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CONCACAF rejects Montreal's appeal on Evan Bush suspension; will miss CCL final

Reuters

Evan Bush will not partake in the most important match in the history of the Montreal Impact franchise.

The goalkeeper received a controversial yellow card in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League final against Club America last week, a booking that saw the 29-year-old suspended for the return leg due to accumulation.

Monday, the club announced that the caution, described by head coach Frank Klopas as a "joke," will not be overturned, thus forcing Bush to serve the suspension and miss Wednesday's decisive second leg.

"We believe that the card was a bad decision by the referee, but CONCACAF rules state that you can’t appeal a referee decision on a yellow card unless it was given to the wrong player," Impact technical director Adam Braz said in a statement. "We continue to look at all our options for Wednesday’s match."

As MLSSoccer explains, those options are not vast:

With Bush suspended, Eric Kronberg cup-tied due to his participation in the group stage with Sporting Kansas City and Maxime Crepeau not ready to play following injury, Montreal had dressed 26-year-old John Smits, on loan from FC Edmonton, as the backup goalkeeper for their last two Champions League games.

Various reports over the weekend suggested that the club was looking into the possibility of an emergency loan, using a loophole that would capitalize on MLS' single-entity system, to acquire a veteran goalkeeper to play in Wednesday's match.

However, that possibility seems to have been quashed by the league.

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