Bono makes big stops look easy
TFC ’keeper continues streak of clutch performances, late game-saver denies Crew
COLUMBUS— Alex Bono knows how to play it cool, both on and off the field.
Shortly after denying an 84th-minute shot from Columbus Crew defender Harrison Afful here on Tuesday night — a show-stopping save from close range that helped ensure Toronto FC left Ohio with a draw instead of a loss — the 23-year-old Reds ’keeper made little of what could have been a game-changing moment in the first leg of the Eastern Conference final.
“He was able to take a touch,” Bono said of Afful, who found himself with the ball just outside the six-yard box after defender Drew Moor couldn’t clear a late attack from the Crew.
“At that point, you’re just hoping that it’s somewhere around you and you can kind of make a reaction on it. Moments like those are going to come in matches and I thought as a whole we defended really well. They didn’t have any solid opportunities other than that.”
Bono makes it look and sound easy, as if he has been doing it for years. It’s not, and he hasn’t. Tuesday’s game was just his third professional playoff game, after winning the No.1 spot in net from Clint Irwin, who started the year with the job.
The save on Afful was one of a number of big stops Bono has come up with this post-season, something New York Red Bulls striker Bradley Wright-Phillips is all too familiar with. Bono made a big stop on him in each of the Eastern semifinal legs: both came around the 60-minute mark, both found Wright-Phillips alone behind Toronto’s defence, and both saw Bono come out on top against one of Major League Soccer’s most prolific scorers.
The second stop arguably saved the series for Toronto. Had the Reds, already down 1-0, allowed a second goal at BMO Field on Nov. 5, they would have been facing elimination.
To those around him, such saves are becoming the norm.
“Normal Alex for this year,” said Reds midfielder Jonathan Osorio. “I wouldn’t expect him to not make a big save like that in this game. It takes big plays from every guy to win this trophy and that definitely is going to help us.” Coach Greg Vanney agrees. “It seems like at some point it’ll be expected. He’s done a great job,” he said. “I think when you’re in the playoffs and on the road, you’re going to need your goalkeeper to come up with something, especially when you play against good attacking teams. Columbus is that.”
It was basically the same observation the coach made after that second leg against New York. Similar to that game, Toronto seemed to heave a sigh of relief when Bono parried Afful’s shot away.
But it wasn’t just the late save that Vanney praised. As the Reds absorbed more and more pressure while the game wound down on Tuesday, there were also chances from midfielders Justin Meram and Artur and striker Kekuta Manneh, on top of regular duties controlling the box.
“I thought all night Alex was in good spots . . . to deal with crosses, to take things out of the air, to grab some things and hold onto them so that we could push our lines up, and obviously the save is an important save in the game,” Vanney said.
Every game Bono plays in this playoff run becomes the biggest game of his young career. The native of Syracuse, N.Y., has said he is trying to make each match feel like any other, despite the heightened atmosphere. He called the big saves he has made so far in these playoffs “small confidence builders.”
Knowing the city of Toronto will be behind the Reds in the second, home leg of this conference final, which wraps up next Wednesday at BMO Field, is another confidence builder — and something Bono has been looking forward to for a while. “We know that no matter what happens in the first leg (Toronto fans are) going to come in the thousands — screaming, shirtless behind the goal to support us — and we really thrive on that, we relish that,” he said last week.