Toronto in superb form, slew Crew TFC 5 Columbus Crew 0

Anyone who went to the stadium tonight expecting that level of excellence or that many goals has more confidence and insight than I could ever imagine. The game was off to a great start within the first 10 minutes with the Vazquez pass to Ricketts, the foul in the box and the Vazquez goal on the ensuing p.k. Yet feeling comfortable with an early lead is difficult against Columbus. I would not consider myself a fan of Federico Higuaín, but I respect his skill and heaven knows he has destroyed TFC many a time. So I watched him like a hawk. As long as he was on the field I worried. On a night scoring 5 goals it is easy to forget the effort and skill on the defensive side. 

Toronto FC put on a sweet performance tonight at BMO. Long before the goals started TFC had moments of footy poetry in motion out there. It seems that Captain Michael Bradley responds so well to the addition of Victor Vazquez to the midfield. They often moved about as a pair of midfield maestros benefitting from some excellent contributions from Chris Mavinga and Justin Morrow. It's a bit funny that both of Vazquez's goals were scored from dead ball situations, because he was all thoughtful motion and pinpoint passing tonight. I recall a moment in the second half when he was boxed in out on the left and he made a bad pass to the middle of the pitch that was pounced on by Columbus. It stuck out in my memory largely because it was a rare lapse. 

I think that at 3-0 Columbus threw in the towel and subbed off Higuaín. TFC's Delgado was given a red card after a collision with a Crew player. It happened so fast and I admit that because I had been following the path of the ball and first saw Delgado reaching for it, my first instinct was that Delgado had touched the ball and that the Crew player came in late. I have yet to see a replay, but I must be wrong on the sequence. Marky Delgado deserves credit for developing his game. He can still be a day late and a dollar short when the ball is at his feet... but he is covering a lot of ground and positioning himself well when defending. With Vazquez and Bradley running the show down the middle and Morrow and Beitashour on the flanks, Delgado is not going to shine as a star. He needs to shoot from distance more often, but that is a criticism I throw at all TFC midfielders (except Vazquez, he takes at least one long crack at net per game by my primitive stat memory).

It was such a dominant performance by TFC tonight that I felt just a tiny bit sorry for the Crew. A very rare feeling in all my years following the MLS. Usually I would only enjoy thumping Montreal more than downing the Crew.
Coming into tonight's game Columbus had a record of 6 wins, 6 losses and a tie. Not overpowering, but respectable for 5th place in the Eastern MLS standings. They might have figured, considering that they came to Toronto with Giovinco out due to injury and Altidore suspended due to yellow card accumulation.
Instead they encountered an onslaught. I would be sensitive to TFC running up the score with goals 4 and 5 if not for the fact that it was Osorio (beautifully set up by Hamilton) and Hamilton (beautifully set up by Edwards) that were doing the scoring. Both came off the bench and both are down the depth chart and fighting for playing time.

A rare night. I am just not used to walking away from the stadium thinking " well that was a work of art". A good feeling, that.

Just another masterpiece...