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The first leg of the Eastern Conference final was supposed to start at 8:00 AM EST. There was a 20-30 minute delay as the grounds crew had to repaint the lines around the penalty boxes.
During the pre-game warmup, game officials noticed that the lines did not comply to the standards. The original lines were covered with green tape and the grounds crew had to repaint the lines. Both teams were asked to go back to the locker rooms during that delay.
Joey Saputo shared his concern to ESPN
After the game, Richard Legendre (an executive VP with the Montreal Impact) added that it was " essentially it's a human mistake, done by our crew".
That mistake was of about two metres on each side.
#MLS Eastern Conference Final delayed due to Montreal Olympic Stadium 's artificial turf @KanFootClub #IMFC #MTLvTOR pic.twitter.com/pI2Oec2CIF
— Syd F. (@Solambey) November 23, 2016
The Seattle Sounders and the crew at Century Link Field made sure not to be on the front page of the soccer world for the wrong reasons
Don't worry everyone. We measured, we're good. #SEAvCOL #MLSCupPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/S68WWUGlJL
— CenturyLink Field (@CenturyLink_Fld) November 23, 2016
#Tapegate The goalkeeper area was deemed too small. So the green tape is the old limitations. Game delayed #MTLVTOR #imfc pic.twitter.com/beAu6ZkfQu
— Sofiane Benzaza (@sofianebenzaza) November 23, 2016
Note how far hash is from box. Penalty area looks to be three yards shy of regulation. Joke. #TFCLive pic.twitter.com/bw7dccrufR
— Kurtis Larson (@KurtLarSUN) November 23, 2016