If there’s any silver lining in Toronto FC coughing up a late equalizer and settling for a 1-1 draw with last-place FC Dallas, the fans are probably thanking their lucky stars it wasn’t Jeff Cunningham who scored the tying goal.
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Cunningham may have scored over 100 goals in MLS, but the fans are unanimous that he was dogging it whilst wearing TFC red in the opening half of the 2008 season. Discontent hardened into hatred when the fella whiffed on a four-yard empty net sitter that would have crowned Toronto Canadian pro champs, and sent them off to the CONCACAF Champions League.
TFC was clinging to a 1-0 lead late Saturday afternoon when Cunningham returned, wearing Dallas’s Queen’s Park Rangers-tribute second strip. Almost immediately, he spitefully chop-tackled rookie Toronto goalie Stefan Frei, earning a yellow card and a resounding round of boos.
Not that I condone booing, but past a certain point, I understand it. Cunningham has taken a lot of Torontonians WAY past that point.
But while Cunningham did not, in fact, do the deed, his teammate Pablo Richetti back-heeled home the equalizer on 89 minutes, and TFC settled back into their uncomfortable habit of hairballing up late goals, frittering away points in a division where too many teams are vying hard for too few playoff spots.
Such an odd game.
The Reds looked squarely in command early, keeping the ball on the carpet, moving often and effortlessly deep into Dallas turf. At the half, they were up a goal, and looking good.
Funny stat, though. Dallas outshot them 11-4 in the first 45. TFC had the territory, FCD was doing all the shooting. Creeping proof, perhaps, of deficiencies in Toronto’s back four – except most of the shots were coming from well outside, where cutting them out is perhaps more of a midfield issue.
There were several spots where defensive middie Carl Robinson and pushing centre back Adrian Serioux didn’t seem aware of what each other were doing. Big gaps often appeared between them, and those gaps turned into Dallas shots.
We’re left, on the field, with a match Toronto could have won or lost. So I want to step back, and look at the roles of the higher-ups:
GM Mo Johnston is ahead on this one. Toronto’s lone goal was gorgeous. Serioux zipped in one of his bullet throw-ins from the right side, to a place where only TFC star Dwayne DeRosario could reach. DeRo then headed straight into the net, on a line Dallas ‘netkeep Ray Burse couldn’t have reached with a spamming mass e-mail.
A perfect goal – concocted by Johnston’s two marquee off-season signings.
On the other hand, head coach John Carver took an unexpected gamble when he tapped struggling striker Chad Barrett for the start. In three previous starts, Barrett has missed a lot. After the Seattle loss, it was roundly felt that newcomer Pablo Vitti and veteran fan-fave Danny Dichio had both done enough to earn a start.
Carver told the press post-match that he told Barrett before the match that he has faith in him, and to go out and play. Barrett did – missing two sitters, including an eight-yard room-service header that somehow sailed high and wide on a gaping empty goal net.
Now, I’m all for a coach encouraging a struggling player. But it’s the WAY Barrett is struggling that concerns me. Either he holds the ball until all his options vanish, or he rushes shots that fly everywhere but goalward.
Not every miss is an automatic goal, of course, but netting either of them would have almost certainly clinched three points for Toronto yesterday. And I’m certain most fans feel either Vitti or Dichio would have buried the empty-net sitter.
Barrett needs a breather, and the other strikers deserve a chance. The two teams play a quick rematch down in Texas next Sunday. It would be nice to see a retooled attack for that one.
The deeper lesson of this match, I think, is that we are going to see a lot of goals in TFC matches this season. Even when these Reds take care of the ball, they’re giving up bagloads of shots. Goals-against are a given, so the only real issue is how many will Toronto score, and can they group them efficiently enough to consistently bring home results?
The next two matches are both out-of-division. It would be good to get this straight, before the looming rematches with Kansas City and Columbus.
Thoughts?
Onward!