South Couch Report: Vancouver v Toronto. Voyageurs Cup. 2nd leg.

Old Vancouver logo with new colours

Old Vancouver logo with new colours

Alright. Home just as the lineups were being shown, about 30 seconds before the start so there’ll not be much of a preamble. Maybe I’ll add up one after the game, and I’ll be able to use hindsight to make myself look like some kind of genius.

Here is that lineup

Bono in goal? Alright then. Hagglund at right back? Alright then. Hamilton on the bench? Alright then. Aside from that, no complaints, as first teamy as we can get right now I guess. Whitecaps looks like a relatively strong lineup as well, good to see both teams more or less going for it.

My Bold Predictions? 1-1, TFC win. Huzzah. No Lord Bob walk of shame for Squizz. Babouli to score, and at least one controversial red card from Drew Fischer

Anyway on to the game.

11′ Preamble finished, not a lot seems to have happened so far, though Manneh taking on Hagglund looks like a recipe for worry.

14′  Giovinco runs at the defence, curls one juuuuuust wide from outside the box. Decent effort and the shot made sense. A lot of them from him don’t these days but no complaints there.

17′ Giovinco running into a blind alley, tries to backheel it to Delgado but doesn’t get through. Some decent pressure from TFC here though, not parking the bus yet. It’s like they listened to the podcast this week, well done Greg.

23′ Giovinco running into another blind alley at the top of the box, despite plenty of options. Gets knocked down, foul not called. Everything’s going through him, which does make sense.

25′ Manneh lets fly from edge of box, flies over the bar.

30′ Parker goes hard to put a cross in. Goes over the ad boards, cross comes to nothing, but good hustle kid. Whitecaps getting into it more now.

33′ Yellow card to Waston. Giovinco all alone against about 4 whitecaps defenders. Wins a free kick and a yellow card.  Someone else takes the free kick!  I kid, of course they don’t. He goes wall side, gets it over the wall, Ousted makes the save.

36′ Hagglund gets forward and puts a cross high and wide into the crowd. HE’S. NOT. A RIGHT BACK!!!!!

38′ Kekuta Manneh gets a cross in past Hagglund, Bolanos hits it just over the bar.  This half has just flown by, entertaining stuff so far.

39′ Laba tries to get a shot off at top of the box, skies it over the bar, but Babouli interfered with him a wee bit and so feee kick on edge of box it is.  Morales to take.

40′ Slightly wide, and about 5 feet high. Poor stuff from Petey Morals.

43′ Babouli is set free by Giovinco. But not really free as Teibert was there with him and won the tussle, but seems to have injured himself in the process. He’s back up though, looks like he’ll tough it out to half time at least.

45′ Bit of a scrappy move, but Laba gets a chance at top of box and gets a decent shot off.  Good  save from Bono. #SweetestThing. It’s been all Caps for the last 10 minutes or so, half time please.

And half time it is.  Exhilarating stuff for a 0-0 half. TFC seemed to withdraw more and more into a bus park as the half went on. This is still very much anyone’s game.

2nd half

Hope nothing happened in the first 30 seconds as TSN missed it.

46′ Goal. Whitecaps score. Mezquida, on a second half sub for Teibert, scores right away. Long ball into the box from some random whitecap given way too much space on the left wing, Morrow lets Mezquida go, Moor doesn’t pick him up, he gets his head on it and into the far post. Can’t blame Bono for that. There goes that good first half. Crystal Meth Palace 1 -0 TFC. 1-1 on aggregate. Game very much on. TSN had their timing just right.

54′ Caps get a free kick, hit it to the far post, someone almost gets on the end of it but they don’t, so goal kick.

All Vancouver so far, Vanney passing notes to Johnson so adaptation hopefully coming soon.

57′ Cheyrou kicked from behind as he gets a pass off. Nasty little tackle really. Cheyrou gets up gingerly, but seems OK.

59′ Hagglund makes a barnstorming run, but gets ignored. Eventually Babouli gets a hell of a shot off from about 25 yards out. Ousted saves. Corner.  Comes to nothing.

61′ Another corner, goes to back post, Moor gets his head on it, but it’s deflected before it gets to the goal, another corner. Cleared. Ball recycled and Babouli gets hauled down and it’s a free kick out on the corner of the box. Giovinco won’t shoot from there will he?  He didn’t!  The cross was over everyone though and out for a throw.

65′ Johnson lets fly from about 30 yards out. De Guzmanned way over the bar. Anyway, whatever change Vanney made has made a difference, TFC doing well last few minutes.

66′ Osorio has a dribble out on the left wing. comes to nothing but it was pretty.

68′ Goal. Tim Parker makes it 2-1. Corner cleared, then hoofed back in, Morrow again lost his man, and Parker slotted it under Bono. Crystal Meth Palace 2-0 TFC. 2-1 aggregate.

70′ Sub Manneh off, Little Alphonso Davies on.

71′ Davies tries to take on Zavaleta, fails, then goes and fouls Zavaleta. This rush of blood draws praise from Nick Dasovic for some reason.

72′ Sub. It was going to be Endoh, but instead it’s Jordan Hamilton, coming on for Babouli. Might as well, he’s scored more goals than anyone else for TFC these last few weeks.

74′ Corner looks dangerous, but we get called for offside. From a corner for fucks sake.

74′ Sub Endoh now on for Benny Balls, who had a quiet night.

