2016 Red Team Playoff Clinching Watch (aka Toronto FC 2016 MLS season thread)

[Dub Narcotic]

Bradley was killed by Bernier in the first half but ran the show in the second. I will say if he wants to go to Italy this off-season I would let him. I think you can someone on TAM money to do a pretty similar job and not be constantly gone for international duty.

Toronto had a very nice mid-season transfer window picking up Cooper and Ricketts, both have been difference makers in positions of real need.

I also thought it was a very enjoyable derby today, better than some of the atrocious EPL games this weekend. Lots of passion, some nice skill play and a vociferous crowd in Montreal along with two squads who have played each other long enough to develop a real dislike.

[TRM]

I also found the game very entertaining and fun to watch. Gio was very rusty and snagging Ricketts is looking more and more like a total genius signing. 3 goals in 370 minutes of action (20 Shots / 9 SoG) is very nice.

[GuillermoDelQuarto]

35 minutes ago, TRM said:

I also found the game very entertaining and fun to watch. Gio was very rusty and snagging Ricketts is looking more and more like a total genius signing. 3 goals in 370 minutes of action (20 Shots / 9 SoG) is very nice.

Yea, awesome game.  Easily the best showcase of the Rivalry that I've ever seen.  God I hope they meet up again in the post-season.

[Gian-Luca]

2 hours ago, Ivan said:

Agree on Bradley GianLuca.  I counted 5 blatant giveaways in the first half.  He took care of the ball much better in the second half. 

Except on the play which led to the PK call on Montreal's second goal, where he held on to the ball for far too long when he had about three open teammates making dangerous runs that he could have passed it to.

[Dub Narcotic]

To be fair to Bradley, both TSN and (apparently) ESPN highlighted how he was specifically being attacked by Montreal while in possession while getting no support from either Delgado or Cooper. The team needs at least one of Johnson or Cheyrou in there to help Bradley out building up from the back and Cooper should probably be playing the number ten role. One thing I like about Cooper is that he doesn't seem to give a shit about Giovinco and is perfectly content to play his own game.

[Yohan]

17 hours ago, Ivan said:

Agree on Bradley GianLuca.  I counted 5 blatant giveaways in the first half.  He took care of the ball much better in the second half.  For Impact fans:  Is Evan Bush really that good, or does he only stand on his head vs. TFC?

I'd say mtl had even chance to win CCL last yr if it was Bush in net vs some NASL replacement.

[Gian-Luca]

22 hours ago, Dub Narcotic said:

To be fair to Bradley, both TSN and (apparently) ESPN highlighted how he was specifically being attacked by Montreal while in possession while getting no support from either Delgado or Cooper. The team needs at least one of Johnson or Cheyrou in there to help Bradley out building up from the back and Cooper should probably be playing the number ten role. One thing I like about Cooper is that he doesn't seem to give a shit about Giovinco and is perfectly content to play his own game.

On the play in question Delgado did actually drop back to cover for Bradley - I'd have to watch the play in question again but my recollection was that Cooper was one of the many further-up-field options Bradley had to pass to but instead decided to do it all by himself (or at least, I think that was the decision, its difficult to know what he was thinking) so its difficult to put the goat horns on Cooper for this play if that was the case. TFC were in decent enough shape in terms of numbers but Morrow got fouled (or got beat, depending on one's point of view) which allowed Mancosu to get in behind him which is what then caused the run into the box (Morrow compounded the issue by a rash challenge which I don't think made contact but invited any striker worth his salt to go down).

Normally I think that Kristian Jack does an excellent job with analyzing the tactics and formation even though (as far as I know) he has no history of playing the game professionally - but I thought his comment that this play showed how valuable Bradley is to the team because it shows what happens when he's not there to clean up the mess was a ludicrous one. Bad errors made by DP's which lead to goals against should never be held out as an example of the positive value that a player brings to the team.

[to70]

Baldomero Toledo the referee for TFC game. Jair Marrufo for the Impact

[matty]

Just looked at the goal of the year long list. It's sad Endoh's back goal wasn't nominated.

[Gian-Luca]

23 hours ago, to70 said:

Baldomero Toledo the referee for TFC game.

Ugh. My optimism for this match just dropped considerably.

[BearcatSA]

Not a fan of the back three back line set up which Vanney has tried to shoehorn into place on too many occasions this season.

[Moldy9]

Giovinco just got taken down by a Philly player. Looked rather harmless and Toledo looked like he wasn't going to give a card until Bradley, Altidore and Co rush the ref to complain to influence him. This isn't the first time I see TFC do this, pretty good tactic of theirs to bitch crowd the ref to get what they want. 

