South Stand Report : Toronto v Montreal

Montreal Impact as the Manic

Montreal Impact as the Manic

The magic of the Ex. What used to be a cultural festival and a major part of any calendar is just an endless advertising festival.  Good thing I can escape it and find refuge in BMO Field where the ball is brought to me by a shipping company, the bench is brought to me by a law firm and starting XI is brought to me by rum.

*sigh*

Its like the usual circus has bled out into the parking lot.

(note : save this space for perfect “clown” gag after the match – brilliant!)

I know everyone else gets up for this derby, but I do not. I offer no ill will towards Montreal.  Far more inclined to see Sporting KC or Real Salt Lake have their points kept from them than Montreal ever will.  That being said, if games at home were only against Canadian teams during the CNE, I would be all for it (there’s a free, good idea MLS, you’re welcome).

If I read my news correctly, no Dider Drogba who is out due to being slow and old.  No Piatti, so there goes the goals.  Now it’s just a matter of Toronto not failing and lighting up the midway (I wonder who that’s brought to me by?)

On to the Match :

7′ – Williams has a Howler and leaves Oduro with a one on one with Konopka, beats him but can’t find the empty net.

23′ – YELLOW – Warner takes down Oduro from behind because Cheyrou was lying down and didn’t kick it out.  Still a booking.

31′ – Cheyrou falls again and once they get him up its straight down the tunnel

33′ – SUB – after 5 minutes of warming up, Altidore has achieved match fitness and has come on for Cheyrou, playing a man down for 2 mins.  Sure.

35′ – GOAL – Giovinco passes off to Osorio on the right who slots a pass towards Bradley who slyly redirects it past the keeper in the far post.
ROBINS 1, CHEESEMAKERS 0

41′ –  Montreal are abysmal and here’s why, ball in the six yard box, and Konopka is down, Oduro slides and redirects it heading towards goal, but slowly.  Konopka lunges for it to swipe it off the line… only to find a Montreal player dead centre and skies the ball towards the sky chair.   Magical.

45′ – Giovinco has a low curler 20 yards out heading towards the right post but the keeper gets his hand to it.

Half-Time Mood : It feels like the goals could start flying ANY MINUTE.  That, or it’s a psychosis of some kind

45′ – SUB – Lovitz off for Morgan.

51′ – SUB – Giovinco has had his final knock and comes off for Findley.  This game should end with Toronto scoring no more. #prediction

55′ – GOAL – aaaaand I’m wrong.  Bradley down the wing finds Osorio, takes a touch and fires it off the cross bar.  Rebound finds Altidore who takes the half volley and buries it. I’m sorry Jozy.  You’re back to good now.
ROBINS 2, CHEESEMAKERS 0

68′ – Oduro’s pace is killing Kantari but his finish it making Konopka’s job easy, as Dominic loses his marker, but Konopka goes down to stop the attack.

74′ – GOAL – Montreal pull one back as Oduro takes a pass from the left side and nutmegs Morrow sneaking it under Konopka
ROBINS 2, CHEESEMAKERS 1

77′ – Findley does a plus drawing a foul which results in Ciman’s second yellow and that means he takes a nap.  That exceeded expectations.

4 minutes of extra time

Full Time : Toronto 2, Montreal 1

Man of the Match : Bradley

Goat of the Game : Kantari got burned plenty.

Ref Rating : 3 out of 5

Kit Spotting : green and grey striped Alianza Lima away.  Gorgeous.

I Am Not the Gaffer But…  : I’d have put in Hercules Gomez for Cheyrou or Giovinco but I certainly wouldn’t have put in Findley

In Case You PVR’d It : watch from the 30th minute until the 77th. Skip the start and end.

