It's cold. It's rainy. It's damn near October and I'm looking forward to next season because this season's optimism is almost out and I need to restock for (expensive) Season V. Wonder how many will turn out for this benchmark in the old 5-year plan?
Starting XI
Conway
Usanov - Cann - Attakora - Garcia
Gargan - Vanilla - deGoo - Labrocca
DeRo - Maicon
Predictions
- Rain. Lots of it.
- Pain. Lots of it.
- One of the lame players gets lamer
- DeRo scores
- TFC 1, RSL 2
21 - GOAL - This. Is. Wrecked. Conway whips the ball HALF WAY DOWN THE PITCH. Then, of all people, Vanilla Peterson runs onto the ball, beats his marker and BURIES IT past Rimando bottom left. We are so sh*te and we're winning!
27 - Maicon is down and done. He gets walked off with a nasty looking goose-egg on his noggin.
31 - SUB - Maicon out, The Chad in. Good sub. How often have we been able to be comforted with a substitute.
34 - All Salt Lake right now in the Toronto half of the pitch, floating their balls at Conway. Wait. That sounded dirty...
41 - Crazy break with Vanilla, Chad and a late running DeRo. A little bit of pinball and Vanilla ends up with a header wide.
42 - Real Salt Lake free kick, Johnson lays it off for Beckerman who launches a shot at Conway.
45 - North End Elite's banner of "MLSE : Only $eeing Dollar $ign$" was held up again. Those guys are awesome.
1 min of extra time
Half Time mood : Not bad. Nobody's going for the throat at this point, and it's a giant feeling-out process. As if the first 2 minutes of a match was stretched out for 45 mins. Odd, but comforting.
Quote of the Match:
Thank God, we get a break from Glee.
~ Dom on the half-time silence from the front row choir
53 - YELLOW - Usanov for punching a shadow. No, I didn't see it...
56 - Vanilla rolls a dangerous ball in DeRo gets out of the way of a collision between Rimando and "Brick Sh!t House" Olave that puts both to ground, the scramble results in a squandered opportunity.
58 - DeRo rocket from 20 yards out parried away from Rimando. Great shot.
64 - SUB - Mista in, Peterson out. Confusing substitution as Peterson was having a wonderful game.
Announced attendance : 10 500 *cough*Bulls**t*cough* 7000 tops.
68 - GOAL - We were nervous about this. Free kick 20 yards out as Javier Morales loops the wall and gets handed over the line by deGoo (but not an own goal). Conway never budged.
72 - Labrocca sends in to Mista who's half-volley goes just wide of the mark.
77 - SUB - Labrocca out, OBW in. Labrocca was having a rough game, just anemic.
80 - TFC is playing with that intoxicating melange of desperation and carelessness. Oh end of season style... how I've missed you.
81 - Chad opts to pass when a shot would've sufficed from just right of the 6 yd box and three other Reds nearby. Opportunity missed.
90 - Conway comes up huge in a break out stopping someone. Gargan, not having the best game himself, could not catch his man.
3 minutes of extra time
90+3 - Conway almost undoes every positive by nearly bobbling a cross into the net but salvaged his own gaffe.
FULL TIME : Toronto FC 1, Real Salt Lake 1
This concludes our continental excursion as the 2-0 result for Cruz Azul over Arabe Unido eliminates TFC.
Man of the Match : Vanilla Peterson. I know, I berate him from the time the tannoy announces his name but he played very well. The finish was clinical, the passing was imaginative, the hustle was impressive. These are attributes I would never imagine heaping onto him. Attakora, great to see him back, would've been MotM, except I wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to give to someone I've wanted out for 4 months and deserved it.
Goat of the Game : This is rough... Gargan, Labrocca, Garcia, Usanov all had poor games. Not horrible, but poor.
Ref Rating : 4 out of 5. No howler-type calls. Let it move. Probably allowed a little more than necessary.
You could see the desperation creep into the match. I know I said it before, but it kicked in when they were up 1-0. Slowly but surely however , RSL made their way back into the match and effortlessly tied it up.
There's so much more to report, but short of flogging a terminal horse, the continental dreams have been dashed... and we sooooo longed for a Montreal-type run. But here's the bright side : we defeated one of the Top 50 clubs in the world (#36 as of August 2010 ranking) and got a draw down there. I say that's pretty impressive for a side that wouldn't break the top 200.
90+3 - Conway almost undoes every positive by nearly bobbling a cross into the net but salvaged his own gaffe.
FULL TIME : Toronto FC 1, Real Salt Lake 1
This concludes our continental excursion as the 2-0 result for Cruz Azul over Arabe Unido eliminates TFC.
Man of the Match : Vanilla Peterson. I know, I berate him from the time the tannoy announces his name but he played very well. The finish was clinical, the passing was imaginative, the hustle was impressive. These are attributes I would never imagine heaping onto him. Attakora, great to see him back, would've been MotM, except I wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to give to someone I've wanted out for 4 months and deserved it.
Goat of the Game : This is rough... Gargan, Labrocca, Garcia, Usanov all had poor games. Not horrible, but poor.
Ref Rating : 4 out of 5. No howler-type calls. Let it move. Probably allowed a little more than necessary.
You could see the desperation creep into the match. I know I said it before, but it kicked in when they were up 1-0. Slowly but surely however , RSL made their way back into the match and effortlessly tied it up.
There's so much more to report, but short of flogging a terminal horse, the continental dreams have been dashed... and we sooooo longed for a Montreal-type run. But here's the bright side : we defeated one of the Top 50 clubs in the world (#36 as of August 2010 ranking) and got a draw down there. I say that's pretty impressive for a side that wouldn't break the top 200.
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