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Toronto FC moves on after assured playoff opener against Union
Given the way the MLS Cup playoffs are set up, it’s not so much the best team in the league that wins the championship, but rather the team peaking at the right moment.
Toronto FC may not quite be peaking just yet but an assured performance in the club’s first playoff victory should turn a few heads among the teams still alive in the MLS Cup chase. Philadelphia wasn’t a world-beater by any stretch but with valuable contributions all over the field, Toronto put together one of its most complete performances of the year in a 3-1 victory Wednesday night at BMO Field.
“They looked ready and a lot of guys were saying the right things in the locker room. You could tell that there was a different intensity,” said head coach Greg Vanney, whose side moves on to face New York City FC in Sunday’s first leg of the home-and-away eastern conference semifinal tie. “When I gave my final words to them that’s what it was about. It’s playoff time. It’s going to be a street fight. A soccer game may or may not break out but we’ve got to be ready to compete and to scrap.”
Philadelphia came out sharper in the opening minutes but Toronto settled quickly and when Ken Tribbett lofted a dodgy pass back to his goalkeeper Andre Blake after a quarter of an hour, Jozy Altidore was right there to take advantage. With Blake stranded off his line, Altidore laid off deftly to Sebastian Giovinco for the wide-open finish and a lead that TFC would expand upon after the break via Jonathan Osorio’s 48th-minute goal. But it was not until the closing five minutes that Toronto was able to put the game to bed through Altidore, after Tribbett kicked a clearance off his own face and right to the TFC forward.
Apart from those opening moments and immediately following Alejandro Bedoya’s 73rd-minute goal that closed the margin to 2-1, Toronto was in control.
“The goal at the end was massive because that took a lot of tension out of the game when those final minutes were getting stressful,” said Vanney. “[Altidore] stepped up big. Obviously the play that he made to set Seba up was just working his tail off to get into the box, manhandling, winning space and then popping it over to Seba.”
With little rest between this one and Sunday, and against an opponent in NYC FC who will have had the week off, whether this was a case of the better team winning or a team building momentum at the most important time of all – or perhaps both, at least according to TFC – should quickly become apparent.
“It’s one of the reasons I came here — to play with guys like Sebastian Giovinco, Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley,” said Drew Moor, a crucial addition to Toronto’s backline this season. “When your big players turn in performances like that and all the role players step up as well, we’re going to be a difficult team to beat.”
