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Dilly Duka hasn’t spent much time in the spotlight since the Impact landed him in a trade with the Chicago Fire last July.
But scoring both his team’s goals in a 2-2 tie with Pachuca in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday night should help boost the low-key midfielder’s profile.
“It always brings a player’s confidence up,” Duka said Friday as Montreal held its first practice since a 16-hour flight home from Mexico two days earlier. “But I’ll be honest, during the game, scoring two goals didn’t mean anything.
“We knew we were going to have to battle every minute to put up a result. What we wanted was to come back here with a chance to go to the next round. Mission accomplished.”
Getting a win or even a tie in Mexico has been rare for any Major League Soccer club in Champions League play. It put the Impact in the driver’s seat for the second leg Tuesday night at Olympic Stadium (8 p.m., TVA Sports, TSN Radio 690).