Daniel Pereira’s first CF Montreal goal after a midseason trade from Austin FC was a special one.

The Venezuelan midfielder has Montreal up 1-0 at halftime away to the Vancouver Whitecaps in leg one of their Canadian Championship semifinal, scoring one of the best goals you’ll ever see. After picking off a pass from Oliver Larraz on the halfway line, Pereira’s second touch was used to stunned Whitecaps goalkeeper Isaac Boehmer and the home fans — firing the ball over his head and into the back of the net.

Boehmer was off his line, not expecting to be called into action at that time, and Pereira made him pay.

The goal came against the run of play. For the opening 15 minutes of the game, and a lot of the first half after they took the lead, Montreal were content to play a physical brand of football in an attempt to throw the free-flowing Whitecaps off their game. Little shoves and fouls were frustrating the hosts every time they touched the ball, and referee Renzo Villanueva letting the teams play instead of allowing play to be stop-start.

Fabian Herbers thought he made it 2-0 for Montreal 1- before halftime when he steered the ball past Boehmer from close range, but Prince Owusu was offside on the pass into the box that he redirected to Herbers for the tap-in.

The Whitecaps had their chances as well. Brian White was stopped by a reaction save from Sébastian Breza less than 10 minutes before a defender cleared away the rebound that was put back on target by Ryan Gauld. Édier Ocampo also smacked the woodwork with a shot from outside the box in the 40th minute following a corner kick.

Vancouver had several corners, where they are often quite dangerous, but Montreal did well to repeatedly fend them off.

Two global icons are available off the bench for their respective sides in the second half, with Montreal’s Alexis Sánchez and Vancouver’s Thomas Müller starting the game on the sideline. Müller in particular will likely be called upon if the score stays the way it is as the Whitecaps look to get back into the game.

There were concerns that Sánchez might not want to play on Vancouver’s turf pitch, which has not been received well since being installed after the World Cup. Eullaffroy said that Sánchez has no restrictions and joked that the Chilean star isn’t allergic to the synthetic pitch.

Vancouver are looking to move one step closer to winning the competition for the fifth year in a row, with Montreal potentially the toughest hurdle left for them to clear. Canadian Premier League sides Forge FC and FC Supra wait on the other side of the bracket, after a dramatic 1-1 draw Tuesday in Laval in leg one.

The Whitecaps got here by beating another CPL powerhouse, Cavalry FC, 5-2 on aggregate in the quarterfinals. They won 4-1 in the first leg at Swangard Stadium in their first match after the World Cup break before a 1-1 draw at ATCO Field a week later.

Rayan Elloumi, Brian White and Müller were among their quarterfinal goalscorers, and all three of them also scored on Saturday night in a 3-0 win over Sporting Kansas City.

The MLS Western Conference leaders are favourites to go all the way again this season. Taking on a team from the Eastern Conference basement shouldn’t be a major concern, but Jesper Sørensen’s side will need to take Montreal seriously — especially with the visitors desperate to not only get their hands on a trophy, but get back into the win column after a rough result of their own this weekend.

Related Reading: Vancouver Whitecaps smack retooled, big-spending Sporting KC 3-0

Montreal is looking to make a statement in the wake of an embarrassment at the hands of Lionel Messi and Inter Miami, losing 7-1 to the reigning MLS Cup champions on Saturday with the Argentine forward hanging four on them. It might be a good thing that they didn’t have much time to dwell on it, but they will be looking for a big response in the cup.

“We did a post-mortem, we held the funeral for that match Sunday morning,” admitted interim head coach Philippe Eullaffroy to reporters on Monday. “We did a group therapy session. We’re focused on tomorrow’s task at BC Place, after the slap in Miami.”

They reached the semifinals by beating Calgary Blizzard SC 5-0 in the preliminary round before beating CPL club, and 2025 runners-up, Vancouver FC 4-2 over two legs, winning both 2-1.

More to come.