Montreal Impact vs New York Red Bulls; MLS 2017, Week 14: Match Thread

The New York Red Bulls were bounced out of the 2016 playoffs by Montreal Impact. That score won't be fully settled until or unless the teams meet again in the post-season and RBNY finds a way to avenge that particular defeat, but wound would at least be soothed by a positive regular-season result in Montreal this year.

Don't hold your breath for a win: the Red Bulls haven't beaten L'Impact in Montreal since 2012 - the year the Impact joined MLS, with Jesse Marsch as its head coach.

Marsch is one of several connections between the current iterations of these teams. Both rosters still benefit from the 2015 trade that sent Eric Alexander and Ambroise Oyongo to Montreal in exchange for Felipe and the allocation order position that allowed RBNY to sign Sacha Kljestan. Oyongo remains with L'Impact, despite expectation back in 2015 that he would bolt to Europe at the first opportunity. The Red Bulls remain very dependent on Kljestan and Felipe.

Since then, Montreal has snapped up Chris Duvall from the latest MLS Expansion Draft free-for-all, meaning what had appeared to be the Red Bulls' future at the full-back positions in 2014 is now on show at L'Impact.

It's a stretch to say there is a rivalry between Montreal and RBNY: they are merely two teams in the same league that play each other regularly enough to have had some significant games. But at the moment, each affords the other a glimpse of what might have been. Not a regretful glimpse - both sides can be happy enough with the decisions they have made in recent seasons - but an interesting one, nonetheless.