Old Seattle logo with new colours
The Part I Write Before The Match :
So Vanney has opted to rest Vazquez, Giovinco, Beitashour and some others. Probably for the best.
I’m not expecting much from this road trip since a home stand including a Wednesday home game and an upcoming Wednesday road game.
Guys, the Canadian Premier League is for realz. I’m thinking about a Hamilton v Winnipeg game. Maybe even an away day. Magical.
Bold Predictions :
- Two debutants
- One of them will get an assist or a goal
- Toronto gets at least a point
On to the Match :
5’ – Cheeky ball bounced onto Morris’ head and a lunging Svensson is offside, the ball crosses the line but the flag was up. Burn American Messi. Burn. #burn
20’ – Sweet counter attack finds Chapman delivering a pass to Delgado who tries to sneak a ball into the bottom right corner but Frei stops it and goes out for a corner.
22’ – PENALTY – Altidore takes the ball from the left side, one-two with Chapman, Altidore gets taken down by Torres.
23’ – GOAL – Altidore buries it right side, Frei goes the other way.
METAL ROD ENTHUSIASTS 0, ROBINS 1
26’ – Free kick forces Irwin to punch the ball out, Jones takes it on a half-volley and looks like he mis-hit the ball as it fires across the pitch back to the left side. Ball then fired well over the bar.
28’ – Cross in and Mavinga does a good job to head it away. Ball gets thrown back into the box, finds the feet of Morris and he can only poke it to Irwin. Burn American Messi. Burn. #burn
32’ – Chappers with a quality ball through the defenders to find Altidore who takes a shot to beat the keeper but just wide of the far post.
40’ – Toronto looking excellent as Altidore gets the ball with back to goal at the top of the box, bests his marker and launches a rocket that’s palmed away by Frei
Half-time Mood : Very pleased. Toronto leading at the half and a new domestic league in Canada. Apparently Tom Green performed “Check the O.R.” at the Senators game. Canada doing well today (hat tip : my brother, haven’t seen it yet).
The telly is saying there was 63% possession for Seattle. Shocked.
53’ – Fun bit of terrorizing Seattle defenders by the Toronto forwards. This is a bit surreal and a ton of fun to watch.
56’ – Dempsey has a go from 25 yards out but Irwin gets low and stops it easily.
63’ – bit of pressure by Seattle but Toronto keeping their composure and no shots of note.
63’ – SUB – Cooper comes in for Edwards. Tough game for the kid as he was playing out of position in light of the roster juggle.
65’ – SUB – Osorio comes in for Chapman.
67’ – Morrow is bleeding in the face. Makes an implication for an elbow but no call from the officials.
68’ – Appeals for a handball as Mavinga takes an awkward ball into the face and chest, but the ref got it right on the replay.
70’ – YELLOW – Mavinga for a sloppy tackle in the Seattle box.
73’ – Osorio gets the baall into the box from a nice pass from Jozy, takes a few touches, but lays it off for Morrow and fires it wide with a defender closing him down. Also wearing number ___ is Morrow (blood shirt).
79’ – SUB – Ricketts is coming in for Altiore #noAltitts
84’ – TV still says 64% possession for Seattle. Huh.
85’ – Delgado gets hacked down, play on says the ref. Now Cooper, Delgado and Irwin are wasting time nursing their knocks.
5 minutes of extra time
90+3’ – Cooper having an animated conversation with Lodiero, Cheyrou pulling him away before he gets booked for doing something stupid.
90+4’ – Seattle playing route 1 football but Toronto is winning the aerial battles.
Full Time : Seattle 0, Toronto 1
Man of the Match : Altidore has had an excellent game, not just for goal but his awareness and distribution was not what I was expecting of him. Cheyrou was also excellent #noBias
Goat of the Game : pass yet again
Ref Rating : 4 out of 5. Very un-Toledo.
I Am Not The Gaffer, But… : if you’re going to have an issue, it’s the starting XI, but he did well and got a result.
In Case You PVR’d It : I’d watch it, but don’t be afraid to lean on the fast forward button.
Bold Predictions Results :
- Failed it. Only Heranadez made his debut.
- Failed it. No one assisted anyone.
- Nailed it. Got all the points. Who saw that coming? (I didn’t really)
So this is the MLS champion, huh? This really feels like an endorsement that your champion should be the regular season champ, and save the cup for something else. I couldn’t imagine this Seattle scoring a goal against a LigaMX side, let alone winning a tie and let’s be honest, if there was a Toronto XI that had “beatable” written all over them, this was the side… This is gonna be a long episode this week. I can feel it… Wanted to check out the rugby league, but I’m allergic to rain (not really), but got to watch Toronto destroy Oxford on cbc.ca (thank you), so that was nice… So much was good today in the face of 5 changes. Edwards on the wrong wing somehow worked out in that points weren’t dropped. Bradley had a very nice match too. Him and Cheyrou were running things… Nice leaping save again on Altidore, Mr. Frei. Nice one indeed. Again…
Player Ratings : Irwin 6.5, Hagglund 6.5, Mavinga 6.5, Morrow 6.5, Hernandez 6, Edwards 6 (Cooper N/A), Bradley 6.5, Delgado 6.5, Cheyrou 7, Chapman 6.5 (Osorio N/A), Altidore 8 (Ricketts N/A)
Unused Substitutions : Bono, Endoh, Hamilton, Alseth
May 7, 2017
Yeah those statistics didn’t seem to be reflected to the viewer’s eye. In general, the Reds seem to execute better than the Sounders. That beat up bag for a pitch didn’t help either team and Lodeiro was sub par as a DP. So the Sounders’ possession gave them no advantage.
The last 6 or so minutes of that game was interesting as Vanney chose to give up the attack and instead flood 80% of TFC’s defensive zone with Reds. It worked!