Yankee Stadium Ownership NYCFC 0 TFC 5

Toronto FC went into Yankee Stadium Sunday night and played through NYCFC as if those sky blue shirted players were made of swiss cheese. Score early, score often, keep a clean sheet, avoid injury and yellow cards. We TFC fans are just not accustomed to having everything go precisely to plan, but that is exactly what Toronto FC served up.

This morning I find the sun shining and my smile broadening and I confess that it is a strange state to be in. I don't think I was alone in looking towards the Yankee Stadium game with secret fears. It is glorious to be flying when you are so used to crashing.

I had a dream, an anxiety dream the night before TFC played this East Conference semi-final MLS Cup playoff game at Yankee Stadium.
In my dream things were bad and kept getting worse. First Michael Bradley was red carded early in the game. Then a second red card was issued to Aron Gunnarsson (yes, I am aware that he plays for Iceland as captain and Cardiff City, but my dream team TFC has flexibility).
Then for some reason my dream allowed me to be on the TFC bench and I was substituted into the game. Either, I then spent all my time trying to keep players from getting involved in altercations or they spent all of their time preventing me from picking up a red card. Then as dreams do... it faded into something else.

By the time I was sharing my recall of this dream with my family, TFC was already up 3-0 and laughing.

I have supported, faithfully attended games of, loved, blogged and thought about this team for 10 years now and the culture of things going badly must be woven deep into our fandom by now.

The final game of 2009 came to mind last night as Giovinco's hat trick brought the TFC total to 5. Season 2009 was Toronto FC's first chance at a playoff game. New York Red Bulls were the worst team in the East of MLS that year and it happened to be the final soccer game at Giant's Stadium. All Toronto had to do was win in New York and they would qualify for the playoffs.

Instead they lost 5-0. 

So when Giovinco scored late, not for a second did I feel that TFC were running up the score or making NYCFC look bad. It all made sense that a 5-0 score would put at least one aspect of TFC's haunted history to rest.

Now Toronto are to meet Montreal for the two game Eastern Final to qualify for the MLS Cup.

Am I still dreaming?

Michael Bradley played the entire game!?
Shocked that Aron Gunnarsson appeared to not be in uniform last night!?