CFL.ca Staff
CALGARY — The kickoff for the 2009 Grey Cup is fast approaching and CFL.ca has you covered as we get set for the big game.
The storyline for the Montreal Alouettes will focus on the team’s inability to win Grey Cup games this decade.
It will be Montreal’s seventh Grey Cup appearance since 2000, but they have won only one of them, in 2002 in Edmonton. Losses followed in 2003, 2005, 2006 and, most cutting of all, last November at home against the Calgary Stampeders at Olympic Stadium.
The recent string of failures have been consciously ignored by this year’s Alouettes, whose second-year coach Marc Trestman has them focused only on the game at hand.
“It goes with coach Trestman’s motto, Win The Day,” veteran slotback Ben Cahoon said Saturday. “We’re not concerned about the past.
“The present is all we can control and if we do that, all the other stuff will take care of itself.”
The storyline for the Saskatchewan Roughriders will be the team’s position as underdogs heading into the 97th Grey Cup.
The Als may be favoured, but they aren’t the sentimental favourite in Calgary. A sea of green topped with watermelon helmets is expected to turn McMahon into home field for Saskatchewan.
Receiver Andy Fantuz hopes the din produced by ‘Rider Nation works in concert with the ‘Rider defence to disrupt the CFL’s best offence, directed by quarterback Anthony Calvillo, named the league’s most outstanding player this year.
“That 13th man . . . it’s just going to be a fun time,” Fantuz said. “There’s going to be a lot of green here.”
VIDEO PREVIEW
For the Montreal keys to victory please click here.
For the Saskatchewan keys to victory please click here.
CFL ON TWITTER
To track today’s game on Twitter you can follow these feeds:
Official CFL feed: @CFLca
Official Montreal feed: @mtlalouettes
Official Saskatchewan feed: @sskroughriders
CFL.ca columnist Matt Cauz: @mcauz56
GAME DETAILS
The 97th Grey Cup kicks off at 4:30pm local time (6:30pm ET). You can watch the game live on TSN.
For more information you can visit GREY CUP CENTRAL on CFL.ca.
-With files from The Canadian Press
