Toronto FC machine keeps rolling in the MLS playoffs
In sport, as in life, aesthetics sometimes go out the window.
If every toilet in your home is plugged, you don’t need a plumber who looks like Fabio. You want a professional with a plunger who can get the job done.
On Tuesday, without marquee strikers Jozy Altidore and Sebastian Giovinco, Toronto FC showed its blue-collar side in a 0-0 tie with Columbus Crew SC in Game 1 of the MLS Eastern Conference final.
Toronto coach Greg Vanney switched from his usual fast-moving and stylish 3-5-2 formation to a more bottomline-oriented 4-1-4-1 with captain Michael Bradley an Energizer Bunny playing deep to shield the backline while backup forward Tosaint Ricketts plowed a lone furrow up front.
The end result? Toronto survived the absence of its suspended stars and has a platform to finish off Columbus in the friendly confines of BMO Field.
Tuesday night wasn’t pretty
but Toronto got the job done.
“You guys are calling Toronto the best team in the history of the MLS. And how many shots on goal do they have in the whole playoffs so far?” Columbus coach Gregg Berhalter asked reporters in his postmatch news conference. “That’s the nature of playoffs and they’re smart enough to realize it and not get down about it. They just keep going.”
For the record, Toronto has just four shots on goal in its three playoff games (1-1-1) so far. But its two goals scored — it has also conceded two — have been enough to move it within 90 minutes of its second straight MLS Cup appearance.
It was a safety first approach for top-seeded Toronto on Tuesday.
Despite wobbling in the second half in face of a renewed Columbus attack, Toronto limited the home side to a total of just three shots on target.
The league leaders, lacking a cutting edge up front, had none.
With the series switching back to Toronto on Nov. 29, both teams claimed a 0-0 tie was OK in their books.
“There was a couple of acceptable results that we’d live with and this was one of them,” said Berhalter.
Toronto coach Greg Vanney said the same but with a little less enthusiasm, calling the 0-0 tie “good” but “not a perfect result.
“We’d like to get a road goal. But at the end of the day we have to go back to Toronto and win the game. We’ll be home, in front of our fans, in our stadium and we’ll play to win the game.”