Reds not worried about missing players versus Crew
TORONTO — The Reds aren’t concerned with player absences.
No, they’re firing warning shots at the Columbus Crew ahead of Tuesday night’ s Eastern Conference final at MAPFRE Stadium.
Sebastian Giovinco (accumulation) and Jozy Altidore (red card suspension) won’t be in Ohio this week, but Michael Bradley says that won’t deter the Supporters’ Shield winners from chasing “valuable” away goals that could be the difference in a tight series.
“There’s no doubt (Columbus) will be motivated and feel like the fact we’re playing without Seba and Jozy is a good thing for them,” Bradley said following Sunday’s training session at the KIA Training Ground.
“But if they are so aggressive and throw caution to the wind, then our ability to play on the counter attack and use the space they give us and really punish them (is something) we’ve shown to be quite good at.”
Tosaint Ricketts is expected to start Tuesday night’s fixture as a lone striker in front of Victor Vazquez.
The duo do have a bit of history, combining for both goals in a 2-1 win in Columbus earlier this season.
“I think we have an amazing squad,” Vazquez told the Toronto Sun. “Whoever is playing is going to be good for us.
“We have to play different. We have to do other things. We’ ll try to do our best and score goals. Scoring goals away is always important.”
Bradley ratcheted up expectations even further, putting pressure on the Reds to get a result without their leading goal-scorers.
“We’ve got to leave Columbus with something,” he added. “We want to win the game. If things set up for a tie, OK. We want to score goals.”
The Reds are well aware of the history surrounding these two-legged affairs. Since 2013, five of eight lower seeded teams have advanced from these playoff series.
The margins are so tight in this league—especially with top players missing—that visiting teams can’ t expect to advance if they don’ t play both legs with the intent to score and win.
“There’s so much talk about the playoff format and how the higher seeds don’ t get enough of an advantage ,” Bradley added.
“But in many cases the higher seeds don’t do enough in the first game to then come back home still having an advantage. That’s on you.”
Toronto FC has gotten things done without their top attacking players before.
Giovinco didn’t start in consecutive road wins at Seattle and Columbus earlier this season.
Altidore and the Atomic Ant didn’t start when the Reds embarrassed the Crew 5-0 at BMO Field this year.
“In some ways this could play into the strength soft he guys we’ re putting out there,” coach Greg Vanney told the Sun.
“Not to be in (Columbus Crew coach Greg Berhalter’s) head, but I think they feel like they probably need to get the best possible result out of this leg before they come to Toronto and we have everybody back and a motivated group on the return.”
What Berhalter decides to do in Tuesday night’s opening leg could be a massive talking point come Wednesday morning.
Be rh alter confidently trotted out an aggressive setup when Columbus visited BMO Field back in May.
“We tried that against Toronto, remember?” Berhalter told the Columbus Dispatch before the weekend. “That went well, right?”
Bradley added Sunday that these playoffs, this series, could be about winning games in different ways.
The Reds survived a semifinal series with the Red Bulls by grinding and coming up with timely defensive interventions.
The Columbus series, though, is expected to be entirely different — especially with the Reds missing key pieces.
“I don’ t know what they propose to do,” Vanney said of Columbus. But if they really try and press and send a lot of numbers and push the game then away goals are always a big factor in this. Either way, I think we have guys who can score goals in this game.”
It’s as if the Reds are warning their opponent to push forward at their own risk.