Montreal Impact’s Greatest-ever MLS-player - The Quarter Finals, Day 1

So we reach the quarter final stages with three of the favourites still alive and very much kicking, although two of them come head to head in one of today’s big match-ups.

It’s of course the clash between Nacho Piatti most people’s favourite to prevail overall in the competition, and Marco Di Vaio. Piatti should overcome Di Vaio, although it won’t surprise if the contest is somewhat closer than the results in Piatti’s run to the quarter-finals. He’s polled 86% in the group stages and 88% in the round of 16. Di Vaio is likely to provide a sterner test, however it’s unlikely the Italian can win more votes than the Argentinian.

But Di Vaio’s percentages have been impressive also, topping his group with 74% and hitting 88% in his round of 16 clash with Justin Mapp, so you just never know.

It is probably close in many people’s minds. There will be those that side with Di Vaio for sentimental reasons and there can be all kinds of reasons why someone favours one player over another, but in a linear poll like this one marginal considerations don’t exist. It’s black and white, a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ answer. So a large difference between the percentage scores may still occur even if fans are thinking that one player just shades it over the other.

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In the other quarter-final today, Patrice Bernier meets Davy Arnaud who squeezed through a dramatic round of 16 meeting with Bojan Krkic in which the lead changed hands several times. The American eventually prevailed, narrowly, with 52% of the vote, but now it gets even tougher in the battle of the first two IMFC MLS captains.

Bernier will assume the mantle of favourite for this one, after polling impressively in both the group and the round of 16, where his percentage vote shares were 67% and 83% respectively.

The winner of the Arnaud/Bernier quarter-final will face the winner of Bush/Donadel in the semi-final, while Piatti or Di Vaio faces the winner of the Oyongo/Taider quarter-final in the other semi-final.

Photo by Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images