Sending Bernier out a winner goal for Impact (Oct 22, 2017)
There is nothing but pride to play for Sunday afternoon when the New England Revolution meet the Montreal Impact in the season finale for both teams at Stade Saputo in Montreal.
But pride is enough to motivate the Impact in what will be 38-year-old captain Patrice Bernier's swan song.
Bernier, a Quebec native, began his career with Montreal in its pre-MLS days in 2000 before embarking on a career in Europe and returning to the Impact in 2012.
In more than 150 regular-season matches (111 starts), Bernier has recorded 14 goals and 25 assists. He is the Impact's all-time leader in games played, assists and game-winning assists in MLS competition.
On Sunday, Bernier will take to the pitch for the final time -- and you better believe his brothers on the Montreal sideline will try to send him off in style.
"We celebrate a great player who had a great career, but we also celebrate a great man," Impact coach Mauro Biello told the team website. "I hope we can have a good performance to salute him. Patrice Bernier has given a lot to this club and to this city. We would like his last game to go the right way, in order to finish the season and his career on a good note."
Bernier's career will be honored in a pre-match ceremony, and he will take a final lap around the field upon the match's completion.
"I'm going to appreciate this game, Bernier told the team website. "It will be special to play in front of my family, my close friends and all the Impact supporters for one last time."
Montreal (11-16-6) and New England (12-15-6) have both already been eliminated from the 2017 MLS Cup Playoffs. The Impact have lost four straight and eight of their last nine league matches.
The Revolution, meanwhile, have not won on the road in a franchise-record 18 straight matches (0-15-3).
"For our heads, it's very important (to win)," New England's Antonio Delamea told the team website. "We've all been frustrated for the whole year, because we tried to do our best, but we always failed at doing it (on the road). We really want this win and we'll do anything we can to reach it."
New England closed out its home schedule with a 2-1 win against New York City FC last Sunday, giving the Revs a franchise-record 12th home victory of the season.
The Revs also defeated the Impact 1-0 in their only prior meeting of the season on Sept. 9, with Lee Nguyen scoring the lone goal in the 68th minute.
Montreal leads the all-time series 7-6-2.
The Impact will be without Ambroise Oyongo (knee surgery) and Chris Duvall (ankle) for the finale. New England's Kelyn Rowe (knee) is questionable.
