Toronto 1, Crew 1: Mistake Stains Home Opener (Dispatch)
Crew dominated the vast majority of the game until about the 65-70 minute. Freak accident own-goal by Padula ends up sending Toronto back up to Canada singing.
Bob Hunter: This Tie Amounts To A Win for Toronto (Dispatch)
Good article by Bob Hunter
Highlight Video of the Toronto v. Columbus game (MLSnet.com)
My Thoughts:
-We were without starters Frankie Hejduk (world cup qualifer), Alejandro Moreno (national team), and Robbie Rodgers (hamstring). In their place were D Jed Zayner, F Jason Garey, and M Alex Grendi. They were without Amando Guevara (world cup qualifier).
- We've got one heck of a defense. O'Rourke is the most improved player thus far from a season ago. Marshall is a beast and looked to be worth every penny that he's making. Padula had the best game I've ever seen him play yesterday, though that own goal was a terrible fluke. Our slide tackles were on POINT. Every time they'd try to drive it in on us, we'd come out with the ball. I take back what I said about us having the best midfield in MLS, but I think we have the best D in MLS. Even without Hejduk (who had a goal and an assist in a comeback effort for the U.S. National Team yesterday), we played magnificently on defense. Zayner was serviceable, but I'd much rather have seen Andy Iro out there.
- Hesmer really wasn't challenged very much. Again, amazing defense. There really wasn't anything Will could do about that own goal either. 'Twas a fluke.
- Ekpo looked like a completely different player in the 1st half of this game as compared to last game. Looked a lot more comfortable in the middle and created a lot of havok. Grendi looked pretty lost out there (especially on D) and if it wasn't for Padula, we'd have given up a goal from the right side. Gaven made some really dangerous runs and their left side couldn't guard him, but his final touches seemed off. Carroll looked amazing in the 1st, so-so in the 2nd... but he's still the most consistent player on this team. First time I'd seen Eleanio play... jury's still out there, I guess.
-Schelotto looks like he's in mid-season form. Scored his 2nd goal in as many games. No one in the league puts the ball where he can put it. His diving routine is getting old though. Surprised he didnt' get any yellows. Our team played drastically different (in a bad way) when we subbed him out of the game.
-Enjoyed Garey's hustle, but he's not starter material just yet. That hustle gave him some great chances late in the game though... just have to put the ball in the back of the net. Lenhart plays such a physical game at forward. Would have loved to see him get in earlier. I think we've got 2 great 12th men at forward in Garey and Lenhart.
-I'm not sure if our defense is really that good or Toronto's offense is really that bad, but Toronto's O looked terrible out there. They play a finesse type of game where they seem to rely on diving to get re-start opportunities and go from there. They were extremely fortunate to come away with a point yesterday.
And to contradict commissioner Garber, Toronto's fans are the crudest, rudest, and overall worst fans in MLS. Out of the 30 or so I talked to yesterday, there was only 1 that was cool.
- Without 3 starters out there, we looked like we just wanted to play long-ball out there, which is a style I hate. Just kicking a 50-50 ball down there to start the offense doesn't do much for posession. We've got to work more on matriculating the ball down the field. Hopefully with those three starters back in the fold, we won't see quite so much of that.
- Toronto chanted "This is our house! *clap*clap* *clap*clap*clap*" at varying points during the game. Including yesterday's tie, Toronto has a 0-3-4 record against the Crew. You can bring as many fans as you'd like to your away games against us TFC, but you have no bragging rights in Columbus and you CERTAINLY don't own us, let alone our stadium. I call shinanigans.
-We've played well enough to have 6 points in the standings, but we only sit with 2 right now. We've got to play better and finish our scoring chances. Bob Hunter's column pretty much says everything I'm thinking about that.
-2 tough road games coming up out west are next for the Crew (at Real Salt Lake & at Chivas USA). Should tell us a lot about how good we are right now at this point in the season.
