TORONTO— July has historically been the month when Toronto FC’s Major League Soccer season begins to fall apart. Not this year, though.
Sebastian Giovinco scored his 12th goal of the campaign and helped set up two others as TFC earned a convincing 3-0 win over the Columbus Crew on Sunday night before 23,979 fans at BMO Field.
With a second consecutive win, Toronto (8-7-6) moved up to third in the Eastern Conference, a point behind the New York Bulls with two games in hand.
Who’d have thought at the start of July that the Reds would be in such a good spot by the end of the month, what with the club mired in a major injury crisis? Toronto ended up winning three of six games in July, taking 11 out of 18 points, and recording two clean sheets. The Reds haven’t yet found their peak at the midway point of the summer, and that’s pretty encouraging.
The challenging portion of the schedule isn’t over just yet, with two games next week, and a handful of key players still expected to remain on the sidelines. But Toronto has displayed great resolve over the last four weeks, and shown that, perhaps, it has greater depth than it usually gets credit for from some critics.
What’s been the key to TFC’s success in navigating a tough July slate of games with a number of important starters out injured? Coach Greg Vanney credits his players with growing in confidence while in possession.
“We have a group out there that are working hard for each other and they respect that it’s not going to be prefect all the time. They continue to do the work and try to cover for each other. We have smart soccer players out there, especially in the back line where there is a lot of experience,” Vanney stated.
In addition to the continued absences of goalkeeper Clint Irwin and midfielders Michael Bradley and Will Johnson, the Reds were also missing a fourth starter on Sunday due to an injury to Benoit Cheyrou. Marky Delgado started in his place in front of the back four. Jonathan Osorio was back in the starting lineup after missing last weekend’s game due to illness.
Cheyrou’s minor hamstring strain meant Vanney had to go with a young and somewhat inexperienced foursome in midfield: Delgado (21), Osorio (24), Tsubasa Endoh (22) and Jay Chapman (22).
The youngsters, though, more than held their own on this night, working in unison to create scoring chances, and helping the defence shut down the Crew’s dangerous attacking duo of Federico Higuain and Ola Kamara.
“I don’t, by any means, think it was perfect, but they are four guys who can have big engines, and can cover ground, are responsible, and are looking to do what they can to help the team. They’re not guys who are looking [to take a] play off, or a minute off or a second off,” Vanney said.
He later added: “I would bet that not many people would see us put that lineup out and bet on us, and we took it to them on the day. I’m very proud of them.”
Jozy Altidore, one of TFC’s goal scorers on the night, also had high praise for the young quartet.
“Those guys kept everything moving along,” Altidore said.
It didn’t take the kids long to get involved in the proceedings and leave their mark. In the eighth minute, Delgado pressured a Columbus player deep inside his zone and won the ball. After creating the turnover, Delgado started a quick passing play that ended with Giovinco’s shot from 25 yards out taking a wicked deflection off the back of Endoh and curling just inside the far post.
If Toronto’s first goal was down to luck, then the second one was pure class. Justin Morrow and Osorio exchanged passes down the left before shifting the ball in the middle to Giovinco. The Italian made a quick turn and run, fed a pass to Chapman, and then received a sublime ball back from the Canadian before firing a shot from just inside the box past goalkeeper Steve Clark in the 24th minute.
Chapman could have scored just before halftime after Morrow set him up all alone at the top of the penalty area, but the young Canadian’s side-footed attempt was tipped over the crossbar by Clark.
Clark came up big again just after the restart, getting down low to deny Giovinco after he found himself with a clear shot on goal from in close. Moments later, the Italian hit the post on two consecutive shots on the same sequence of play, including one off a nifty back-heeled pass from Altidore, who came on as a second half substitute.
Altidore made it 3-0 in the 87th minute when his shot from deep inside the box took a deflection and dipped over Clark. It was the first goal of the season for the American forward, who only returned to action last week after being out since mid-May with a hamstring injury.
This has been a very tough year for Altidore, but he’s maintained a pretty positive attitude throughout it. Afterwards, there was no sense of relief from Altidore over finally scoring. Instead, he talked about his love of the game.
“It’s been my dream as a kid. To sit more than two months and watch every game from the stands and train alone, it’s so hard to mentally to stay in it. To finally get back out there and be under the lights again, to just play soccer, it’s fantastic,” Altidore said.
NOTES: This was the third and final match of the season between Toronto and Columbus — the previous two contests ended in draws. Columbus leads the all-time series with 12 wins and eight draws in 26 meetings… Sunday’s game is the second in a run of four straight at home for the Reds, who will host Real Salt Lake (Aug. 3) and New England (Aug. 6).
