I go away for one weekend, and Tony’s Tea Terrorists (or 3TFC from now on? We’ll think about it…) come in and get slaughtered by Toronto and win 3-1 (I think that’s how I read it). Yup, narriative. Sure, I went to New England (you know, ALL of it, and not just central New Hampshire) and they came here, and sure, I won the little nerd tournament playing old video arcade games amongst my friends, but I miss what?!? Toronto FC, still Toronto FC-ing!
Tonight, they play Bronxchester City FC and their old timers are suiting up. The pseudo-citizens are currently on 28 points, only 4 points from safety but clear to be headed for relegation… sorry, these rose coloured glasses and their romanticism… I meant to say, not the play-offs. New York hasn’t won in a month, earning a solitary point in that timespan.
Fun times. OK, that’s enough, on to reliving the match in point form during specific minutes!
16’ – So far the highlights have been wide shots of the net and possessions in the 18 yard box resulting in nothing.
20’ – GOAL – Well that was… a strange bit of football. Lampard takes a pass from 15 yards out and scoots a bouncer towards the far post that the caught off the line Konopka couldn’t get to
BRONXCHESTER 1, ROBINS 0
25’ – Marky Delgado takes a long ball into the corner, and cuts it back to Bradley, with a man on him, whose first touch lets him down and fires wide of the post 8 yards out.
27’ – Why do they need a deficit on the road to wake up? Altidore has a near miss.
32’ – Bradley has a go from 20 yards forcing a solid leaping stop from Saunders.
42’ – Bradley has a great opportunity as he gets a 1-2-3-1 passing down to the right of goal, rounds the goalie, cuts it across but it’s too hard for Giovinco to get it, and not hard enough to find Altidore. *sigh*
Half-Time Mood : Am I frustrated? Am I bored? Is that crowd quiet enough? I’m thoroughly whelmed.
52’ – YELLOW – Cheyrou goes into the book for a challenge on Jackson
59’ – Giovinco free kick from 25 yards nails someone in the wall, and redirects enough to force Saunders to make a lunging save, preventing the ball to go in.
63’ – This is kinda fun, it’s been all Toronto attack, but nothing coming of it.
67’ – Fun over. Lampard and Grabavoy do a give and go, and no one was there to mark Lampard. He half hits it, and Williams fumbles his way over the ball to clear it.
70’ – Bradley with two long rockets, two high quality saves from Saunders.
74’ – SUB – Osorio comes off for Moore (yay for an attacking sub I guess, but it’s Moore, so you know, meh.)
77’ – GOAL – Well, that should just about do it. Mullins gets on the end of a corner kick, and gets well over Kantari and Konopka’s challenge misses the ball completely.
BRONXCHESTER 2, ROBINS 0
79’ – SUB – Perquis comes in for Warner
84’ – SUB – Altidore off for Gomez. 6 minutes to make a meaningful contribution, ha… no.
3 minutes of extra time
90+3’ – YELLOW – Perquis makes a name for himself for something.
Full Time : New York 2, Toronto 0
Man of the Match : ummm… Bradley
Goat of the Game : ummm… Kantari
Ref Rating : 4 out of 5
I Am Not The Gaffer, But… : Alditore was given 80+ minutes? Sounds about right.
In Case You PVR’d It : you can skip this one
Well, this has been a less than stellar performance, and kind of an uneventful match. Nobody was very impressive beyond Bradley, either due to lack of chances, or lack of contribution in general. The great thing about watching it online is the ability to go look up something else to capture your attention, if only for a few minutes to snuff out the boredom. Maybe others watched a better match than I did. Maybe Vanney will talk about how disciplined the team was when they weren’t conceding goals. Maybe I can get that time back. Who knows.
Konopka did disappoint me. He made two decisions to come off his line all game and both times it backfired. He’s certainly not to blame on either goal, but in the right spot, both were preventable (the Lampard one moreso than the Mullins one). There were so many other invisible players, contributions that were difficult to measure. Osorio contributed once to an attack. Altidore did that one thing in the first half and then spent the second half out of position or marked. Kantari was Kantari-ing. Sure, optimism spikes were abundant, but after a while, I was less optimistic that Toronto was going to score, but going no further than imposing themselves in the New York City half. Bradley was easily the standout, if only for trying to take the game by the collar and beat NYCFC by himself.
Or, I could be wrong.
Player Ratings : Konopka 5.5, Delgado 6, Williams 6, Kantari 5.5, Morrow 6.5, Warner 6 (Perquis N/A), Cheyrou 6, Osorio 5.5 (Moore N/A), Bradley 6.5, Altidore 5 (Gomez N/A), Giovinco 6
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