Due to a far-from-terrible-and-useless substitution performance, I’ve decided to quantify what it will take to shift my opinion of a certain “forward” on the team, and the qualifier is “goals or assists or tackles that are deliberate, and no fluky crap”. This number can increase with incidents of “weak play, ball movement lacking confidence, brutal passing”.
Number Of Positive Things Findley Needs To Do For Me To Stop Hating On Him : 6

Kantari was having a bit of a nightmare defensively today.  He had a chance for glory in front of the Montreal net, but after that,  he was chasing Oduro’s shadow… Sad to hear that Montreal supporters weren’t allowed to bring a tifo today.  I’m always amused what the come up with.  The google one was very clever, but the haul of trophies one is hilarious winning many of them when they were a provincial welfare club… Findley wasn’t completely terrible or a liability.  He was playing near the minimum expectation level of a player of his pedigree and wage packet… My favourite gaffes were the halftime scoreboard showing the badges of Toronto and Orlando and at the end where the public address announcer reminded us the next home game was against the New England Revelation.  Top flight stuff… I am now convinced that Osorio is one killer move away from being an absolute nightmare for right-backs in the league.  He was doing a good job pulling defenders into the corner and dribbling out of it,but can’t quite “beat” then with any regularity…Had the supreme pleasure of running into old neighbours from 113. Brandon and Julie are doing great.  We miss them a lot… Full marks to the Montreal supporters sitting in the south end and taking the verbal abuse like a champ.  It’s just banter, nothing more.  Anyone else who wants to make it more than that isn’t here for the game.

Player Ratings : Konopka 7, Morrow 5.5, Williams 6, Kantari 5, Lovitz 5 (Morgan 6.5), Cheyrou N/A (Altidore 7), Warner 6, Osorio 7, Bradley 7.5, Delgado 6, Giovinco 7.5 (Findley 6)

Author: Mark Hinkley

Mark is a full-time graphic designer, full-time smart ass and full-time logo, stadium and kit nerd. When he isn't writing ridiculous match reports or redesigning logos for his own amusement, he's salivating over the day that promotion and relegation occurs in MLS. You can follow him @kitnerdmark on the twitterz.

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5 Comments

  1. and we got klopas fired! huzzah. finally a winner in this year’s sack race.

    decentish performance, but we’re lucky that dominic oduro is still dominic oduro, yes he got one goal, but he should have had more, and his early miss may well be my favourite moment of the entire season. lovely stuff.

    Post a Reply
    • My son whispered, “Larin” when Oduro missed the first empty net.

      I am thinking the door is open now for any team south of NE and TFC to make that last play-off spot. It is a bit tough on Kloppas as Drogba may only be a big name in the stands.

      Williams is showing he is limited to respond to runs and Giovinco looked to me to be being read on his cutbacks by an MLS defense. Defenders are holding on Giovinco’s touch of the the top of the foot.

      Post a Reply
      • Giovinco’s definitely not as good in that lone striker role, better when he can drift wide and attack from there. having said that, no need to be building everything around him, if the team’s winning that’s what counts even if he’s not at his best.
        not sure exactly what tfc go with next week if he and altidore are both out, same formation with findley? or gomez? or back to a 4–4-2?

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  2. Center Backs are a huge problem for TFC going into the latter half of the season and into the playoffs. Not only was Kantari beaten twice by the Impact’s speedy wingers but so was Josh Williams. Neither Kantari nor Damian Perquis have the quality to steady the back line. Both are highly paid liabilities. Perquis is frequently injured and invariably makes at least one mistake per game. He has some pace and heading ability but seems to be out of position more often then not, tends to make too many errant passes and is somewhat of a hot head. Kantari like Perquis has good heading and passing ability but also makes too many tactical and positional errors and lacks pace. Speedy wingers have no problem getting around him. For that matter the same can be said for young Josh Williams who was also victimized by the Impact forwards on at least 2 occasions. I hate to say this but it may be time to see if TFC can reacquire Doniel Henry. He has the pace and physical attributes to be a great CB but has a tendency to make rash decisions especially in the box. In any case it may be too late to do anything this year to improve the back line but it has to be addressed sooner rather then later.

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    • yeah, there are clearly good players that have been brought in (finally they reached the giant amount of cash needed to overcome their scouting deficiencies) and good things that vanney is doing with them, but the inability to fix the defence is a big black mark against their respective abilities. Kantari seems to be merely another perquis, and expecting williams (a right back recently waived by nycfc) to be the magic fix at centre back is crazy optimistic
      Quite why vanney seems to insist on making it worse with some odd selection policies, ie the constant changing of justin morrow’s position, jackson and then lovitz rather than morgan, is very baffling, making a tough situation even tougher.

      Basically it’s going to be a problem for the rest of the year, we just have to hope giovinco and co can overcome it. clearly they can against a certain level of team, but it’s been a long time since we’ve looked alright against the top teams, ie those we’ll come up against in the playoffs.

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