TFC opens MLS Cup defence on losing note
TORONTO — Prior to its opening match of the 2018 Major League Soccer campaign, Toronto FC held a ceremony to celebrate a season in which it won the MLS Cup, Supporter’s Shield and the Canadian Championship.
After dropping a 2-0 decision to the Columbus Crew on Saturday, Sebastian Giovinco said its time to stop living in the past.
“At the beginning it was not in a good way; we continued show the trophy, we continued to think about what happened last year,” the star Toronto striker said as he blamed the loss on a poor team mentality.
“I think ... we have to change the mentality. We don’t have to think about last year. We have to think about this year, and this year is more difficult.”
Federico Higuain scored the winning goal and Gyasi Zardes had the other while Zack Steffen made two saves to help provide the clean sheet for Columbus (1-0-0).
Higuain one-timed a Milton Valenzuela cross past a diving Alex Bono in the 44th minute. Bono dove to get his hand on the shot, but couldn’t get enough to keep it out. Higuain now has 49 goals and 49 assists in 150 career MLS appearances.
“We had some chances and I thought we could’ve been up earlier in the game so it was nice to go into halftime with the lead,” said Columbus coach Gregg Berhalter.
“I think the guys got confidence from that and it showed from the start of the second half as well. We came out confident.”
Bono finished with two saves in the loss.
Toronto (0-1-0) dropped to 4-5-6 against Columbus all-time at home.
The win gave Columbus a measure of revenge. It was the Reds who ended the Crew’s 2017 season advancing 1-0 on aggregate in the Eastern Conference final before getting past Seattle in the MLS Cup. TFC also took two of three regular-season meetings between the teams.
“I’m not over the moon disappointed because I think there’s a lot of information that is usable for me and us as a team coming out of this going into a series where we’ve got to be a little bit sharper than we were today, for sure,” said Toronto coach Greg Vanney as the team prepares for the CONCACAF Champions League quarter-finals.
Zardes doubled the Crew lead just a minute into the second half, getting his foot on a Pedro Santos through ball and putting it past Bono.
It was Zardes’s first goal as a member of the Crew after being acquired from the L.A. Galaxy in the off-season.