New England Revolution as the Tea Men
The Part I Write Before The Match :
It’s Pride night. Still hoping that it’s more than patronizing than the usual ‘theme pandering night’ that takes place.
Today has been crap already. It’s humid. It’s raining (as of time of writing this part). There’s an 8pm kick-off. Sucky day so far (with the exception of the new 311 album [Not the time or place. ~ Ed.] which is very good if you like your rock a bit reggae-ish with some nice harmonies) so hopefully it won’t be a flood situation getting to the ground.
Toronto came off a less-than-impressive draw against Montreal where, for the most part, both teams were going for it. The return leg on Tuesday should be full of entertainment.
New England… you know what? I don’t care. Just as long as Alex Bunbury’s kid doesn’t play, I’ll be thrilled.
Bold Predictions :
- Nguyen will terrorize the crap outta the midfield
- Giovinco will bag a brace
- A Canadian will get an assist.
On to the Match :
11’ – GOAL – After trashing Cooper, Cooper then beats his marker a bit clumsily, threads a ball through the penalty area, finds Endoh who may have put a glancing touch on it, finds Moor and redirects it past Cropper.
ROBINS 1, TEA TERRORISTS 0
14’ – Vazquez to Morrow, one touch centred ball to Altidore whose first touch should’ve beaten the keeper, but a massive reflex save on the goal line prevent a sure goal.
22’ – YELLOW – Seba gets booked for a late tackle.
31′ – New England Counter attack and the ball was centred to Nguyen unmarked from 20
Half-Time Mood : Feel like Toronto should have been winning by at least 2, but they’re winning so the panic is minimal.
57′ – Lee Nguyen in the wall on a Seba free kick runs back to the goal line. Seba’s attempt goes over the wall and Nguyen on the goal line clears it with a header. Cropper probably would’ve had it, but this version of the story is way better. Damn you Nguyen #soGood.
58′ – Totally met Canadian Men’s National Team coach, Octavio Zambrano. He stopped me for the old KC Wiz kit I was wearing. We bonded. Ocky, that’s what we call him, was a gent.
68’ – SUB – Osorio for Cooper
68’ – SUB – Morgan in for Mavinga
78’ – SUB – Chapman in for Endoh
88′ – Bono denying son of Canadian legend (who’s a failure), the looping cross in from Nguyen was met by a leaping header heading for the top left corner, but Alex gets a big hand to push it around the post.
6 minutes of extra time
90+6’ – GOAL – Pure. Fucking. Poetry. Cheyrou dribbles out of danger on the left side, passes to Vazquez, massive chip pass on to Giovinco, turns Angoua inside out and buries a low ball into the bottom corner. Absolutely magic.
ROBINS 2, TEA TERRORISTS 0
Full Time : Toronto 2, New England 0
Man of the Match : Vazquez. It should be Giovinco for the goal, but he did enough selfish stuff that I wasn’t a massive fan of him for most of the match. But dat pass.
Goat of the Game : I can’t even hang Cooper out to dry. I’ll take a pass.
Ref Rating : 2 out of 5. Seemed to call lesser things for New England than more obvious things against New England. I’ve seen worse.
I Am Not The Gaffer, But… : I’ve got no complaints. Found some minutes for Morgan which is great.
In Case You PVR’d It : Watch the first 20 minutes of the first half, and the last 10 minutes plus injury.
Kit Spotting : Hearts Hummel home kit from about seven years ago. Hummel kits rarely look bad. For every one terrible one you can find, I can cite about 10 that were classy.
Bold Predictions Results :
- Failed it. Nguyen played very well, but I wouldn’t be calling the FBI about it.
- Failed it. For as selfish as a game as he had, he should’ve.
- Failed it. Nope.
Full marks to the south end rainbow smoke display. I’m not a fan of the smoke but that looked AMAZING. Well done. Very classy. All in all, the Pride festivities were very well done, and did not feel pandering at all. It felt like Toronto FC wanted to be a part of the festivities and they delivered… As much as there was the PR-gasm of the three-DP goal from last week, I’d rate the three-European goal from tonight as a far superior goal on all counts… Dear TFC, if you’re going to have a special Pride scarf for sale, consider informing your staff. Four kiosk vendors had no idea, one suggesting it wasn’t this game. I know it’s a fundraiser, but a few signs out front of each gate could’ve fixed that… Toronto should’ve scored at least 4. Just sayin’.
Player Ratings : Bono 7, Moor 7, Mavinga 6.5 (Morgan N/A), Hernandez 6, Morrow 6, Cheyrou 6.5, Endoh 6 (Chapman N/A), Cooper 6.5 (Osorio N/A), Vazquez 7, Giovinco 7, Altidore 6.5
Unused Substitutions : Irwin, Alseth, Spencer, Ricketts
