Giovinco's MVP quality on display as Toronto FC advance to all-Canadian MLS east final

NEW YORK – Any worries that Toronto FC was going to find a new and creative way to break fans’ hearts after reaching dizzying new playoff heights were banished in just six minutes.

Once again, Sebastian Giovinco proved that he is the best investment an MLS club has ever made when he toyed with the New York City FC back line, scoring early, then winning a penalty and adding a second goal from the spot before finishing his hat trick in the final moments.

He may not be among the finalists for league MVP (which is lunacy, by the way), but as has been said before, he is the best player the league has ever seen.

“His priority is winning a trophy (MLS Cup) but I think last year, I think he took a lot of pride that he was winning the MVP,” said head coach Greg Vanney. “He was every bit the same player over the course of the season. He was just unfortunate to have a bit of an injury down the tail stretch. He still finished with the most points in MLS so I’m not quite sure how he gets overlooked. Tonight is an opportunity for him and the group to make a statement.”

There have been six hat tricks in TFC’s ten-year history. Giovinco has five of them, this latest coming in a 5-0 road victory that, coupled with a 2-0 win in the first leg at BMO Field, made the final two-game aggregate count a lopsided 7-0 in favour of Toronto.

When Giovinco scored in the sixth minute, it kicked off a party in the section crammed with red-clad fans at Yankee Stadium that lasted the remaining 84 minutes and beyond.

As Toronto poured forward with ease time and again, NYCFC simply crumbled. Gone was the top-scoring group in MLS, replaced by a shadow of a team whose designated players Andrea Pirlo, David Villa and Frank Lampard were reduced to high-priced spectators.

In addition to Giovinco, Jozy Altidore was remarkable in first providing a lovely little chip pass that led to the first goal and then finishing Toronto’s third with aplomb from a tight angle in what was the best 30 minutes any Toronto FC team has ever played.

“When Jozy and Seba play like that, all 11 players on the other side have to worry about them,” said defender Drew Moor, who put in another quality shift in helping to shut down Villa’s scoring threat. “That opens up space for other players. It allows us to organize quickly defensively and high up the field.”

The win sets up a mouth-watering Eastern Conference final (at least for potential Canadian television ratings, though perhaps not south of the border) between Toronto and the Montreal Impact. The winner will be the first ever Canadian team to qualify for the MLS Cup final.

Montreal put up an equally famous victory by going on the road to beat New York Red Bulls 2-1 and claim their semifinal by an aggregate 3-1.

“It will be fun. I imagine it will be a great atmosphere in both games,” Moor said. “We’ll have a couple of weeks to put together a game plan. They’re playing extremely well right now but it means a lot to both sides of fans and means a lot to us as well.”

Until such a time that Canada’s men’s national team can achieve any measure of success, this may be as good as it gets for men’s soccer in Canada: A collection of players (or in the case of this season, two collections of players) largely pulled from abroad with a few Canadians mixed in, bringing success to the Canadian cities they represent.