[shermanator]

Solid win for TFC, although they looked really nervy in the first 10 minutes, and partway through the second half. For all the grief I give Hagglund, I thought he was very solid today. Osorio burying his chance was icing on the cake, and Ricketts was solid in his limited appearance.

[TRM]

Osorio has scored in 2 straight games .... somebody pinch me.

Oh yea, congrats to TFC for being the first Canadian team to win a playoff game.

PS.Edit. See below. Montreal won one last year against TFC. So now both Montreal and Toronto have won a playoff game.

[Dub Narcotic]

Bradley was fantastic as well, as were the fans. How great were the 'ole's? 

[Gian-Luca]

1 hour ago, TRM said:

Osorio has scored in 2 straight games .... somebody pinch me.

Oh yea, congrats to TFC for being the first Canadian team to win a playoff game.

Eh? Montreal seemed to do that last year, no?

[TRM]

1 hour ago, Gian-Luca said:

Eh? Montreal seemed to do that last year, no?

Right. Damn my mind is going. They made it by beating TFC then went on to the brawl in Columbus.

Of all the things I've lost I miss my mind the most 

So congrats to TFC on winning their first playoff game.

[Gian-Luca]

On 10/25/2016 at 5:52 PM, BearcatSA said:

Not a fan of the back three back line set up which Vanney has tried to shoehorn into place on too many occasions this season.

It will be interesting to see if Vanney sticks with this by the time we get to the second leg in NY - with that obscenely-narrow pitch, I'm not sure a 3-5-2 (or 5-3-2) set-up will be as effective as it would on any normal-sized pitch since there is no width to speak of. If he does go back to a 4-4-2 with a diamond, it would be interesting to see which of the three central defenders he'd drop - judging by last night's game, I would go with dropping his nephew and sticking with Hagglund who I thought was the only member of the back 5 not to make at least one bad giveaway (the other end of that scale was Zavaleta who rarely kept his team in possession). I had a quick look at the opta stats for this game and I see that these stats bear out this observation as Hagglund was close to the top while Zavaleta was right at the bottom - not just for TFC but for both teams - although how he managed to finish with more negative points than Ken Tribbett did is beyond me).

[to70]

Odds he will play it in the first game at BMO since NYCFC uses the same formation frequently. At Yankee Stadium my guess is he goes to 4-4-2

[Free kick]

On 10/26/2016 at 8:28 PM, Moldy9 said:

Giovinco just got taken down by a Philly player. Looked rather harmless and Toledo looked like he wasn't going to give a card until Bradley, Altidore and Co rush the ref to complain to influence him. This isn't the first time I see TFC do this, pretty good tactic of theirs to bitch crowd the ref to get what they want. 

I am sure you could find other teams who do this.

[Free kick]

The 3-5-2 formation did surprise me.  I thought that they would go back to four at the back with diamond midfield.  But overall, the team performance was very good from about the 10 minute mark until the end.  Philly was the ideal matchup for TFC.  

The big disappointment has to be the turnout.  Its rare to ever say that and i dont think that i have said that over the past ten years.   21-22k is one of (if not) the smallest crowds this year. There were large sections of empty seats in the upper decks.  Some people at game were blamming the exhorbitant prices but this was a playoff game.  There are exhorbitant prices for baseball and Nba playoff games too, but they still sell out their playoff games.  

[to70]

Petrescu is the ref for the first game. 2 of the 4 middles are Canadian. Drew Fiescher has the Galaxy game.

[to70]

On 10/26/2016 at 10:59 PM, Dub Narcotic said:

Bradley was fantastic as well, as were the fans. How great were the 'ole's? 

To me a big moment in the the game was when Bradley did a Canadian thing; he sent a message to Barnetta with that foul when he got the yellow. Prior to that Barnetta had a couple of nasty fouls on TFC players. Barnetta scaled his game back after that

[jonovision]

On 10/26/2016 at 7:28 PM, Moldy9 said:

Giovinco just got taken down by a Philly player. Looked rather harmless and Toledo looked like he wasn't going to give a card until Bradley, Altidore and Co rush the ref to complain to influence him. This isn't the first time I see TFC do this, pretty good tactic of theirs to bitch crowd the ref to get what they want. 

Altidore did this two or three times in the match, and I think it was a big factor in him later receiving a yellow card for a foul of his own.

[Unnamed Trialist]

I thought TFC played fantastically well at times, there were periods of very nice short passing, and then the confidence. So you sort of felt that even though Union looked like they could come back, you really did not feel they would. So TFC also controlling the game well. 

Altidore, probably the wrong day to say this, but boy is he sloppy at times, such bad decisions on the field for a player of his price. Mind you, Bradley is less of a player than he used to be too. TFC has to look at this, if you have success it is hard to change, but probably both could  be properly replaced without hurting results.