For Toronto FC, this was a textbook case of how to lose a match to a lower-division opponent.
In Wednesday’s franchise debut in the CONCACAF Champions League, our Runnin’ Rushin’ Rebuilt Redcoats ® knew exactly what was coming … and managed to faceplant anyway.
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In strong and loveable TFC tradition, they now have to overcome a 0-1 deficit, on the road in a tough, hostile park, or dreams of continental glory shall be set to the curb with the trash – something that is almost possible again up here, following a long and bitter city strike.
It’s not like there was any surprise about what the upstart Puerto Rico Islanders (CCL semi-finalists back in February) were going to do.
Pack the midfield, fall back into a defensive bunker, and try to burn Toronto on the counterbreak.
So TFC sent out Dwayne De Rosario, Pablo Vitti, Ali Gerba and Chad Barrett – which should have given them enough creating, ball-moving ability to seal the deal.
Thud.
(Sidenote: Urban legend: Working journalist gives back free beer at TFC fan bar.)
(True! And I know because I’m the guy that did it.)
(Pre-game at an anonymous beverage dispensary which shares its name with a famous Toronto landmark a few blocks down the street. The draft taps are not happy. Foam everywhere. I don’t always drink beer, my thirsty friends, but when I do I prefer an icy pint of draft. The odds are looking … bad.)
(Then, miraculously, the bar gal pulls two consecutive decent-looking pints out of the tap right in front of me. “I’ll have one of those,” says I. Halfway through the pour, fa-whooooooomph! Out rockets a spurt of foam evil enough to break any discerning beer-lover’s heart. She battles with it, scraping away bubbles, pouring actual beer, but she knows the fight is lost. She gives me the ill-born libation, “on the house.”)
(I appreciate this – the gesture, anyway – and naively take a heady swig. Stale. Don’t care. Thirsty! Exhausted! Need beer! Swig two – bad stale. My fevered synapses haven’t retained whatever odd justification set up swig three. Appallingly stale.)
(I put a free glass of beer back on the bar, and walked away. Thirst was unsatisfied, but the urban legend is true.)
(Where were we? Oh, right …)
Thud.
Let’s be clear. This game wasn’t lost because of the two wonderful saves Puerto Rico goalkeeper and designated time-waster Bill Gaudette made late on both Jim Brennan and Danny Dichio.
Nor was it fried when TFC target man Ali Gerba was flagged for a questionably narrow offside. That ball only went in the net because the defenders quit when the flag went up. Bad call, I thought (body leaning but feet level), but far from a disallowed goal.
This was a far-too-predictable case of concrete and counterbreaks – one that shows how far Toronto FC still has to go.
Puerto Rico had a good share of the play early. But as soon as the ball would turn over, they would fall back in numbers, taking up positions just left and right of any red jersey in the vicinity. This meant Toronto’s point men – usually Cronin or Barrett – were staring at 3-on-8s when they tried to spring a striker.
Folks, you are never going to beat a 3-on-8 with slow passes on the ground to immobile teammates. Cronin alone served up that misplay at least three different times.
The situation properly calls for air support. A good rain of consistent crosses. Glaring problem is, though, unless Jim Brennan is playing left wing against a last-place MLS team, Toronto FC has never been even as good as sub-adequate at crossing the ball.
The one clear set of chances they were gifted in this match? Corner kicks. The home side out-cornered the visitors 11-0 on the night. So – why do we always have to have two men in the corner? What is the ongoing fascination with short corner kicks?
Puerto Rico saw this coming, and then some! On one kick, they took their defenders off the post. DeRo rolled the ball eight feet to Cronin, who tapped it right back – causing a “we-don’t-do-this-in-grade-school” offside.
Then there’s the obligatory corner kick on the ground to Carl Robinson moving up from defensive midfield. Toronto likes this play because it worked once. It hasn’t since.
Too many wasted chances, in other words. As good as Gerba is at shredding defenders north-south, he struggled mightily to free himself from guys just standing beside him. No doubt a healthy Amado Guevara would have ruffled the ‘Ricans. He’ll have to now, in the return leg next Tuesday.
Coming back the other way, youthful Gambian Emmanuel Gomez – forced into action by injuries to defenders Nana Attakora and Adrian Serioux – absorbed a lot of pressure and showed good composure in his competitive debut.
But 67 minutes in, a Puerto Rico counter forced a free kick, and by the time Toronto goalie Stefan Frei fumbled it and the back four vacated, Islander ballhawk Kendall Jagdeosingh found twine from a bad angle for the game’s only goal.
TFC coach Chris Cummins was miffed about the misplay, saying he’d been telling his players all week the one-and-only thing Puerto Rico does on set pieces, and that’s exactly what they did and they scored.
The game actually looks a lot better in the highlights than it did going by in real time. That’s because the highlights don’t show all the wearily fizzled short-pass plays to nowhere.
Toronto, charitably, did enough to win this match, and that bodes well for a desperately needed away win in a tough and sweltering Caribbean park next week.
But the Reds also wasted more than enough to lose. And that is where the improvement – crosses, mobility, give-and-goes – is going to have to come.
Thoughts?
Onward!