Ricketts keeps Reds rolling at home
Second-half goal extends unbeaten run at BMO to eight league games
After back-to-back three-goal victories, Toronto FC played to a decidedly more tepid 1-0 win over Real Salt Lake Wednesday.
Canadian striker Tosaint Ricketts scored his first goal for the Reds in the 69th minute to edge the visitors.
TFC coach Greg Vanney has relied on a young group in the midst of an injury crisis that has seen goalkeeper Clint Irwin and midfielders Michael Bradley and Will Johnson out with long-term injuries.
He conceded their mid-week performance wasn’t Toronto’s most stylish of the season, but said the youngsters were almost due for an off night.
“It was that tonight. We don’t apologize for it, we just take the three points and we move up the standings. Those things happen over the course of the season. You win some, you lose some and tonight we did enough to win it,” Vanney said.
With the Reds’ recent prowess in front of net, and Salt Lake’s penchant for going forward, the mid-week match was billed as an all-out attacking affair. But by the end of the first half, the two sides had combined for just two shots on target.
In the 39th minute, Salt Lake midfielder Javier Morales played onetime Toronto FC striker Joao Plata into the box, to the left of goalkeeper Alex Bono’s net. Bono stood tall, though, using his left foot to redirect Plata’s strike away from Toronto’s goal. The Reds responded almost straight away.
Midfielder Jay Chapman started the move with an impressive run to toward the top of Salt Lake’s 18-yard box. He laid the ball off to fellow midfielder Tsubasa Endoh out wide, but their give-and-go effort was thwarted when Chapman’s header hit an opposing defender.
Striker Sebastian Giovinco tried to chip the rebound from the header over Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando, but his effort was cleared off the line.
Despite a quiet 45 minutes, Toronto went into the break with the momentum. And when the home side came back out onto the field, it did so with an added jump in its step.
Unable to score immediately after halftime, Vanney, going for the full three points, brought on strikers Ricketts and Jozy Altidore in the 56th minute. And 12 minutes later, the two combined to get the ball in the back of the net.
In one of Toronto’s most direct goals this season, Altidore flicked a goal kick from Bono onto Ricketts, who made no mistake when he slammed a shot past Rimando.
Bono came up big to protect the lead with about10 minutes to play; he shut down a shot from Salt Lake forward Juan Manuel Martinez, who found himself alone just outside the six-yard box.
The man of the match bailed out the Reds’ defence, porous at times Wednesday, on multiple occasions, Vanney said.
“That’s a sign of a kid who is maturing and really starting to get comfortable in his skin, being in the goal.”
It was an otherwise comfortable end to the night for Toronto, which is now undefeated in eight league matches at BMO Field.