Reds show Club America coach that they’re the real deal
Hear, hear, Miguel Herrera.
Club America’s bench boss was 100 per cent correct in his prematch assessment: “Our league ( Liga MX) doesn’t compete with MLS,” he said. “It competes with the leagues of Europe.”
His comments didn’t sit well. MLS fans crave respect.
But Herrera’s harsh — but fair — indictment ahead of Tuesday night’s Champions League semifinal in Toronto was something of a compliment.
Toronto FC certainly is an MLS anomaly.
However, the Reds aren’t representing MLS. They’re representing this city — their club.
And they’re an away performance from appearing in a Champions League final following a monumental 3- 1 win against a Mexican side that’s won just about everything there is to win — including back- to- back Champions League titles.
This wasn’t a referendum on Major League Soccer as a whole. It was affirmation that, regardless of what happens next week at Azteca Stadium, the Reds are legitimate heavy- hitters — an MLS aberra- tion — within a confederation that has been dominated by Mexicans since the get-go. Not this night. Not inside a rain-soaked, and frigid, stadium they’ve been dominant in.
The usual suspects made sure of it.
Sebastian Giovinco and Jozy Altidore have had a hand in all but one goal TFC has scored in this competition.
They haven’t just been dominant. They’ve been everything.
Giovinco buried his penalty kicktaking demons Tuesday night before the game was 10 minutes old after being brought down inside the penalty area.
Altidore’s timely moment of individual brilliance — off a feed from the Atomic Ant — re- charged the Reds after Club America’s Andres Ibarguen walked through TFC’s defence to score midway through the first half.
The most clutch attacking duo in MLS history has now had a hand in 27 of TFC’s Cup or MLS playoff goals dating back to 2016.
They’re the most clutch athletes in their city on an MLS side like no others before it — one that hasn’t just played level with Mexican opposition, but made them appear a class below for stretches of every game.
In moments they haven’t been on top, the Reds have been able to ride things out. There was a period here Tuesday night when the game appeared to get away.
Ibarguen was having his way with a TFC defence that looked like it was stuck in mud. Things seemed precarious at 1-1. The Reds needed a big moment from a big player — someone to provide a lift that was lost after Club America’s dynamic Colombian silenced the boisterous BMO Field audience.
The ball bounced to Giovinco, whose deft pass put Altidore oneon-one with a defender he crossed up before blasting an effort that popped mist off the back of the rainsoaked net.
It was the goal that gave TFC the confidence to go on and get another.
With a half-hour remaining, Ashtone Morgan — the forgotten man — had the desire to race forward and get on the end of an Auro cross and send BMO Field into jubilation we’ve witnessed with what seems like unreasonable regularity.
The Reds head to Mexico City next Tuesday needing to keep things close.