Dein erstes Forum » Smith gave Boston the lead with a power-play goal

If there was any lingering doubt Montreal was not a proper football town, the events of the previous 48-hours must surely have dispelled them. Thursday lunch time, following recent shuttle diplomacy and negotiations, the Montreal Impacts founding owner Joey Saputo was announced as a major partner of the new ownership group of fabled Italian club Bologna. Only five other Serie A clubs have amassed more Scudettos (Serie A Titles) Quite some rise for the recently turned 50-year old Saputo, who cut his football teeth in the early 1980s as the Saputo Groups lead contact for their sponsorship of NASLs Montreal Manic. The announcement from Bologna came hot on the heels of Wednesdays launch for the Montreal Canadiens of Club 1909 - a worldwide marketing initiative which is broadly based along similar lines of Manchester Uniteds highly successful global strategy. You can be guaranteed as part of the process Canadiens owner Geoff Molson would have reached out to good friend Joey Saputo, to get his advice on Club 1909. Montreal is now a city with two owners with ambitious plans to reach well outside the local market place, as ways for their teams to benefit in their respective codes and leagues. Quite remarkably, just like the Habs, Bologna was also founded in 1909. Who though could have scripted that when Saputo and Nick De Santis travelled to Bologna in early 2012 to watch Marco Di Vaio play and to sit down with the Serie A marksman to negotiate becoming the Impacts original Designated Player, that less than three-years later, Saputo would return to the Italian city to purchase a club Di Vaio is so highly revered at. It was exactly this time last year that with rumours swirling Di Vaio was on his way back to Bologna that the Impact announced the MLS MVP candidate would indeed be returning for 2014. Now we know that with Di Vaios appointment to the new management structure at the Stadio Renato DallAra the 38-year old had much more than retirement on his mind when just two weeks ago the Impact announced their top scorer was hanging up his boots at seasons end. Di Vaio will have played a pivotal role in bringing together Bolognas previous ownership group with Saputo and his partners. New York Lawyer Joe Tacopina will take up the role of Bologna President. Impacts International Business Director Nick De Santis who traveled back to Bologna with Saputo early this week has also been named to Bolognas management team. It would seem the purchase of an Italian club was the natural progression of the Impacts flirtation with Italian football, which dates back well over a decade. They have had a long standing relationship with Fiorentina, and only late last month Saputo and De Santis were in Turin to meet with members of the Agnelli family, owners of Juventus. Saputo made it very clear in the media conference call his investment in Bologna was a personal one and not an investment for the Impact. From the purchase, the Impact will certainly benefit, primarily on the football side. This will not just be limited to the Academy but also for FC Montreal, the clubs reserve team which begins play in USL PRO next season and also for the senior team. The two clubs front offices will also benefit. With many Italian clubs in precarious financial positions, much can be learned from the MLS business model. Having already agreed a €7m [$10m] payout to the previous regime, Bolognas new ownership group has committed to inject €13m [$18m] into the club. Relegated last season, Bolognas immediate focus and priority is to return the club to Serie A. Eight games into a forty-two game season they are just a point out of top place. You can expect at the conclusion of the MLS season, Di Vaio will have his work cut out for him as the Rossoblu weigh up their options in the January transfer window and look to add players to best position themselves in their push for promotion. Before that, comes Saturday afternoons match for the Impact against Toronto FC. Di Vaio traveled to Toronto from Bologna earlier today. Having scored two very well taken goals in the Impacts penultimate home game of the season against the playoff bound Revs last Saturday afternoon. One of the top scorers in the modern era of Serie A will bring the curtain down on his professional career a week Saturday. It all started for Di Vaio, a