MONTREAL – Marco Di Vaio stabbed in the first goal of the game. Not for the first time. He kissed his wedding ring and pointed to the teammate who’d made the last pass. Not for the first time.
What followed was more unusual. Di Vaio raced to the bench. There, he found Karl W. Ouimette and hugged him.
Of course.
“We wanted to give him and his family some positive emotions,” Di Vaio told reporters. “We are a good group of good guys, and we’re together in good moments and bad moments.
The entire Montreal Impact rallied around Ouimette after the cruel death of his cancer-stricken sister, Julie, last week. Di Vaio said the team wanted to dedicate a win to the Ouimette family 1297001797" tabindex="0">on Wednesday against the LA Galaxy. Up 2-0 at halftime, Montreal settled for a 2-2 draw as LA clawed their way back. But that didn’t matter in the end. Ouimette felt the overwhelming support pouring in.
“It’s a nice tribute to my sister,” Ouimette said. “It brings back tough moments, but getting that support from everyone, from my teammates, from the supporters, from my whole family, a lot of whom were here tonight, it does a lot of good. You know you’re well-surrounded, that you’ll be supported no matter what.”
Di Vaio’s hug was much appreciated.
“Marco's a good guy,” Ouimette said. “He supports me as well. It’s a nice gesture he did, it moves me a lot. Seeing one of the best players on the team, a Designated Player, come to you like that, it proves that we're all equals; that we all get along well.”
Ouimette, who came back to Montreal 1297001798" tabindex="0">from Toronto on Wednesday morning after playing one minute off the bench in Canada's 3-1 friendly win over Jamaica on Tuesday night, wasn’t even supposed to be on the Impact roster against the Galaxy.
But he made the 18. He was on the bench as everyone rose to their feet and showed their support with a round of applause when the clock reached minute 34, his jersey number. And Ouimette made his way into the game midway through the second half after Hassoun Camara damaged his elbow.
“We wanted to get him in, but probably not as early as that,” head coach Frank Klopas said. “That was it. So there was a lot of emotion in the game. But look, the one thing with our team, we are where we are but we've got to keep fighting until the end.”
As did Julie. Most certainly.
