto FC can be traced back hundreds of years to Napoleonic Wars and the settling of modern-day Canada. The country’s two largest cities are only 500km apart but the English Protestantism of Ontario and the French Catholicism of Québec make them culturally distinct. That separation has often manifested itself most visibly through sport. In 1917, the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs played each other for the first time. This ice hockey battle has been the provincial prizefight for over a century, but a new generation of sports fans are expressing the rivalry through the medium of football.

Football has a rich history in both cities, dating to the North American Soccer League in the 1970s and before, but the newfound success of both teams – and the sport – has put the rivalry between the Impact and Toronto front and centre. The rivalry really crystallised at the “Miracle in Montreal” in 2009, when Toronto overcame a five-goal deficit, beat Montreal 6-1 and won the Canadian Cup. When the Impact were promoted to MLS in 2012, the clubs began to play in more meaningful games more regularly.

They met in the MLS playoffs last year, when Montreal knocked out Toronto. As fate would have it, Toronto had their revenge this year when the clubs were paired in the 2016 Eastern Conference final. Toronto lost the first leg in Montreal 3-2 but won the return leg 5-2, becoming the first Canadian side to qualify for the MLS Cup final. Make no mistake, their meeting in the Conference Finals was the biggest in the history of Canadian club football. It’s been called the “401 Derby”, the “Two Solitudes Derby” and even the “Canadian Clásico” - but whatever the rivarly is called, the stakes were much higher this time around, and what was on the line went well beyond 90 minutes.

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