Canada and Saudi Arabia rekindle diplomatic ties after 2018 spat

TORONTO – Chad Kelly and the Toronto Argonauts ensured there will be one more home game in their season.

Kelly threw three touchdown passes and ran for another as Toronto held on for a wild 38-31 home win over Ottawa on Saturday afternoon. The Argos (10-7) clinched second in the East Division with their third straight victory and will face the Redblacks (8-8-1) in the opening round of the CFL playoffs Nov. 2 at BMO Field.

Ottawa suffered a fifth straight loss but created plenty of angst for both the Argos and their season-high gathering of 20,487. The Redblacks outscored Toronto 25-0 in the fourth quarter to turn a seemingly one-sided game into a nail-biter that came down to the final play.

“We’ve got to finish, we’ve got to finish a lot better,” said Kelly. “It’s part of the game where you play a full 60 minutes.

“They’re a professional football team, they’re not going to give up and we’ve got to be better.”

Kelly finished 31-of-43 passing for 331 yards. He also ran 10 times for 25 yards before giving way to Cameron Dukes late in the fourth.

Ottawa’s Dru Brown completed 31-of-43 passes for 400 yards with four TDs and an interception. He began the Redblacks’ comeback by hitting Bralon Addison on a 32-yard scoring strike at 2:30 of the fourth to cut Toronto’s lead to 38-12 as the two-point convert was unsuccessful.

After being intercepted by Toronto’s Tavarus McFadden, Brown found rookie Nick Mardner on a six-yard TD pass at 12:21, then passed to Justin Hardy for the two-point convert. After Kene Onyeka recovered the onside kick, Brown connected with Hardy on a 14-yard touchdown toss and Addison for the two-point convert at 12:56.

Amazingly, Ottawa recovered another onside kick — this time via Jaelon Acklin — at the Toronto 52. Lewis Ward’s 38-yard field goal with 1:12 remaining cut the Argos’ lead to 38-31.

Toronto’s Daniel Adeboboye recovered the third onside kick at the Ottawa 42. The Argos didn’t get the first down and punted with the Redblacks taking possession at their 12-yard line with 30 seconds remaining.

With Ottawa at its 37-yard line and two seconds to play, Brown completed his final pass to Hardy at Toronto’s 52-yard line. Following a series of laterals, the game ended with offensive lineman Dariusz Bladek being tackled.

“They don’t give up, they’re no pushover,” Toronto linebacker Wynton McManis. “They have a lot of fight in them.

“The way this team is built, we know that’s not us. We know we’re a lot better than that … this will never happen again. It won’t.”

Dejon Brissett, with two, Ka’Deem Carey and Makai Polk scored Toronto’s other touchdowns. Lirim Hajrullahu booted five converts and a field goal.

Addison finished with two TDs for Ottawa.

Redblacks’ head coach Bob Dyce wasn’t surprised by his team’s resiliency and fight. But he said how the Redblacks played in the fourth is how they must play throughout an entire contest.

“I’m always going to be proud of these guys in the way they fight but we can’t allow ourselves to get into a situation where you’re down like that,” he said. “We have to start games faster than what we have.”

Ottawa finishes its regular season hosting Hamilton (7-10) on Friday. Although the Tiger-Cats have been eliminated from playoff contention, they’ve won five of their last six games.

“It’s a very meaningful game for us because we have to show we can play like that for four quarters,” Dyce said.

Before the fourth-quarter fireworks, Toronto appeared to be on cruise control. Kelly and Brissett combined to finish a 13-play, 82-yard march on a 10-yard TD pass at 13:13 of the third that put the Argos ahead 38-6.

Brown’s seven-yard TD pass to Addison at 12:23 of the second cut Toronto’s halftime lead to 28-6. Addison put the finishing touches on a five-play, 75-yard march but Benji Franklin blocked Ward’s convert try.

Toronto was dominant to that point, scoring touchdowns on its first four possessions. Kelly completed his first 12 passes for 238 yards and two TDs while also running for another before finishing the half with three straight incompletions.

Still, Toronto rolled up 297 net offensive yards, converted nine-of-15 second-down chances and held the ball for more than 19 minutes. Polk had three catches for 104 yards and a TD.

Brown was 10-of-13 passing for 123 yards, much of that coming on the scoring drive. But Ottawa had only 113 net offensive yards and ran half as many offensive plays (19) as Toronto (38).

Kelly’s 47-yard TD pass to Polk at 4:57 extended Toronto’s lead to 28-0. It followed a 29-yard TD strike to Brissett 14 seconds into the second that was set up by Wynton McManis’s fumble recovery.

Kelly’s one-yard run at 14:12 of the first put Toronto ahead 14-0 and culminated a 14-play, 98-yard march. Carey opened the scoring with a one-yard TD run on third down at 5:07.

It was the seventh play of the 91-yard drive that followed Ward’s missed 43-yard field goal try.

UP NEXT

Argonauts: Visit the Edmonton Elks (6-11) on Friday.

Redblacks: Host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (7-10) on Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2024.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Lionel Messi and Inter Miami have put together the best regular season in Major League Soccer history.

Messi had three goals and an assist in the second half alone, Luis Suarez had a pair of first-half goals and Inter Miami beat the New England Revolution 6-2 on Saturday night, finishing the season with an MLS-record 74 points — one more than the Revolution had in 2021.

It was Messi’s first hat trick for Inter Miami, the team the Argentine superstar joined midway through the 2023 season in a huge victory for Major League Soccer.

