News for 2010

MoTuWeThFrSaSu
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930 
 


 


_______________

Earstern Standings

Club
GP
PTS
Columbus16
31
New York
16
26
Toronto FC
15
22
Chicago
14
17
Kansas
16
16
Philadelphia14
14
New England
15
14
 DC United 1612

Click to Visit
Toronto FC website

Concacaf CL: Motagua 2 - Toronto FC 2

For the first time in the club’s young history, Toronto FC will participate in the group stages of the CONCACAF Champions League, thanks to a 2-2 draw away to CD Motagua that knocked the venerable Honduran side out of the competition.

Yeoman work from Stefan Frei, creative flair from Maicon, and second-half goals from Dwayne De Rosario and Chad Barrett saw the Reds come from behind twice to get a rare away result in front of a sparsely packed, but very loud Estadio Nacional Tegucigalpa.

Former TFC star Amado Guevara had both of the hosts’ goals in what was an entertaining affair, with the Hondurans having the lion’s share of possession, but only to have the brilliant Frei stymie them on seven occasions.


First Half

After starting on the bench on Saturday versus Kansas City, captain Dwayne de Rosario and Chad Barrett returned to Preki’s starting line-up, along with a Champions League debutant in 17-year-old TFC Academy player, Doneil Henry, but it was the former TFC player who would get the crowd of 6,000 strong on its feet early.

In the 6th, a long ball over the head of Nick Garcia found its way to Mauricio Weber on the left, who nicely timed a cross for a diving Amado Guevara. The Motagua captain’s header easily beat a helpless Stefan Frei, who could only watch as the hosts went level on aggregate. It’s difficult to place blame on a 17-year-old rookie, but it was all too simple for Guevara to get in between Henry and Nana Attakora. That isn’t to put the goat horns on the central defense alone, as some very lax play in the middle allowed Motagua to move forward to start the play in the first place.

Young Henry was exposed again in the 17th by Honduran World Cup star Emilio Izaguirre, who stormed past the Brampton, Ontario native on the edge of the box and hammered a rising drive at net. Luckily for Frei, it wasn’t from the best of angles and it sailed well over the bar.

The pace picked up in the 28th. First, a nice one-two between Julian de Guzman and De Rosario sprung the captain behind the Motagua defense and the TFC talisman headed for goal. Unable to get full control of the ball to produce a quality shot, De Rosario was cut off by a charging Johnny Leveron, who did well to cut off DeRo’s attempt at net. From the ensuing clearance, Motagua would come back the other way, but a gorgeous long ball to Charles Cordoba went to waste when Weber sent a very tame low shot at Frei.

In an attempt to liven up his sluggish attack, Preki took off Henry at the half-hour for Maicon Santos, with Dan Gargan dropping into the back four, yet it was the hosts who looked most likely add another . First, in the 39th, Weber diagonally crossed a ball into right of the TFC area for an onrushing Cordoba. Making a split-second decision, Frei raced off his line to meet it and dove to collect prior to the smallish Motagua star arriving on the scene. Not two minutes later, Cordoba would again have a shot on goal, but it was easily saved by Frei and the match stayed 1-0 going into the half.


Second Half

Cordoba’s terrorizing of the TFC defense continued after the restart. In the 46th, the striker knocked down a long pass and used a strong first touch to get a step on Attakora. Failing to do so for the entirety of the first, Cordoba got a quality strike on goal, but Frei made a tremendous diving stop to deny the striker.

The Motagua frontman wasn’t done there, as he beat Dan Gargan’s offside trap to receive a nice through ball from Weber and came in alone on Frei. The Cordoba of the first half emerged again, as his attempt on net was beyond pedestrian and barely forced Frei to move.

TFC’s possession began to increase as the half went on, but the chances really weren’t of high value. In the 53rd, a Mendoza foul resulted in a TFC free kick from just over 20 yards out. De Rosario’s delivery was good and Maicon was in position to make contact with a header, yet an adventurous run off of his line by Donaldo Morales allowed the Motagua ‘keeper to punch the ball out of danger. Had he mistimed that effort, he would have been helpless to stop the Toronto men who had begun to assemble in the area from getting to the ball.

In the 55th, De Rosario sent an inviting ball wide to Nick Labrocca. The midfielder raced down the left and had a step on his defender. As he is apt to do at times, Larocca then shot from a sharp angle, well over the goal of Donaldo.

The Reds would find that precious away goal five minutes later. Coming down the right, Maicon split the Motagua defense with a beautiful through ball that was latched onto by De Rosario. Taking two strides, the TFC captain fired low and beat Donaldo, knotting the game at 1-1 and putting TFC back ahead on aggregate.

As expected, the TFC marker resulted in wave after wave of Motagua attack, looking to level the match, but needing two goals to cancel out the Reds’ away marker. They would get one in the 62nd with Guevara coming back to haunt his former club for a second time. With the Reds’ defense dropping back deeply, the 2004 MLS MVP fired a hard strike through a crowd from the edge of the box and past a screened Frei.