native Roman, back in 1993 with his hometown Lazio and will end in Montreal at what is sure to be a sold out Saputo Stadium against the best story in MLS this season, DC United. Noel.Butler@BellMedia.ca @TheSoccerNoel Toronto FC Vs Montreal Impact Live on TSN 690 – Saturday Kick Off 2:00pm et / 11:00am pt Soccer Jerseys Online .Martin Caceres marked his return from injury by scoring in the 3-1 win at Napoli and he believes Juventus sent out a warning to the rest of the league with that result.We go out on the pitch every game looking to give our all, Caceres said. Wholesale Soccer Jerseys . PETERSBURG, Florida – Its been almost seven years since the Blue Jays last won a series at Tropicana Field. https://www.cheapsoccerjerseysjustwholesale.com/ . Louis Blues and back into top spot of the TSN.ca NHL Power Rankings. The Sharks had been ranked No. Soccer Jerseys 2020 . Wearing bib No. 1, Maze skied through the gates cleanly to defend her big first-run lead and finish 0.07 seconds ahead of Anna Fenninger of Austria. Defending champion Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany was third, trailing 0. Fake Soccer Jerseys . -- Byron Scott is taking over the Los Angeles Lakers with the vocal support of his fellow Showtime greats.RALEIGH, N.C. -- When the Boston Bruins take a two-goal lead, they can pretty much count on skating off with a win. The Bruins surged ahead early against the Carolina Hurricanes and then relied on their penalty-killers to earn a 4-1 victory on Monday night. Beginning with its 2010-11 Stanley Cup championship season, Boston is 100-6-6 in games it has taken a two-goal lead. It took the Bruins about 10 minutes to establish the margin against Carolina, which had won five of seven in the series. Boston killed four Carolina penalties, including 63 seconds when down two skaters, to extend its streak of consecutive penalty kills to 32. "Its commitment," Boston coach Claude Julien said. "Most of all, were winning battles. Were doing a good job of standing teams up." That wasnt the case in late October when Boston allowed goals on five consecutive power plays. "We were really awful on the (penalty kill), which is really unusual for us," said Tuukka Rask, who made 23 saves. "We wanted to go back to basics, killing one penalty at a time." Reilly Smith and Carl Soderberg had a goal and an assist each in the first period. Johnny Boychuk scored midway through the third, and Milan Lucic added an empty-net goal for Boston, which has 11 points in seven games (5-1-1). Carolinas Tuomo Ruutu scored his first goal of the season with 4.8 seconds left in the opening period, but Boston didnt waver. "That was impressive for me that we kept our composure despite that one," Julien said. Bostons penalty-killing unit was especially effective in the second period, when it worked morre than a minute of the Hurricanes 5-on-3 advantage after penalties to Boychuk and Gregory Campbell.ddddddddddddThe Bruins also killed a third-period penalty while leading 2-1. Carolina has scored only one goal in its last 21 power plays. The Hurricanes played their first game since Oct. 24 with Cam Ward in net. Ward, who missed 10 games because of a leg injury, made 26 saves. He rebounded from a rough start in which he gave up two goals on Bostons first four shots. "I thought Cam competed hard," Carolina coach Kirk Muller said. "He started off (with) two that werent easy to make saves on. After that, he hung in there." Smith gave Boston the lead with a power-play goal 2:31 into the game. Loui Eriksson passed to Soderberg, who found Smith in front for a one-timer that got past Ward for his third goal. Soderberg redirected a shot by defenceman Dennis Seidenberg to put Boston ahead 2-0 midway through the first period. The Hurricanes netted their only goal when a pass from Eric Staal went off the skate of Bostons Patrice Bergeron and caromed to Ruutu, who nudged the puck past Rask. NOTES: With Ward activated from the injured list, the Hurricanes reassigned goalie Mike Murphy to Charlotte (AHL). ... Ward is 12-12-2 against Boston in 26 games. ... Carolina centre Jordan Staal played in his 500th NHL game. ... Bostons Eriksson extended his point streak to six games with an assist on Smiths goal. ... Boston defenceman Adam McQuaid missed his fourth consecutive game. ... The teams will meet again Saturday in Boston. ... The announced attendance was 13,919. ' ' '