Football
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Montreal Impact sell out Olympic Stadium, setting Canadian record

The Montreal Impact will set a Canadian record for attendance at a soccer game after selling out the CONCACAF Champions League final at Olympic Stadium.

The Impact are the first Canadian club to play in the continental final, and managed a 1-1 draw against Club America in the first leg last week at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.

The MLS team sold 2,000 additional tickets this weekend to push the total over 61,000 for Wednesday's second leg, breaking the previous Canadian record of 60,860 who watched the Impact play David Beckham's LA Galaxy in 2012.

Olympic Stadium, the former home of the Montreal Expos baseball team, is the largest stadium in Canada.

The winner of the final will earn a spot in December's Club World Cup, where the Impact would make history as the first MLS team to compete in FIFA's top intercontinental club event.

"In the end, now, there's no looking back, saying 'It's great, what we've accomplished,'" Impact vice president Nick De Santis told MLSsoccer.com. "The mentality now from the club, from the players and from our fans is 'We want to win this, and we're not going to be happy if we don't win this."

"We truly believe that, now in Montreal, with our fans behind us, playing at home, we have a fighting chance."

Also on Monday, CONCACAF sanctioned Costa Rican club Alajuelense for racist chants directed toward Montreal players in the Champions League semifinals on April 7.

The Impact's Ghanaian winger Dominic Oduro said he was the target of monkey chants, and CONCACAF has taken action, fining the club an unspecified amount and giving them a one-match stadium ban for the next time Alajuelense reach the Champions League.

CONCACAF, which also fined the club for failing to stop fans from throwing objects on the pitch, said it was the first sanction for discrimination in the event's history.

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