Giovinco steps up as Reds draw first blood
Sebastian Giovinco got his groove back here Tuesday night, leading Toronto FC to a 1-0 victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps in the first leg of the Canadian Championship final.
The Italian striker hasn’t scored since the Major League Soccer version of this fixture on May 13, when he put two past goalkeeper David Ousted in a 4-3 loss at BMO Field.
“I’m happy, because I like to score goals,” Giovinco said through a translator after the match. “I’m also happy with how it went tonight and I hope to continue to score more.”
Giovinco had a little help on his return to the scoresheet.
The goal, scored just before halftime, deflected off Vancouver defender Kendall Waston and sent his goalkeeper, Paolo Tornaghi, diving in the wrong direction.
But it added considerable jump to the striker’s step, a needed boost after a scoreless month in which he also battled an adductor injury.
Reds coach Greg Vanney said it was ironic Toronto scored its lone goal in the first 45 minutes — a half he called “terrible” — but couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net when the team’s play improved after the break.
Vanney started a more veteran lineup than he had employed over the course of Toronto’s first two Canadian Championship matches, semifinal games against Montreal.
After a shaky first 10 minutes, Toronto settled into a solid defensive rhythm but it hardly created anything up front.
For much of the first half, Giovinco saw little of the ball. When it was at his feet, he was without much support.
But the Whitecaps didn’t create much after the first 10 minutes either, and Toronto FC found its attacking legs with about a dozen minutes to play in the half.
With Giovinco’s first real chance, he used a 40-yard free kick as a shot, but Tornaghi was able to dive toward the bottom corner and parry the ball out for a corner.
That fortuitous goal for the home side was the only real difference between the two teams at the break. The Reds did manage to mount a much more complete and consistent attack from early on in the second half.
Giovinco again had the best chance of the half, when another long-range shot of his flew past Tornaghi and dinged off the post.
Toronto will take its lead to BC Place in Vancouver, where the second leg of the Canadian Championship will be played next Wednesday, June 29.
That’s when Toronto will learn if it did enough at home to help the team earn its first Voyageurs Cup and CONCACAF Champions League berth since 2012.
“We didn’t concede the away goal, which is always important,” Vanney said.
“And we’ve got the 1-0 up. We go there and we defend like we’ve been defending and make sure we play like we played a little bit in the second half in terms of ball movement . . . and it makes it an uphill battle for them.”