TFC beats Ottawa in first leg of Canuck championship semi
OTTAWA — Toronto FC is right where they want to be after the opening leg of the Canadian Championship soccer semifinal.
Jonathan Osorio scored in the fifth minute as Toronto downed the Ottawa Fury, 1-0, on the road in the first leg on Wednesday.
Toronto claimed an important road goal in the opening match, and will host the second leg at BMO Field July 25.
“For us, we met our objective for the night. Tonight we got the shutout, we got the away goal so we’re leaving pleased,” said
TFC head coach Greg Vanney.
“We set ourselves up with the position to try and finish the series at home next week,” he added.
The game was delayed for a couple of minutes late in the second half when TFC supporters set off flares and smoke bombs that led to fires in the stands, with one making its way on the pitch before quickly being extinguished by stadium security.
Toronto FC left several of their starters at home on Wednesday, including midfielders Michael Bradley and Victor Vazquez, defender Gregory van der Wiel and Italian forward Sebastian Giovinco. This despite the fact they have just four wins in 19 MLS games this season.
None of that really mattered, though, as Osorio opened the scoring to give TFC an early lead.
Osario took a pass from Ryan Telfer and deposited the ball just past the outstretched fingers of Fury ’keeper Maxime Crepeau just inside the left post.
“I didn’t really see the ball until it got close to me and we’re behind after just five minutes. We were pushing to get the tie, to our credit, it was just too bad that we were behind,” Crepeau said.
“It was frustrating, but we have another 90 minutes that can change everything. We know it’s going to be difficult in Toronto, and it will be in difficult conditions, but we’ll give it our all.”
That was the only shot attempt by Toronto FC in the first half. The Fury had two, but one was wide of the target and the other was blocked.
Kevin Oliveira had two shots on goal early in the second half for the Fury but both were handled by Clint Irwin in the Toronto goal. He was making just his fifth start of the season.
“The game was even and I can’t say that there was one team that was dominating,” Fury coach Nikola Popovic said.
Steevan Dos Santos had a golden opportunity to tie the game in the 85th minute as he got his head on a cross from Onua Obasi, but Irwin made the save right on the goal line. The Fury continued to press over the dying minutes, including four minutes of extra time, but were unable to break through.
TFC won the Voyageur Cup in 2017, defeating the Fury in the semifinals.