At 22-4-8 in league play, Inter Miami finished the season with a .765 winning percentage for another MLS record. There were four teams — D.C. United (24-8) and the LA Galaxy (24-8) in 1998, LAFC (21-4-9) in 2019 and New England (22-5-7) in 2021 — that finished an MLS season with a .750 winning percentage, which was the top spot until Saturday night.

Now, the top spot is Inter Miami’s by any measure, both in terms of points and best won-lost-tied mark. Inter Miami also became the eighth team in MLS history to get through a regular season with only four losses, tying another record.

Messi — who played about 35 minutes and still scored three times Saturday — finished the regular season with 20 goals and 16 assists in 19 matches.

Suarez got to 20 goals in his first MLS season, his strikes — coming about three minutes apart — helping Inter Miami erase an early 2-0 deficit. Luca Langoni and Dylan Borrero had the goals for New England.

The rest of the match was all Miami. The team had a stage pulled onto the field after the match to recognize the Supporters Shield win, which the team claimed on the road earlier this month, and fired pink confetti into the air when time expired.

Suarez’s brace pulled the hosts into a tie by halftime and Benja Cremaschi scored the go-ahead goal in the 58th minute. Messi had an assist on Cremaschi’s goal, one that came just seconds after the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner subbed into the match.

There had been some question about whether Messi would play at all, especially since Inter Miami had already wrapped up the Supporters’ Shield and No. 1 seed in the MLS Cup playoffs. All that was at stake for Inter Miami on Saturday was the record.

And there was a scare in the 74th minute when Messi was fouled, yelled in pain and grabbed at his right ankle as he was on the ground. He’s missed 15 of Inter Miami’s MLS matches in 2024, either because of commitments to Argentina’s national team or the two-month absence that he needed to recover from a badly injured ankle — an injury that happened during his nation’s run to the Copa America title in July.

It was just a scare.

Messi scored about two minutes apart in the second half, turning a 3-2 lead into a 5-2 rout and it was only a matter of time before the record would belong to Inter Miami. And the capper came in the 89th minute, Suarez flipping the ball to Messi for an easy score that finished off the hat trick.

Next up for Inter Miami: Game 1 of a best-of-three first-round series, at home Friday night. It will be the first home playoff match in club history.

___

AP soccer:

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

MONTREAL – CF Montreal is heading to the Major League Soccer playoffs after an impressive late-season turnaround.

Caden Clark scored a goal and set up another as Montreal defeated New York City FC 2-0 on Saturday, clinching a post-season berth on the final matchday of the regular season.

Josef Martinez also scored with Montreal (11-13-10) needing at least a draw in the Decision Day matchup to guarantee its spot in front of 19,619 at Saputo Stadium.

Montreal climbed to eighth in the Eastern Conference and will host Atlanta United in the wild-card matchup on Tuesday. The winner will take on Lionel Messi and first-place Inter Miami CF in the first round.

NYCFC (14-12-8) dropped to sixth in the East and will kick off its playoff campaign on the road against FC Cincinnati.

Montreal’s playoff berth completes a late-season U-turn under first-year head coach Laurent Courtois. The tumultuous season has featured a nine-game winless run, the reported trade demand of since-departed MVP Mathieu Choinière and the exit of sporting officer Olivier Renard.

Courtois’s squad was one point from the Eastern Conference basement in early September before a five-game unbeaten run — including four wins — propelled it back into the post-season picture. Montreal could have clinched a playoff spot last game, but fell 2-0 at Charlotte FC on Oct. 5.

A year ago, Montreal fell 2-1 to the Columbus Crew on Decision Day. The team gathered on the touchline around an iPad to watch the New York Red Bulls beat Nashville SC 1-0 with a stoppage-time penalty that crushed Montreal’s post-season hopes.

On Saturday, Montreal jumped out to a 2-0 first-half lead despite a shaky start to the match.

Centre back Joel Waterman, who moved up into central midfield with Nathan Saliba out for yellow card accumulation, gifted the ball to NYCFC’s Keaton Parks at the top of the box in the 13th minute. Parks, however, shot the ball wide.

Minutes later, NYCFC continued to press for a goal and Montreal goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois leapt for a huge save on Tayvon Gray’s volley.

Clark opened the scoring in the 18th when Bryce Duke sent a ball into the box for Martinez, who played decoy and let the ball roll to his trailing teammate for a beautiful goal.

Montreal almost made it 2-0 four minutes later as Clark connected with Martinez, but NYCFC ‘keeper Matt Freese challenged the attempt successfully.

Clark and Martinez — two players in great form — linked up again in first-half stoppage time to make it 2-0.

With NYCFC appearing to wait for the halftime whistle, Clark chased the ball down the left flank and fought off a defender for a relentless individual effort. He then delivered a pass into the six-yard box for Martinez to cleanly tip home.

Martinez, a league MVP in 2018, has six goals in his last five matches. Clark, a midseason acquisition, has four goals and four assists in seven.

In the second half, defender George Campbell joined the offence with a strong run into New York’s box and nearly set up Clark for a brace.

Montreal otherwise parked the bus and let the time wind down with the comfortable lead.

New York held 57 per cent of possession, led the shot attempts 15-5 (4-3 for Montreal on target) and earned 10 corners to one for Montreal, but failed to beat Sirois.

Montreal exorcised some demons in the process, winning its third game against NYCFC in 21 meetings and the first since July 7, 2021.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.