Full disclosure, I made my choices and in the face of the results I stand by those choices. I had the opportunity to go see a pointy ball game in Hamilton against the much-hated rivals about 4 months ago, and I chose that over some random-ass home game near the end of the season against Red Bulls.
Also full disclosure, the other game I went to, the home team blew it in spectacular fashion against the much-hated rivals. Meanwhile, at that game that I passed on, the Mighty Robins clinch the Supporters’ Shield. Like, who the hell would have predicted that 4 months ago, the game that I would pass on, would be the penultimate match where they clinch the silverware.
So now it’s Sunday. While everybody is nursing the celebratory hangover, I’m about to experience this for the first time. I know the outcome, I know who scored, I know the order of the goals, but somebody’s got to do a report.
Any predictions I offer with just be jokes. So…
Bold Predictions :
- A non-DP will get a hat trick (woah!)
- Vazquez will score
- Altidore will find a way to not play the next home game against Montreal
Onto the Match :
31’ – GOAL – Vazquez pops a ball over to Altidore, Robles makes a mess of it, Morrow picks up the loose ball and slots it in.
ROBINS 1, ENERGY DRINKS 0
37’ – GOAL – Good hustle from Ricketts to get the ball back to Bradley, fires it… Or passes it, and Morrow is on the doorstep to pop in his second.
ROBINS 2, ENERGY DRINKS 0
39’ – GOAL – I’m watching this, thinking Red Bulls are never going to get back into this, and, BAM! A string of four passes from their end, Royer to Adams to Veron and he slides it past Bono. Pretty.
ROBINS 2, ENERGY DRINKS 1
42’ – Delgado sends Ricketts through, Ricketts chips the caught out Robles, but hits the post. Morrow gets the rebound but there’s not enough space to get his hat trick.
Surely Morrow will be substituted soon #noHatTricksAllowed
45’ – Bradley has a go from 20-plus yards out, and beats everyone but the post. Damn.
Halftime Mood : should have had a few more, but, I’ll take it.
46’ – Mavinga bails out the Toronto defense after New York pull a cute 1-2 just inside the penalty area, with an excellently timed tackle.
60’ – Delgado fires in a half-volley, finds Ricketts’ head, and Robles makes an outstanding save.
72’ – SUB – Hasler off for Beitashour
75’ – SUB – Ricketts off for Osorio
76’ – PENALTY – Veron gets tackled down by Moor. No question
77’ – GOAL – Royer pots it
ROBINS 2, ENERGY DRINKS 2
79’ – PENALTY – Altidore gets the ball into the box, hauled down by Long
80’ – GOAL – Vazquez buries it low and to his right
ROBINS 3, ENERGY DRINKS 2
82’ – YELLOW – Altidore clatters into Long and gets booked. Apparently he’s suspended for the game versus Montreal.
5 mins of extra time
90’ – SUB – Vazquez comes off for Cheyrou.
90+1’ – GOAL – Altidore pulls a beautiful ball across the face of goal, just out of the reach of Osorio, but Morrow flies in to get to it and slide it into the goal. Fabulous efforts.
ROBINS 4, ENERGY DRINKS 2
Full Time : Toronto 4, Red Bulls 2
Man of the Match : Morrow
Goat of the Game : naw
Ref Rating : 4 out of 5
I Am Not the Gaffer, But… : ha ha, still naw.
In Case You PVR’d It : you get to see a celebration and more than 2 goals.
Kit Spotting : I wasn’t there, but @DaveFB85 stopped by to show off his AFC Wimbledon 3rd kit (hat tip to Kristin to snapping this stunner)…
That is a thing of beauty.
Also, if you EVER wanna show off your kits, dearest fans, top of 117 (close to 118), flag us down/tweet us. Better than resorting to choosing that guy wearing last year’s Milan kit to win. Again.
Bold Predictions Results :
- Nailed it. I’m a genious.
- Nailed it. Just psychic.
- Nailed it. Not proud of this, but I had a suspicion…
Toronto may not have been the most dangerous side for the whole game, but New York didn’t seem like they were about get into it. At all. The fact they drew for a few minutes was the most shocking part. The scoreline isn’t all that surprising… So, there were a small contingent of Argo fans gathered waving flags in the north end of New Ivor Wynne (ugh, corporate stadium names, amirite?). CPL away days are going to be lovely… How happy were you to see Cheyrou back on the pitch? Me, about 8/10 – very happy for the legend, just overshadowed by a lovely game of footie before me… Those that know, I do love me some Hamilton Ticats, but these guys are TFC Aron Winter bad right now… My scores for Bono and Moor below feel harsh, but Bono didn’t have tons of things to do and Moor had a good game aside from the tackle that led to the penalty, which if he was booked, I didn’t see… TFC supporters, the 50/50 game is weak. Hamilton had a jackpot that broke $40,000. Just sayin’…
Player Ratings : Bono 6, Mavinga 6.5, Moor 6, Zavaleta 6, Morrow 10, Vazquez 8 (Cheyrou N/A), Bradley 7.5, Delgado 7, Hasler 6.5 (Beitashour N/A), Altidore 7, Ricketts 6.5 (Osorio N/A)
October 2, 2017
Despite you guys awarding MVP status to Morrow back in ’14, he was not a goal scorer. But these last two years everything has changed for Justin. He has two 5 goal seasons to brag about.
Still is a little lethargy and lack of direction from the team. Hopegully, this is from a little season ending let-down and nothing too seroous.
October 2, 2017
“Surely Morrow will be substituted soon #noHatTricksAllowed”
As soon as Morrow got his second goal, that is exactly what I was thinking. Vanney’s gonna sub him off soon!
There wasn’t a ton of pretty football in that match, but it was a dawn exciting match to watch. When NY tied it up I was thinking TFC were done, but then Altidore roars back and wins that penalty and the match just picks up again from there. A couple things I noticed in this one:
– TFC were putting together a lot of really quick passes to get out of pressure by NY. There always seems to be a guy in the right place to receive a desperate pass from the guy under pressure.
– Marky Delgado has become very good at placing through balls for the strikers to run on to. He is doing a lot more than earlier in the season when his role seemed to be to get short passes and quickly move them on to Vasquez or Giovinco, etc. Now he is carefully waiting for the chance to send a perfect ball through to the attacker.
Congrats to TFC for winning this major milestone. I consider them as having won the season, and now they head into the playoffs to try to win a separate cup competition. The best teams in the world are usually capable of winning both – let’s do the same TFC!