The best paid strike force in the history of Major League Soccer couldn’t help Toronto FC avoid a 2-0 defeat to the Columbus Crew on Saturday and while much more will be expected of Sebastian Giovinco and Jozy Altidore, the focus of coach Greg Vanney’s early season work in progress is elsewhere on the field.
If it was far too early, after the impressive opening week 3-1 win at Vancouver, to be sure that Toronto finally have a team that compete with the very best in the league. It would be just as hasty to see the defeat in Ohio as evidence that yet another season of underachievement and dysfunction is on the cards for the Canadian team.
Toronto were, after all, forced to play the entire second half with 10 men after left back Justin Morrow was harshly, many would say wrongly, sent off for a last-man challenge on Ethan Finlay a minute before the interval.
What was clear from the encounter however was tha Vanney still has plenty of work to do in molding the expensively assembled squad into a team into a unit that brings the best out of its undoubtedly talented front-line.
“For sure playing a man down in Columbus against a good team, it doesn’t define the season or anything,” said Vanney after the loss for the club that have yet to reach the playoffs since joining the league in 2007.
“It is a speed bump and we move on. We will get better, we will continue to focus on that but we will also look at creating more chances and getting them the ball in the right places. We have players who can make things happen and we just need to make sure we don’t give up chances.”
Columbus though deserve credit for the way that they fully exploited their numerical advantage with their clever possession play, incisive passing and fluid movement.
The Crew stretched Toronto, finding their goals from crosses from wide but enjoying their dominance thanks to the intelligent work of Wil Trapp and Federico Higuain in central areas.
Coach Gregg Berhalter has added the physical presence of Kei Kamara in attack and experienced Austrian international Emanuel Pogatetz in the centre of defence, strengthening an already effective unit into a team that could be a real threat in the playoffs this season.
Even before the red card, there was little fluency to Toronto’s play with Altidore and Giovinco finding a scarcity of quality service.
Michael Bradley, supported by the clever French midfielder Benoit Chevrou, whose arrival from Marseilles went somewhat under the radar amidst the big-money deals and the departure of Jermaine Defoe, should be a dominant pairing in the centre of the park.
But Bradley didn’t produce the kind of authoritative display that he is capable of, looking a little hesitant over his role, caught somewhere between being holding player and the midfield general position he has thrived in elsewhere.
Altidore spent too much time wide on the left and Giovinco, playing through the middle, didn’t get the service to feet that he can exploit – long balls to the five foot five former Juventus forward aren’t going to be very effective.
Prior to the red card, it was a relatively even contest although Columbus looked the more fluent team with Higuain’s ability to drop off the front line and probe from the gap between midfield and defense a problem that many teams in MLS will have to grapple with again this season.
The game turned though with the red card and replays showed that Morrow had won the ball with his sliding tackle - a view that was certainly the consensus in the Toronto locker room.
Vanney also lost Scottish defender Steven Caldwell at the break, the former Sunderland and Burnley centre-half being substituted due to a tight calf muscle and his re-shuffled defence was quickly exposed.
The Crew grabbed the lead in the 57th minute when the impressive Finlay’s cross from the right was headed in by Justin Meram.
Four minutes later Sierra Leone forward Kamara, back in MLS for a second spell with the Crew, after playing in England with Norwich City and Middlesbrough, made it 2-0 when he got on the end of a Waylon Francis cross from the left.
What exactly Toronto will end up becoming remains to be seen and, for the moment, Vanney is focused on tightening up his team’s work when they don’t have the ball.
“I think we obviously have some very good attacking players and for us that is not going to be an issue, creating our chances and getting our moments. We need to continue to work on our team defending and dictating play from a defensive standpoint,” he said.
Toronto captain Bradley provided a more blunt assessment, saying the sending off of Morrow was not the biggest disappointment of the night.
“Even with that in the second half I still felt that were going to be able to control things in a smart way and still find our chances to play and get opportunities of our own. I just don’t think in the decisive moments in the second half, at both ends, that we were good enough”.
It was a fair assessment of an early season setback but after all the investments made, Toronto know that sooner, rather than later, they simply have to be good enough.