Knowing that this still wouldn’t be enough, Motagua would continue its desperate assault forward, but Frei had an answer for everything they threw at him. In the 72nd, a De Rosario turnover afforded Motagua with a 2-0 break in behind the TFC backline. Shannon Welcome, whose cousin is Georgie Welcome, a fellow Motagua striker who is currently on trial with Rangers, fired from a sharp angle and found side netting outside the near post.

Then, in the 75th, Izaguirre, who was a presence on the wing all evening, sent in a spot-on cross to the heart of the of the TFC area. Marcelo Dos Santos muscled his way past his marker and got his outstretched leg to the delivery, but the Brazilian’s diving effort cleared the ball. Not two minutes later, it would be Welcome again, this time with a long range effort, hammering a howitzer from feet outside the box. Frei leapt, with his left arm extended as far as possible, to punch over and curb some of the momentum that was clearly going the hosts’ way. Motagua’s inability to find a way past the Swiss ‘keeper for that priceless third goal would resign them to an unhappy fate in the 79th.

Like he did on TFC’s opening goal, the substitute Maicon would play catalyst again, dinking off a clever backheel in an attempt to spring Chad Barrett. Barrett, the man with the lone goal in last week’s home tie, was momentarily frozen by the intervention of Mendoza, but the Motagua man only managed to deflect the ball back into Barrett’s path. Breaking in alone, Barrett’s low, hard drive took only the slightest of deflections, but that was enough to beat Donaldo and bury Motagua.

Needing two in ten minutes, Motagua again tried to come forward with intent. Their best chance to pull one back came from an Izaguirre cross in the 83rd that was headed onto a completely unmarked Guillermo Diaz from only five feet out, yet somehow the defender managed to head wide. Ramon Maradiaga could only manage to stare at the ground solemnly, as full knowledge that his side had crashed out of the Champions League began to set in.

TFC now advances to what should be a competitive and extremely difficult Group A, featuring perennial Mexican powerhouse and five-time CONCACAF Champions League winners, Cruz Azul, the 2010 Panamanian Clausura champs, Arabe Unido, and a familiar foe in current MLS holders, Real Salt Lake. Things get under way in two weeks time, at home to Cruz Azul. Thoughts of the Champions League group stage will be put on hold, though, as after the long journey back to Toronto, TFC hosts Chivas USA on Saturday afternoon.




Highlights Video:

 
 
Source: Goal

Posted on Wednesday 04 August 2010 - 14:28:30 |email to someone printer friendly

Concacaf CL: Toronto 1 - Motagua 0

Toronto FC played some of its most inspired soccer of the season Tuesday night, and was rewarded with the first CONCACAF Champions League win in club history.


Chad Barrett scored and Toronto built on early momentum to earn a 1-0 win over Honduran visitors Club Deportivo Motagua in the first leg of a Champions League qualifier.

Captain Dwayne De Rosario was again a maestro in the midfield, earning an assist on the decisive goal while creating several chances of his own against Motagua at BMO Field. Toronto should have converted on more than one of its shots, but its play was enough to send the 18,891 paying customers into the streets entertained and satisfied.

"It was fun," De Rosario said. "We saw a lot of the ball in the midfield, guys were moving, guys were on the ball, and I think that was a big key to our success."

Toronto earned an invitation to the tournament with its successful defence of the Nutrilite Canadian Championship in May. The CONCACAF Champions League -- comprised of North American, Central American and Caribbean teams -- takes part in three stages, and sends its champion to compete in the FIFA Club World Cup.

A win, a tie or a high-scoring one-goal loss in next week's second leg would see the Canadian side qualify for the competition's group stage.

"It's a great result, it's a positive thing to take a win out of here," Barrett said. "In Honduras, it's going to be tough. They're going to be just as good, if not better, on their own field."

Toronto is set to fly to Honduras from Kansas City following its league game against the Wizards on July 31. It will face Motagua in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa on Aug. 2, a little more than a year after president Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a coup.

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada has published a list of stark warnings for would-be travellers to Honduras on its website. The Canadian government has not issued an official travel warning, but it does advise tourists to "exercise a high degree of caution in Honduras due to an increase in violent crime as well as recent political unrest."

De Rosario said the stadium can be an intimidating place to play.

"It's an intense atmosphere," he said. "It will be a good experience for a lot of the guys. It's a very difficult environment to play in."

Toronto was bounced from the preliminary round of the tournament last year after failing to score a goal in two games against the Puerto Rico Islanders. The Canadian side fell 1-0 at home and drew 0-0 on the road.

It became clear very early on Tuesday that the team would not settle for another shutout in the competition. Toronto coach Predrag (Preki) Radosavljevic selected a squad filled with regulars, and he appeared to send them onto the field with orders to attack.

After a flourish of early movement, forward O'Brian White was nearly the first to crack the score sheet in the 19th minute, but was thwarted with a last-second deflection from Motagua defender Ivan Guerrero.

The visitors had four World Cup veterans in their starting lineup -- a group headlined by former Toronto midfielder Amado Guevara -- but were sluggish. They were still on their heels after White's attempt when De Rosario sliced them open for the opening goal.

