TFC face another pivotal match to keep playoff hopes alive
TORONTO — Soccer players are usually up for a challenge after training, lining up to try and hit the woodwork from distance or bend a corner directly into the goal.
Toronto FC midfielder Victor Vazquez raised the bar Friday when it comes to party tricks.
The Spanish playmaker left the pitch, with several balls, and positioned himself on the sidewalk behind the protective netting that stretches several storeys above the goal. Vazquez punted the ball high in the air and over the netting. Then, like a golfer looking to stick the ball on the green, he watched as the ball bounced off the grass and spun back into the net.
“The wind helped,” he said with a smile.
Vazquez, who says he is healthier than he has been in a long time, and Toronto FC (8-15-6) face another do-or-die game Saturday against the visiting New England Revolution (8-10-11).
Ninth-place Toronto, the reigning MLS champions, is 10 points out of the sixth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference — currently occupied by Montreal — with five games remaining. A Toronto loss or draw combined with a Montreal win would eliminate TFC from playoff contention.
There is also urgency for eighth-place New England, which comes into the game five points out of the playoffs with five games remaining.
While Toronto’s season is likely done, coach Greg Vanney is looking for his team to make a statement as it nears the finish line.
“I think guys know that our only means for the rest of the season is to just to try and put pressure on other teams to keep coming up with results,” he said after training Friday. “But for us it’s about improving as a group, getting guys healthy, trying to get on the field and whether we have five games left or we manage to somehow find our way in the playoffs, we want to finish playing better than we’ve played throughout the course of the year.”
Both teams have had trouble digging themselves out of their hole, although New England has done better of late.
The Revolution arrive unbeaten in four (1-0-3), a stretch that followed an eight-game winless streak (0-6-2).