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Posted by
Steve Bottjer,
June 30, 2012
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Email Steve Bottjer
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@bottjerRNO
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Toronto FC 1 – 1 New York Red Bulls
The Prelude to Battle
Fresh of their best league performance of the year in a 3-0 road win over the Montreal Impact, Toronto FC were back home at BMO Field and back in action on Saturday against the New York Red Bulls. With Thierry Henry and company sitting in second place in the Eastern Conference, this fixture presented a real test for a TFC side that has showed improved form under new Head Coach Paul Mariner, winning one match and drawing two over their past three games.
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In addition to presenting a quality opponent overall, the Red Bulls also arrived in Toronto offering up a major challenge to Toronto’s makeshift central defence with fullback Richard Eckersely and rookie Logan Emory starting again and Adrian Cann still unable to go due to injury. In addition to Henry (9 goals), the Red Bulls other starting striker, Kenny Cooper, came into the match on 11 goals scored to date, giving New York the most productive and fearsome strike pair in the MLS.
Head Coach Mariner went with exactly the same lineup as the one that proved victorious over Montreal, with exception that Reggie Lambe got the start in place of Julian de Guzman, who was feeling ill earlier in the day.
The Opening Forty-Five
The first half was a fairly evenly played affair with both teams having their fair share of scoring chances.
New York opened the scoring on the type of defensive breakdown that has happened all too often at BMO Field this year. In the 4th minute, an unmarked Jan Gunnar Solli redirected a cross from Brandon Barklage past a helpless Milos Kocic.
To their credit, Toronto bounced right back a couple of minutes later and equalized things up when Danny Koevermans rose above the crowd to head a Torsten Frings corner kick past Red Bulls keeper Ryan Meara.
New York came close to finding a second in the 44th minute when forward David Cooper redirected a cross just inches outside the right post.
Not to be outdone, Toronto also engineered an excellent chance just before the half time whistle, with Frings delivering a free kick that Koevermans volleyed just wide of the New York net.
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It has been a pleasure playin 4 Toronto FC. I want 2 give much thanks n luv 2 the fans 4 all the support during my time here. Love Plata!!
- @JoaoPlata10 |
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The Second Half
The second half continued on a similar trajectory to the first, but with New York starting to push forward more and more as the clock counted down.
Red Bulls midfielder Joel Lindpere looked to be in alone on Kocic in the 76th minute, but Logan Emory delivered the defensive play of the game with a perfectly timed slide tackle in the TFC penalty area to snuff out the danger.
In the 80th minute, Mariner opted to replace Eric Avila with Julian de Guzman, substituting in another defensive midfielder in place of an attacking one.
Toronto came close to a winner in the 83rd minute when some nice interplay between De Guzman and Terry Dunfield ended with a sliding Koevermans knocking De Guzman’s cross just wide of the net.
The Reds dominated play down the stretch but were unable to engineer a winner, as they settled for a hard fought draw against one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference.
Post-Match Reaction
Following the game, Toronto FC Head Coach Paul Mariner stressed his belief that Toronto FC is now evolving into a team that is much more difficult to play against.
“I think what you can recognize a little bit is that it’s not beautiful flowing football, but we are a little harder to beat than we have been in the past. I think that if you become a hard team to beat in this league and you stay in the game, Ryan (Johnson) and Danny (Koevermans) and Torsten (Frings), with his service, you might be able to nick something. I said to the players a few days ago and a few weeks ago, we don’t want a reputation of being soft on set pieces. You definitely don’t want that reputation that teams can score on you with set pieces. I think it’s not dusted yet but we’ve come a little way to quelling that thought,” said Mariner.
Team captain Torsten Frings stressed that Toronto is simply benefitting from the cohesiveness and strong team play the team has delivered in its most recent fixtures.
“We worked together and that’s the most important thing. We worked together as a team and we did very well today. If we play like this it is really hard to beat us,” said Frings.
Midfielder Terry Dunfield stressed the importance of TFC’s fighting spirit and the cohesiveness of a group that has really come together under the direction of Mariner.
“There is a bond forming and every player is fighting for their teammate and their manager. There is no hiding it, we’ve had a grueling schedule since Paul (Mariner) has taken over, but you can never complain about taking a point from one of the best teams in the league,” said Dunfield.
The Final Word: TFC continuing to progress under Mariner
With the draw against a quality opponent, Toronto FC continued to show that they are making significant progress under Paul Mariner. Simply put, Toronto has looked like a more competitive and drastically different team under their new Head Coach when compared to the form they showed under Dutchman Aron Winter. Now unbeaten in four, the players on Toronto FC are looking more confident with each successful result and that bodes well the remainder of the 2012 campaign.
This was another complete performance by the Reds, with every player who took to the pitch playing a role in the result. Interestingly, with New York opening the scoring in the 4th minute due to some poor defensive coverage by the home team, this one started off with the eerie feeling that it was going to be another one of those matches at home that TFC supporters have had to suffer through too many times this year.
However, to their credit, TFC bounced back and evened things right back up pretty much instantly, which speaks well of the fight and character of the players. It also speaks well of the energy that Paul Mariner is giving off via his animated persona on the sideline. While it was a hot evening in Toronto, he actually looked like he had been running around for ninety minutes when he arrived at his post match press conference.
On another night when TFC were very solid one through eleven, several players did stand out. Danny Koevermans scored in his fourth straight game and proved once again that when he is on his game, Toronto is a very hard team to beat. Team captain Torsten Frings was also outstanding in all facets of the game. The Reds move the ball much more efficiently when he is in the midfield and he did an excellent job of slowing the game down when it looked New York was building some momentum. Terry Dunfield also had another excellent game in which he once again played to his strengths and linked up well with his teammates.
On the back line, Richard Eckersley was controlled and composed while playing in central defense and Logan Emory delivered the best performance of his young MLS career. The central defense pair did an excellent job of containing Thierry Henry and Kenny Cooper, which is no small task for even the most seasoned MLS defenders. Ashtone Morgan supported the attack ably and, as is becoming his standard, delivered a number of excellent crosses. Even more impressively, Morgan shut down Dane Richards and essentially took the very quick Red Bulls attacker right out of the game.
It appears that good things are happening at TFC under the stewardship of Paul Mariner. While he had his doubters when it was announced that he was taking over as Head Coach a few weeks back, it very much looks like he is on his way to proving his naysayers wrong. TFC cannot take their foot off the pedal any time soon, but if they do continue to compete in the fashion that they have over the last four games, they are going to earn their fair share of wins and draws over the remainder of the season.
TFC Line-up
30 Kocic
25 Hall
27 Eckersley
2 Emory
5 Morgan
22 Frings
19 Lambe
8 Avila
23 Dunfield
9 Johnson
14 Koevermans
Substitutions:
(67) Soolsma in for Lambe; (80) De Guzman in for Avila; (86) Silva in for Koevermans.
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