Ahh, long weekend here in 'The Canadas' (we've discovered that we have readership in Sweden and Malaysia) and I'm at home with nothing to do except get on my perch and comment about pro footie. For those of you who are wondering, I am not standing watching the match at home. I tried it once, kinda felt stupid. Especially with nobody standing in my way. Oh well.
Toronto, fresh off a personally satisfying display against Puerto Rico, gets back a few regulars from injury, including Serioux and the public-relations darling Gambian kids who are on the bench. There's still good odds that they are a figment of our imaginations... but we'll see when they're subbed way too late into the match.
I'm a little late in the reporting as I was watching Big Bang reruns. Man that's a good show. Maybe I'm crazy, but it's the best sitcom on network TV and that blonde
Anyways, there's a game on so enough gabbing.
12 - YELLOW - Gerba for diving. Looked kind of weak flop and surprising from a guy of his size to throw himself to ground on something so flimsy. The WSBK play-by-play guys used the phrase "not in our house" just like a professional top-flight television commentator would.
15 - Barrett fights deep in the corner, but the fro'd Alston fights even harder to clear the ball. Impressive defending.
18 - Gerba lays a shot off to Vitti, but Alston gets in front for a deflection. This kid is a machine.
20 - Vitti hits the woodwork off of his head. We should know that his feet don't work like that.
26 - Vitti takes a Gerba pass and fires it straight at Matt Reis. I mean, right at him.
28 - Kenny Mansally draws a free kick after trying to flying shoulder tackle him fails and sends him to the ground. That's a busted call. He's lucky he didn't bounce into the third row as he's done to other poor Vancouver wingers.
34 - GOAL - DeRo fires a rocket after a Barrett shot deflects off of Gerba and right onto the path, full volley later and the good guys are up. Accidental yet pretty. Deserved one of those against the Islanders and we'll need one on Tuesday.
36 - YELLOW - Barrett gets carded after getting bumped off of the ball by Alston and The Chad chucks him to the ground.
37 - Alston threads to Dube who leaves it to Jankauskas who beats the keeper, but not the other three defenders, leaving enough time for Frei to get back and make a very easy save. They should've scored on that, but they didn't.
Wow, $20 to see New England against L.A. Galaxy and David "Better than here" Beckham. Advantages of playing in a 70,000 stadium or Kraft isn't down with fleecing his supporters?
43 - Gerba gets closed down by three defenders and fakes a nice pass for DeRo to just be able to draw a corner. Ensuing corner results in Reis' Pieces with the easy save.
HALF-TIME : Not too shabby.
51 - RED - The Chad gets his second booking after a late tackle on Alston. The way Alston was ruining Barrett's flow, this isn't terribly surprising.
57 - The "Altogether, altogether, hey, hey" chant actually has a consistent rhythm. So that's what it's supposed to sound like?
59 - YELLOW - Serioux a little late on the tackle.
67 - Toronto is doing the usual "8 men behind the ball" trick, but without the panic and desperation that usually plagues them with so much time left on the clock.
69 - Toronto corner after much defending over the last 20 mins. Forgot what that end of the pitch looked like.
71 - Vitti loops a cute low ball over the defenders, only to have Reis get to it before Gerba does.
Seriously, why hasn't anyone else other than me make a connection between 'Wee' Jimmy Brennan and 'Cowboy' Bob Orton? Is he really injured? When I find a picture of Orton, I'll post it, but some of you aren't old enough to know (but somehow think Hogan was a 'good' wrestler).
75 - SUB - Sanyang in, Gerba out. Crossing the Gambian off of my mythical persons list. Santa, Easter Bunny and TFC's designated player still remain.
76 - GOAL - Cross through the 6 yard box, Joseph with a nice touch back and Jankauskas slides it past Frei. Solid goal.
78 - DeRo marauds down the right wing and buries a shot low and into the side of the netting.
81 - It seems like the whole footballing world has figured out how to defend against Toronto. It seems like, offensively positionally anyways, TFC play well, but the defenders know EXACTLY how to lock them down. So odd and frustration
86 - SUB - Emmanuel Gomez in, "Wee" Jimmy out. This would be the other Gambian.
88 - Videira loops a ball that Frei gets in front of.
88 - Back the other way, Sanyang fires a shot resulting in a corner. Ensuing corner has Gomez heading the ball back into the box and Serioux bicycle that left him shaken up. At least they're attacking even being down a man.
90 - ummm is it a RED? - New England boss Steve Nicol has been ejected. No mention for what.
4 minutes of added time
90+2 - Gomez makes a lovely tackle in his own box with full composure. Wonderful touch.
90+3 - YELLOW - Garcia for apparent time wasting. Unnecessary but whatever.
FULL TIME New England 1 : Toronto 1
Man of the Match - DeRo. Forgetting the cracker of a goal he bagged, his hustle is something else. I also think Alston for New England is amazing so he gets a sympathetic vote.
Goat of the Game - none. Subs came at the correct time.
Ref meter - 4 out of 5. Only a blindly biased supporter would see those cards are screw ups. Not perfect, but not bad.
Meh, not a bad game. Toronto looked sharp at times, which is more than I can say for most road matches that I've viewed (which are admittedly, few and far between).
Plenty to look forward to on Tuesday when Toronto head to Puerto Rico for the MOST IMPORTANT GAME EVER PLAYED EVER ANYWHERE... EVER Part II
Posts
Chad you donkey! I know we keep having a dig at the bloke but for goodness sake he has more cards per match than my Granny had for her 100th birthday. Get a grip man place nicely with all the other children in the playground.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I am surprised by the number of cards dished out at TFC games, you have to send a player to the intesive care unit here in the UK before a player gets carded, as for the manager leaving the field what went on there?
Well I look forward to Tuesdays game and the posibility of another arse kicking.
Keith - Earl of Mendlesham
For the first time Chris Cummins called out one of our players in a post game interview. He aimed right at the Chad for his sending off. Firstly I'm against calling out players and second he wasn't fair to the Chad. I thought Cummins should have recognized he was in the pocket of the NE defender and was clearly frustrated. He should have made an adjustment but left him out to dry and he was suckered into a second yellow card. I said in the first half this would happen. I think Cummins should take some blame for this.
ReplyDeleteRO.