Not for the first time—and probably not the last—Toronto FC has a bone to pick with Dave Gantar.
The MLS referee who calls Edmonton home night issued a controversial red card to left back Justin Morrow late in the first half of what turned out to be a 2-0 loss for Toronto FC against the hometown Columbus Crew on Saturday.
This wasn’t Gantar’s first gaffe when officiating a TFC match. Last September he waived off a perfectly valid goal by Gilberto for a phantom foul inside the 18-yard box. Had the Brazilian’s injury-time strike stood, the Reds would have walked away with a 2-1 win over the Chicago Fire. Instead, TFC settled for a draw.
But the Reds can’t blame Gantar entirely for what transpired in Ohio. Here are my three takeaways from the game.
Second-half capitulation
Morrow brought down Ethan Finlay on the edge of the box in the dying moments of the first half, but replays showed the TFC defender made a perfectly legal tackle in poking the ball away from the Columbus Crew midfielder. Not only was it not a foul, it didn’t even deserve a caution, never mind a red card. Gantar made the wrong call. Period.
Forced to a play a man down on the road, TFC were over-run by their hosts, conceding goals to Justin Meram and Kei Kamara four minutes apart in the second half.
Playing shorthanded, especially on the road, is tough for any MLS team. Still, I was expecting more of a resistance from the Reds, who seemed to wilt under the first sign of adversity and meekly accept that they were destined to lose. Sound familiar?
Overall, the Reds had to play smarter, and they didn’t. Down a goal, and playing in a “midfield two,” Michael Bradley decided to launch forward and press the Crew. It’s an aggressive move in an 11- v-11 situation. When you’re down to 10 men, it’s flirting with disaster. And so it proved to be. Bradley was caught up field when Columbus hit out on a quick counter through the space left vacated by the American. TFC’s defence, like on the first goal, didn’t properly deal with a cross into the box, and Columbus made it 2-0. The game was over at that point.
“We gave away a couple of chances, guys got free from us in the box,” coach Greg Vanney said after the game. “We knew we were going to be defending a fair amount of crosses. We needed to be very spot on about our marks and about covering certain spaces when those crosses were made.”
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Seba the great
Two games into his MLS career and Sebastian Giovinco is still searching for his first goal. But the Italian continues to be TFC’s most dangerous player in the attacking third, and he routinely shows flashes of brilliance with the ball at his feet.
Before the start of the season the former Juventus star admitted his preference was to play at the point of the attack, rather than out wide or in a withdrawn role behind the main striker. Against Columbus, Giovinco caused plenty of problems as the front-man in Vanney’s compact 4-3-3 formation.
The Italian’s quick movement allowed him to get into a number of scoring positions, and he even tried an audacious lob from the halfway line early on in the match.
“I think we were controlling things pretty well (before the red card). … We were able to get Sebastian in transition behind their (defensive) line where he had some good looks on goal,” Vanney said.
He didn’t score, but the Atomic Ant continues to influence games, and keep defenders honest and on their toes with his sublime movement both on and off the ball. Opposing teams are so focused on the Italian that it opens up space for teammates Robbie Findley and Jozy Altidore.
What is Bradley’s best role?
Having watched Bradley during his time in Serie A with AS Roma and Chievo Verona, I’ve always contended the American’s best position is as a box-to-box midfielder. Bradley has the legs and lungs to run for days, and by giving him the freedom to roam between the two 18-yard boxes, he can have a greater influence on the game.
For some reason, though, he continues to remain very deep and play more as a defensive midfielder. On Saturday, he acted almost as a third centre back—that’s how much he was on top of the back line. Last season, Bradley was the crucial link between defence and attack, and he routinely played the first pass out from the back out of necessity—neither Steven Caldwell nor Nick Hagglund were adept with making the first pass out from defence.
But things have changed. Newcomer Damien Perquis is a veteran centre back who has shown he’s comfortable on the ball and can effectively play it out from the back. And with a new central midfield partner in Frenchman Benoit Cheyrou, who can both protect the back line and play a more attacking role going forward, there’s no need for Bradley to play such a deep role.
John Molinaro is Sportsnet’s chief soccer reporter. Follow him on Twitter