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MLS PLAYOFFS MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 16, 2016Sebastian GiovincoQ. Sebastian, can you provide an opening statement on the Audi 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs Conference Championships and what this rivalry game against Montreal means to you? SEBASTIAN GIOVINCO: It is an extremely important game for everybody, and for us, nothing really changes approach-wise and attitude-wise. And we are ready to face it in the best possible mindset. Q. Sebastian, obviously you had an injury a little bit late in the season, but how difficult was it to come back, and do you feel like you're back to your best now? SEBASTIAN GIOVINCO: Nothing happens by chance, and the timing of the injury, although being unfortunate, maybe had a lesson to teach. And now I am back in my best possible shape. Q. How does the game in Montreal change by it being moved to Olympic Stadium, both with the change in the playing surface since it's artificial turf and just being so much in a bigger venue, and it's going to be 60,000 people and how excited are you to play in front of a crowd like this? SEBASTIAN GIOVINCO: Soccer is the most beautiful and most popular sport in the world and deserves huge attendance, and we can only be more inspired and supported by more people. So the more people, the better for us and the more exciting for everybody. And pressure-wise, obviously it is going to be on us as much as it's going to be on them. As far as the surface, of course, we would like to get to this point to such important games and playing the best possible conditions, but that's just one factor among many others in the game. Q. Do you think that the fact that new teams like Montreal and Toronto are heading into the finals, is that a good thing for the League since it's always the same teams that make it to the final? Do you think it's a good thing for the MLS? SEBASTIAN GIOVINCO: To the conference final, only the best teams in the conference get to the finals. So this year, this season we proved to be the best, along with Montreal, and these two teams deserve to be in the finals. Q. Sebastian and Greg could probably both answer this. I'm just wondering for Sebastian, what's the most difficulty or the biggest challenge playing on artificial turf field and also Greg's thoughts about the game being on artificial turf surface. SEBASTIAN GIOVINCO: So the choice obviously has been done by Montreal, by the Impact. So obviously the pressure, and they made the choice probably to guarantee the maximum support and participate their own team. In reality the pressure of a choice is on them, not on us. We just prepare to play our game on whatever surface, and what I expect is a very defensive game on their part, and we'll get ready for that. Q. Given that these two teams met last year in the playoffs and it came to a disappointing end for Toronto. Does this year's chance to make amends for that add something special alongside of it being a rivalry match? SEBASTIAN GIOVINCO: It is just an additional motivation for me and the whole team to do better than last year and erase last year's memory. Q. Sebastian, can you talk about the home field advantage that Toronto had at BMO Field now that it's bigger and expanded, and also, there was some difficulty for the team late in the season to win home games. Was there something in particular that the coach addressed to correct that problem heading into the playoffs so your home game will be once again a home field advantage as you had so often during the regular season? SEBASTIAN GIOVINCO: This is not the moment in time to think at all about the second leg of this competition. Right now we are focused and I am personally focused on the first game which is going to be the most important task at hand at this point in time. Q. Sebastian, I'm always curious to hear what players who come from other countries think about our very unique North American system of playing a very long season and then deciding the champion with only a few games in a playoff that 12 teams get to participate in. So do you like it? Do you not like it? Do you think it's fair? What do you think about the way we decide our champion here? SEBASTIAN GIOVINCO: I personally like the change, and the change in regime from one way of playing to the other, from the regular season to the playoffs. And I've experienced last year and I really liked it, this year even more, of course. And once we know and I know what we are going to face, then we just focus to get prepared and get ready for what the task is going to be. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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