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Tattica: Subtle changes and veteran presence key to TFC’s win
As Michael Bradley pointed out recently, a single game can change a season. TFC supporters hope this is the case. Toronto provided drama in the playoff race on Saturday after a proud 3-2 comeback victory against the Portland Timbers that kept their postseason hopes alive.
Should TFC reach the playoffs for the first time in their history, much credit should go to Toronto’s 11th victory of the season. Bradley’s late game goal proved, once again, how the designated player can be pivotal for a team’s fortunes.
Head coach Greg Vanney also made some adjustments for Bradley lining up him more deep than usual, in a kind of deep-lying playmaker position. This shift gave Jonathan Osorio more freedom to push forward and allowed the USMNT midfielder to be more involved in the build-up.
Regardless of where Bradley has been fielded during this season, there is no discussion on the value he provided for the Canadian team this past weekend. His performance also gives TFC a lot to think about regarding how things could be in 2015 should they not retain his services after this season.
In the end, it wasn’t only Bradley, but also the unexpected hero Nick Hagglund that gave fans opportunity to celebrate in Toronto on Saturday. The Timbers’ defence had been vulnerable in the air and the 22-year-old MLS rookie defender perfectly exposed Portland’s weakness.
On the first goal, Hagglund easily overcame Darlington Nagbe’s defending effort with a back post header to beat goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts. On the second score, he penalized Portland’s bad organization to facing dead-balls by making an uncovered tap-in close to the goal.
It was an amazing brace after a shaky start that saw a lazy Hagglund fully responsible for Portland’s opening goal in 13th minute. That mistake aside, Hagglund formed a nice centre-back pairing alongside veteran Steven Caldwell.
Caldwell’s comeback has been pivotal in establishing a TFC backline that looked awful during his absence. The 34-year-old centre-back anchored the four-man backline and regained his starting spot once again after having been cleared to play a couple of weeks ago and then forced to leave very early in the August 24th match against the Chicago Fire.
And if the previous game against Chivas USA didn’t provide a huge test regarding Caldwell’s recovery, this weekend’s match against Nagbe, Rodney Wallace and Fanendo Adi likely reassured TFC fans about veteran’s current fitness.
The centre-back pairing has been a big question mark throughout this campaign. Mixing veteran leadership and youth was the key once again. With Caldwell fit enough to play and Hagglund as a rising force, a playoff berth for Toronto is no longer as out of question as it seemed only two weeks ago.
Michele Tossani is a football tactician with a Ph.D. in History. Michele resides in Florence, Italy and is a tactical analyst for Futbol-Tactico.com
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