First you toss justice out the window. Toronto had a strong game. Ahead at halftime, they had weathered a rocky start and were showing more attack than one expects from them in New England. Then the TFC momentum was derailed when the ref threw out Chad Barrett on his second yellow early in the second half. Sure Barrett had been warned, but Alston of New England had been making something of nothing all game. Coach Cummins slammed Barrett after the game, but I think that may be more due to his policy of not complaining about refs than anything else.
Toronto defended well for the 40 minutes they were short, except for that one NE Rev goal where Heaps to Joseph to Jankauskas paid off in a goal. I thought Frei should have been coming towards the ball rather than leaning to his near post on that one, but hindsight is all I've got. Frei was up to the challenge other than that and the defending was solid. Sanyang subbed for Gerba was an interesting choice, might have been a birthday present. Gomez in for a tiring Brennan was a brilliant move. But give credit to DeRo for the entire 90 minutes. He scored the Toronto goal on TFC's new goal scoring strategy- Chad slams the ball off of Gerba's head and then DeRo puts it in on the volley. I was wondering if Gerba gets the assist or just a headache. DeRo's energy in the second half was a highlight. He kept pressing forward with faint hope counter attacks that had New England off balance.
It is funny how you can be down on the team and then your hopes bounce back with a surprising effort. Perhaps Puerto Rico will be an entertaining game after all.
2 comments:
You could see the second yellow was bound to happen even near the end of the first half it looked like the ref was warning Barrett. Maybe Cummins should have sub him off earlier.I thought the ref did a good job in the first half , but in the second half it seemed like a different ref (card happy). But overall it was a good effort, something to build on.
SECTION220
The highlights of the match for me were the substitutions of Sanyang and Gomez. Sure, Sanyang looked a little uncomfortable at first, but settled down into a more than acceptable first appearance. Gomez, as Jason de Vos commented, is showing a calmness in defence way beyond his years.
What would the team be like without Dero? Pretty bad, I think.
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