75′ Hurtado runs at the defence on a bit of a break, Moor does a good job of keeping him out wide, gets a shot off from a wide angle, not dangerous.

77′ Giovinco comes deep to get the ball. Nice move to get past one defender, then despite having options ahead of him, opts to shoot from about 25 yards out and goes very wide. Awful decision.

Not much happening at all for TFC really, but hey, one goal and they’re back in the winner’s seat. I do like when away goals sets that up.

81′ TFC committing forward more without in any way looking dangerous. Davies set free, Bono with a great save #SweetestThing. Follow up is blocked by Delgado.

83′ Sub. Erik Hurtado off. Blas Perez on

84′ Vancouver shot deflected right at Bono. Caps wanted handball. Not given. Would have been silly.

85′ Osorio gets ball to Giovinco on edge of box. Nothing on, and a man free out on the touchline. Seba opts to shoot and it’s easily blocked.

Giovinco gets ball again, ignores Morrow wide on the left, shoots, easily blocked.  Getting kind of ridiculous now.

86′ Sub Raheem Edwards on for Osorio

86′ Edwards gets a chance in the box, but Ousted saves the shot.

87′ Cross from Edwards,  to Endoh unmarked at far post, tries the diving header, it doesn’t go well. Hell of a start from edwards though.

88′ Giovinco lays the ball off to Endoh on right wing, gets 2 opportunities to cross, neither of them work. fair enough Seba, just shoot.

4 minutes of added time. I’m in no way confident here.

90+1′ Perez free, Raheem Edwards! gets back and hassles him to make the shot difficult. It goes off the post.

90+4′ Goal. As time winds down, hopeless long ball launched into box. Ousted muffs it while being challenged by nobody but Kendall Waston, and Johnson hammers the loose ball into the top of the net. Crystal Meth Palace 2-1 TFC. 2-2 on aggregate, TFC now winning. God bless away goals. Blue ribbons hastily removed from cup, red ribbons added.  Get the fuck in!

Johnson injured as he took the shot, hopefully he’s ok.

Full Time: TFC win! TFC Win! TFC Win!  Voyageurs Cup is ours and we get CCL games next year. Yeah!!!!! Johnson’s up but hobbling.  Cheyrou gets the George Gross award for championship MVP. I’m cool with that.

Full Time : Well I don’t think we deserved that, but who cares. Campiones, campiones, ole ole ole! 

Man of the Match : On a per minute basis, Raheem Edwards, but what the hell, let’s go with Will Johnson, purely for the goal.

Goat of the Game : Morrow had another rough game.  But I’ll say Giovinco.

Ref Rating : 5/5. Can’t think of one thing that annoyed me.

I Am Not The Gaffer, But… : Can’t argue with the lineup, other than Hagglund, Bono and Babouli, but they went out there and looked alright in the first half. Second half was a bit desperate, but there were a few times that TFC improved briefly after he made subs or adjustments, so won’t complain too much.

In Case You PVR’d It : Watch the whole thing. Frenetic stuff and what a way to build the drama before the big twist ending.

Bold Predictions Results:  Well, TFC won, but aside from that, I was inaccurate.

Tweet of the night

Well, I was all set to be kind of grumpy and then that happened at the end.  Love it. Though I’m sad that the Caps won it last year. If that had been another entry in the ways that Vancouver avoided ever winning, it would have been absolutely fantastic.

So, we need to talk about Justin. He’s having a rough few weeks recently, which is odd as he’s been so consistently solid these last few years.

So we need to talk about Seba. So many long shots that in no way look dangerous. He seems very frustrated and like he doesn’t want to trust his teammates right now.  Pass the ball, keep the ball moving and you’ll probably end up with better shots, this selfish play isn’t helping anyone, including himself.

Raheem Edwards looked great in the few minutes he got. I’d definitely say keep him with TFC II, let him get as many minutes as possible there, but that’s hopeful for the future.

Bono was alright. Made a couple of decent saves, couldn’t blame him for the goals.

Anyway, all in all, thanks to Bill Manning’s influence as after 3 years of seeming to not really care, TFC took it seriously for all 4 games and have got their reward. I’m really looking forward to CCL games next season, really hope we get a Mexican team rather than an MLS team in our group.

And now I have to go to bed and try to sleep.

 

Player Ratings : Bono 7, Morrow 4.5, Moor 6.5, Zavaleta 6, Hagglund 5.5, Cheyrou 6.5 (Endoh 5), Osorio 6 (Edwards 8, but for 5 minutes, so should probably be N/A), Johnson 7.5, Delgado 6, Giovinco 5, Babouli 6 (Hamilton 6).

 

Author: Duncan Fletcher

Blogging journeyman formerly of Cruel Geography and Waking the Red, also briefly with Sportsnet and every now and then with the Guardian. As a supporter of Darlington, TFC, England and Canada, football's been unfair and poking fun at Duncan for decades now, so it's only fair he does the same right back at it. Follow him on twitter @duncandfletcher

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3 Comments

  1. That was a CRAZY. ASS. FINISH. Kinda makes up for the stupid Orlando game that was ripped from TFC.

    Nice for TFC to finally win this trophy again, even if they were not necessarily the better side over the 2 legs. But hey, Vancouver couldn’t score in Toronto, so there you go. TFC pushed a lot in this game and were finally rewarded.

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  2. The Amway Canadian Championship has managed to string some of the most memorable football games I have seen and last night was no different. There is a free-wheeling spirit to these games, if at times laughably so.

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