ANOTHER KICK IN THE ...
The shootout proves to be TFC’s downfall again, but the Reds have shown they can compete with the best North American soccer has to offer,
Greg Vanney’s Toronto FC side may not have won the CONCACAF Champions League on Wednesday night in Mexico, but he believes the team has proven it is of the best teams on the continent.
“What I would say is that our team has proven that we can play with anybody in Mexico, through the course of this,” the coach told reporters after the Reds’ penalty shootout loss to Chivas de Guadalajara. “That’s the only thing that I can say that I can say with a ton of confidence.”
The question of whether Major League Soccer has finally caught up to Liga MX is one that has loomed over the tournament. The Reds pulled off the best single season in MLS history last year. And while TFC was the third MLS team to reach the final of this particular tournament, they were the only squad to head into the decisive series as favourites.
It is the “what could have been” that will disappoint the Reds the most. A surprise 2-1 loss to Chivas in the first leg at BMO Field put Toronto in a hole heading into Mexico, where the team had never won before. A 2-1 win in Guadalajara — only the fourth time in 54 attempts that an MLS team has won a Champions Leauge game in Mexico — forced penalties, but Jonathan Osorio and Michael Bradley missed their attempts in the 4-2 shootout loss.
“It’s been a couple of shootouts over the last couple of years that haven’t done us very kind but there wasn’t a whole lot more,” Vanney said about his team’s chances, referencing Toronto’s shootout loss in the 2016 MLS Cup final. “We had one opportunity there at the very end that could have been the difference but I would also go back to Toronto … we can’t give away two goals in Toronto and that’s the difference in the series. It wasn’t the soccer that was the difference in the series; it was a couple of goals that we shouldn’t have allowed. “
The opportunity at the end fell to midfielder Marky Delgado, who skied a close-range shot in injury time despite being largely unmarked. Both Vanney and goalkeeper Alex Bono called the miss unfortunate but Bono, who made a game-changing error in the first leg, said the Reds don’t blame losses on individual players.
While Delgado may be remembered on the highlight reels for the wasted chance, he has also been a workhorse in the Toronto midfield.
“We take the loss on the chin as a team and we come together as a group and we rally as a group,” Bono told reporters. “It’s unfortunate for us that we don’t get another shot until, hopefully, next season but I’m proud of the run that we made.”
Pride was the feeling the team touched on most in the wake of the loss. Toronto began the second leg in tough, missing six defenders through injury. Things only got more difficult when midfielder Victor Vazquez and striker Jozy Altidore were pulled in the second half, the former just back from injury .
Bradley called his team “full of warriors” who spilled their guts in the biggest possible moment.
“In the end, a few things didn’t go our way,” he said.
As for how it feels to win the game but lose the series? “That’s how it goes,” Bradley said.
“It’s soccer,” Vanney said, adding he hoped the team’s performance was enough to make the city happy, especially in the wake of the deadly van attack earlier in the week.
“I want to send, again, our thoughts and prayers back to Toronto,” he said. “We went out there tonight with them in mind and wanted to leave everything on the field for the city of Toronto.”