Toronto's captain hit Barrett on the run, sending the forward in all alone on goal in the 20th minute. The 25-year-old stroked the ball into the net for a 1-0 lead.

De Rosario sent forward Jacob Peterson on another run three minutes later, only to have the five-year MLS veteran send a lob harmlessly over the net. Canadian midfielder Julian de Guzman was stopped on a weak left-footed shot 10 minutes before halftime, moments before Barrett was caught from behind on a breakaway.

"We kept pushing forward," Preki said. "We were trying to get a second goal because we knew how important it was to get a second goal."

Forward Maicon Santos turned his marker inside out just minutes after making his debut in the second half for Toronto, but joined the growing list of near-misses when the play fizzled. De Rosario and de Guzman each had open lanes to goal before the game was an hour old, but the former was low, and the latter sent his shot too high.

De Rosario had another glorious chance in the 73rd minute, after running for what seemed like five kilometres to chase down a pass. The 32-year-old, who will join the MLS all-star team in Houston for its game against Manchester United on Wednesday, blasted a shot on net from just inside the box, forcing a difficult save.

Motagua pushed back near the end, narrowly missing a redirection in the final five minutes.

"The game now is history," Motagua coach Ramon Maradiaga said through a translator. "We hope that, in Tegucigalpa, we can turn the game around."

:: highlights video ::


Source: http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/2010/07/27/torontofc_motagua/
Posted on Wednesday 28 July 2010 - 11:29:55 |email to someone printer friendly

Toronto FC 1 - FC Dallas 1

As painful as a 1-1 tie was to Toronto FC on Saturday, it’s fall when it may really hurt. The Reds conceded a late goal for the second straight week. This time, it was a 77th minute equalizer off the head of FC Dallas striker Milton Rodriguez on a corner kick, which gave the visitors a point they appeared to have no chance of claiming over the first 65 minutes of a rain-soaked afternoon at BMO Field.


Just like seven days earlier in Philadelphia, when TFC lost 2-1 on a penalty five minutes into second-half stoppage time, this result cost them valuable points in a race for the Major League Soccer playoffs that looks destined to go down to the last game in October.

“At the end of the day, we lost two points,” said midfielder Julian de Guzman, who enjoyed one of his best games of the season and set-up TFC’s goal in the 61st minute.

“It’s definitely not enough to only walk out with one point against Dallas at home.”

While the tie kept the Reds unbeaten at home this season — 5-0-4 — they lost an opportunity to move into a tie for fifth place with Dallas (6-2-8) in the 16-team league, which sends eight teams to the playoffs.

Compounding the disappointment for TFC (6-5-5) is the fact the team plays eight of its final 14 games away from home, where it has just a win and a tie in seven matches so far this season.

The Reds will have to rebound quickly. They host Motagua of Honduras at BMO Field Tuesday in the opening leg of a CONCACAF Champions League preliminary round.

On Saturday, TFC dominated the game for more than an hour before an announced crowd of 19,743, which was significantly reduced by the nasty weather.

After taking the play to Dallas and generating the game’s only good scoring chances, the Reds finally scored just over an hour in.

De Guzman started the play by winning the ball on his own side of the field and beginning a counter attack.. Soon after crossing the halfway line, he played a perfect ball through the defence onto the foot of Maicon Santos.

Maicon Santos, who was making his first MLS start for TFC in three appearances since signing earlier this month, fought off defender Zach Loyd and drilled a low shot on the short side to beat Kevin Hartman. It was his first goal for the Reds.

But soon after, TFC stopped pushing forward and let Dallas dictate the game’s pace.

“After we scored the goal, we relaxed,” said head coach Preki Radosavljevic. “It was almost like we took 10 new guys and put them on the field and said: ‘Okay, defend.’”

After some sloppy defensive play by TFC led to a Dallas corner, Rodriguez rose between two defenders to thump home the David Ferreira cross past a helpless Stefan Frei.

It was yet another goal conceded off a set piece, a recurring theme for this team. And, as was so often the case last season, when TFC fell a point short of the playoffs, it was scored in the final 15 minutes of the game.

“Once again, we found a way to give away a soft goal,” Preki said. “That’s a worrying thing. I think we’re lacking concentration in the box.”

Frei said it comes down to one-on-one play on corners and free kicks.

“We’ve got to win our individual battles and almost take the intensity up a notch when we defend our set pieces,” said Frei, who preserved the tie with a diving, finger-tip save off a deflected shot from Atiba Harris in the 87th minute. “It’s got to get better.”

Midfielder Jacob Peterson said while it may be “human nature” to feel you have to defend when you get the lead, the Reds have to develop a killer instinct that sees them continue to push forward to look to widen their lead and not try to hang on for wins.

“The best teams in the world keep pushing and look to win games 3-0, 4-0 and we’ve got to acquire that,” said Peterson, who came on as a substitute for the final nine minutes.
Posted on Wednesday 28 July 2010 - 11:16:24 |email to someone printer friendly

Go to page       >>