TORONTO – That’s it? We waited over two months for that?
Pity the poor moms who had to spend their Mother’s Day watching this one in person.
The rejuvenation of BMO Field didn’t extend to Toronto FC on Sunday evening, as the Reds looked limp in a 2-1 loss to the Houston Dynamo in their home opener of the MLS season. Will Bruin’s goal early in the second half stood up as the winner before an announced crowd of 30,226 fans at BMO Field. Toronto fell to 3-5-0 on the season and saw its modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Construction to BMO Field over the past few months forced TFC to play their first seven matches of the campaign on the road. The addition of an upper tier to the east stand and other improvements breathed new life into BMO Field, but the same could not be said of the Reds.
This was a timid and gun-shy performance from TFC, who only came to life after going down 2-0. Absence makes the heart fonder, and the Reds should have used this grand occasion to reconnect with their fans by showing more of a commitment to attack right from the start.
Instead, they cowered, sticking to the defensive game-plan that won them their last two games, not wanting to take any chances out of fear of being carved open. Understandable, but fortune so often favours the brave—especially against a Houston side that was winless in four and sits in second-last place in the Western Conference.
“You’re kind of product of your history and the way the season rolls. As a group we started to defend almost like we were on the road. We were sitting deep and waiting for our moments instead of going out and creating our moments,” Toronto coach Greg Vanney said.
He later added: “You have to give fans a reason to get behind us.”
Exactly. TFC didn’t do that this evening.
It’s only one home match, so there’s no need to press the panic button. That said, TFC will have to show more than this—a lot more, in fact—if it intends to make the new and improved BMO Field a fortress.
“No excuses. At the end of the day we talked about this being our home and being proactive and being the aggressors. … We started in a passive and reactive mode,” Vanney conceded.
“It wasn’t until the game came into question, really with the second goal, that we realized we might lose this thing and we better start to play with a little bit of urgency. It was too late.”
Not for the first time this season, captain Michael Bradley failed to cover himself in glory. The TFC midfielder committed a rash foul inside the box that led to a penalty and Houston’s first goal. On Houston’s second goal, Bradley was caught flat footed on the counter (although to be fair he was hardly the only TFC player culpable on the play) as Dynamo speedster Giles Barnes blew by him far too easily.
“Look, we should come in at halftime 0-0. I let us down and make a bad play to give up a penalty. And at that point, we’re chasing the game a little bit in the second half. We have to still be able to look at tonight, understand that the response in the second half when we went down 2-0 was good, but start to find the right mix and the right balance in terms of how we play at home,” Bradley said.
Houston winger Brad Davis did not travel to Toronto due to a hamstring injury. TFC was still missing injured defenders Steven Caldwell and Mark Bloom, and backup Chris Konopka started his third straight game in net with Joe Bendik nursing a foot problem.
While TFC sat deep and hit out on the counter before taking a number of long-range shots, Houston maintained possession and worked the ball deep into the attacking third, forcing the hosts to concede 10 corners through the opening 45 minutes.
Konopka stopped a rocket of a shot from Barnes midway through the first half. He then cut the angle on a Bruin shot from close range after Houston broke forward following a carless giveaway by TFC defender Nick Hagglund in midfield.
Houston continued to press and won a penalty just before halftime when Bradley lunged in and brought down DaMarcus Beasley. Konopka did well to save Boniek Garcia’s penalty attempt, but couldn’t stop the Honduran’s rebound.
The Dynamo doubled their advantage in the 53rd minute. Houston won the ball back off a throw-in deep inside Toronto’s half, then quickly went on the counter as Barnes scampered down the left flank. The Houston speedster blew by Bradley and Hagglund before playing a lovely through ball for Bruin to fire home.
It was a great run by Barnes, but it was far too easy for Houston—TFC was caught out in transition and too slow to respond.
“It started off our throw-in, and 80 yards away from our goal, which is unacceptable for that to end up in the back of the net. We had a number of opportunities to deal with it and didn’t,” Vanney stated.
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Toronto’s first piece of positive play didn’t come until the 77th minute.
Substitute Jonathan Osorio created space for himself with some fancy footwork inside the penalty area to deliver a great ball towards the far post. Jozy Altidore made the most of Osorio’s sublime service, nodding home for his team-leading fifth goal of the year.
Only after the goal did Toronto show urgency. But that urgency, along with the six minutes of injury time, wasn’t enough for TFC to salvage anything from this contest.
Altidore bagged the goal for Toronto and was named the team’s man of the match, an honour that should’ve gone to Konopka who made a number of important saves to keep TFC in the match. Konopka also came close to scoring the equalizer in injury time when he was left unmarked inside the box on a corner kick, only drive his header into the ground and over the crossbar.
“We left him in a couple of bad situations. … He gave us everything he had,” Vanney said of Konopka.
NOTES: Houston has a slight edge in the all-time series with Toronto, winning six of 18 meetings with four losses. The Dynamo have come away with points in four of their last five visits to Toronto. This is the only league meeting between Toronto and Houston this season. … Toronto hosts the Impact in the second leg of the Amway Canadian Championship semifinal on Wednesday after losing the opener 1-0 in Montreal this past week. TFC returns to MLS action on May 16 when it visits the New England Revolution.
