PUNCHLESS TFC FACING DAUNTING TASK
By the examples of its bad league form, it is hard to imagine Toronto FC winning the second leg of its CONCACAF Champions League semi-final Wednesday night.
The home and away series with Santos Laguna is tied 1-1 after last week’s fracas at BMO Field, when red cards to Santos defender Osmar Mares and forward Darwin Quintero sparked a late scuffle between the teams. The two players are suspended for the second leg in Torreon, Mexico.
But the combustible emotions of the current Mexican league leaders are not what makes Santos so dangerous inside the Estadio Corona. In the second leg of its quarter-final second leg against Seattle, Santos’s frenetic passing and furtive runs produced a 6-1 win, and a 7-3 victory on aggregate.
It is hard to expect mistakeprone Toronto, which has conceded seven goals in three Major League Soccer losses, can resist for long. And harder still to imagine MLS’S worst offence, with one goal scored and only seven shots on target, will produce anything in a game in which it needs to overcome the away goals rule. Toronto will be without forward Danny Koevermans, suspended for the second leg for accumulating too many yellow cards last week.
But it has been difficult to predict anything during TFC’S Cham,pions League run. Last Toronto defeated FC Dallas 3-0, in Dallas, in October to advance to the quarter-finals, after winning just one MLS road game in 2011. And three weeks ago, TFC dismissed the L.A. Galaxy 2-1, scoring off its two best chances in Los Angeles.
“Yes, I think [there has been a different state of mind] because of what we’ve gone through to get here,” forward Ryan Johnson said last week when trying to explain Toronto’s self-belief on the continental stage. The 27-year-old leads TFC with five goals in the competition. Still, maintaining a good mindset is half of the challenge.
“[Santos] play good onetwo [passes], and we have to follow our runners,” Johnson said after practice Monday. “They don’t stop moving. If we don’t follow our runners guys are going to get behind, and we’ve got to drop our [back] line a little bit.”
Head coach Aron Winter is more concerned about keeping his team composed. During TFC’S league losing streak, he has said his team has lacked “sharpness” in key moments. Besides play acting from Santos players, Toronto will be bombarded with noise and other projectiles in a city notable for drug violence.
“You can expect everything,” Winter said. “You have to be focused on your [responsibilities], and what you want to do. But the most important thing is don’t [become frustrated by] diving from [Santos players], or when the stadium is going to be hectic, [with fans] doing stupid things.”
Winter’s players laughed and looked confident on Monday. Rarely does a team sit last and winless in its domestic league, and also 90 minutes from a major continental final. Johnson just wants to prove Toronto has earned every step on its unexpected CONCACAF journey.