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What a week it has been for Canadian clubs in Major League Soccer!
Toronto FC, the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Montreal Impact each picked up valuable wins over tough foes on Saturday, earning three points a piece and, if moving up their respective conference tables. At the start of the day, the Whitecaps and the Impact held the top spot in the Western and Eastern Conferences, with Toronto FC holding the final “playoff” spot in the east. Though it’s only two games into the season, the trio of Canadian outfits will be pleased with their season openers.
Not to be outdone by each other, the three Canadian teams each won their game by a score of 2-1. Toronto FC beat Sporting Kansas City with an early 2-0 lead courtesy of Robert Earnshaw. Though Claudio Bieler made things tense in the final moments in the Rogers Centre, the Reds held on and managed to overcome the five minutes of added time (seriously?) to secure the first win of the 2013 season.
Soon after, the Whitecaps downed the Columbus Crew, after taking a 1-0 lead from Diago Kobayashi; Columbus equalized at the start of the second half, but Kenny Miller made it two for Vancouver, though the scoreline should have been much, much higher for the Caps.
Finally, the Impact came out on top over the Portland Timbers, with Hassoun Camara and Felipe giving Montreal a 2-0 cushion to defend. Ryan Johnson struck back for the Timbers, but it wasn’t enough and Montreal head back home with a full six points in Cascadia.
With plenty of positives for Canadian clubs this week, let’s take a look at some of the important points in each victory:
Toronto FC
Toronto FC’s triumph over Sporting Kansas City has both statistical and sentimental value; Toronto FC has finally broken their winless streak, their last victory in a competitive match coming all the way back in July against the Colorado Rapids. With a win over Kansas, Toronto FC not only pick up three points, they also secured themselves an improvement over last season, when Aron Winter and co. started the season with an 0-0-9 record.
It also marked a victory against one of the toughest, if not the toughest sides in Major League Soccer. It’s true that the Rogers Centre has been good to Toronto FC, too: in the three times Toronto FC has played at the SkyDome, the team recorded a 2-2 draw against the Los Angeles Galaxy in the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals, held Liverpool F.C. to a tie game, and also downed Sporting Kansas City.
The Rogers Centre has also seen the most instances of early goals; the only other times Toronto FC has scored two goals scored before the 20th minute besides Saturday’s Earnshaw-led victory was in the aforementioned quarterfinal encounter with Los Angeles. In that affair, Ryan Johnson and Luis Silva both scored before the 20-minute mark. Toronto FC also scored two early goals back in 2008 against the Chicago Fire, when Rohan Ricketts and Amado Guevara put the Fire in the hot seat.
The game also marked the first win as a head coach for Ryan Nelsen, as well as Kyle Bekker and Jonathan Osorio’s home debuts. Emery Welshman will have to wait until March 30, perhaps, when Toronto take on the LA Galaxy in the post-Beckham era.
There are plenty of signs of improvement from a team hungry for something to smile about. As always, a win will do just that!
Vancouver Whitecaps
For anyone who hasn’t figured it out yet, the Vancouver Whitecaps is a playoff team. It became pretty clear in the victory over the Columbus Crew.
Diago Kobayashi, Camilo, Kenny Miller, Nigel Reo-Coker, YP Lee, Darren Mattocks and Gershon Koffie – it’s the kind of core that any team in Major League Soccer would kill to have. Martin Rennie’s job is to figure out how to make each player work together and to avoid mistakes that could cost the club the full three points.
In the very makeup of the team, however, is an abundance of quality and skill. There are few MLS outfits as powerful on paper as the Whitecaps at the moment, and the influx of new talent makes Vancouver a real threat. Defensive work is needed, of course, as Columbus did manage to expose Vancouver’s weak points, but the Whitecaps should have won that game by more than a single goal, with chance after chance barely missing or skimming the posts, or dubiously called offside, preventing a rout at BC Place.
Kobayashi’s first MLS goal was a thing of beauty, a strike from outside the box taking a curve to the left and downward, beating Andy Gruenebaum. Miller’s goal, the second for Vancouver, was just waiting to happen. It would happen eventually, the way Vancouver was playing. The centerbacks need work, and a world-class, designated player and central midfielder beside Koffie would make Vancouver nearly unstoppable. Reo-Coker has the speed to burn past anyone in the league.
Things are shaping up well on the Canadian west coast, that’s for sure.
(Side note: if the club really aspires to be one of the top ten in the world, real grass is a must!)
Montreal Impact
It takes a special team to walk into the cauldron of fear that is Cascadia and walk away with the full six points. Montreal’s victory over Portland is certainly special.
Call it luck if you’d like, but you’d be doing a disservice to Montreal’s style and skill. Put it down to early season jitters and you’d be insulting the strong defensive capabilities of Portland’s Andre Jean-Baptiste and Seattle’s established foursome at the back.
So call it what it actually is – domination.
The Impact didn’t just slay the lime-green dragon in Seattle last week, they also took down another beast in the west of a darker shade. Both away games, both possession-inspired performances, in a distinctly Italian style defensive display coupled with a counter-attacking initiative that separates Montreal from many other outfits in MLS.
Numbers speak more than words in this instance; on the night, Alessandro Nesta alone was responsible for two defensive tackles, six interceptions, seven clearances and two defensive blocks. He passed successfully 15 times, rarely lost possession, and kept things very tight for Montreal in the defensive area.
His partner at the back, Hassoun Camara, had 32 successful passes, won the ball his fair share (though less than Nesta), and went ahead and scored the opening goal, too. Defensive midfielder Patrice Bernier painted the field red on MLSsoccer.com’s Chalkboard – go check it out!
When you have defenders like these, who needs forwards?
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