Championship Cup bid runneth over
TFC, the ‘ worst team in the world,’ is best team in Canada for fourth straight time
The Vancouver Whitecaps came up empty, again, against Toronto FC in their bid for a Canadian Championship title. Despite sporting the worst MLS record, TFC clinched the title last night.
The so- called worst soccer team in the world was the best team in Canada when it counted.
After a wild second- half pushing- shoving- slapping outburst that ended with a player from each side being ejected, Toronto FC beat the Vancouver Whitecaps 1- 0 Wednesday at BMO Field to capture their fourth consecutive Amway Canadian Championship.
A late- match strike from midfielder Reggie Lambe carried the day for the TFC Reds, who won the title with a 2- 1 aggregate victory over the Caps in the two- game final following the 1- 1 draw at BC Place last Wednesday.
Frustrated TFC forward Danny Koevermans this week called his club “the worst team in the world” because it has no wins and nine losses in Major League Soccer this season — an all- time MLS futility mark.
But they didn’t look so terrible against the Whitecaps, who have never won the Canadian title despite a decade of trying.
In a game when they had to score at least once because of the away- goal rule, the Caps had virtually no creative or offensive spark throughout most of the match.
Vancouver was fortunate to be on even terms at halftime, as TFC dictated play from the outset. Diminutive Ecuadorean forward Joao Plata had the Reds’ best first- half chance when he headed a Torsten Frings’ cross inches wide of the far post in the seventh minute.
Whitecaps defender Alain Rochat’s header off a first- half free kick, which went wide 15 minutes later, was Vancouver’s only real scoring chance of the game.
The game took a bizarre twist early in the second half when TFC midfielder Julian de Guzman was sent off after delivering a light slap to the face of Caps’ midfielder Jun Marques Davidson, who went down like he’d been knocked out by Floyd Mayweather.
Immediately after that fracas, Whitecaps forward Sebastien Le Toux received his second yellow card of the game and was sent off, leaving both teams with just 10 men.
Frustrated Whitecaps head coach Martin Rennie was clearly upset with referee Silviu Petrescu’s decision to send a man off from both teams.
“Julian de Guzman threw someone to the ground and hit someone in the face and somehow we didn’t gain anything out of that, which is unbelievable,” he said.
Rennie questioned the Canadian Soccer Association for choosing a Toronto- area referee to officiate a match between Toronto and Vancouver.
“That puts him under extreme pressure and gives something for people to talk about and write about,” he said. “Surely there’s enough officials within Canada that we could have someone that’s not from Toronto.”
TFC head coach Aron Winter, who’s under huge pressure now to improve his club’s MLS performance, felt his squad simply deserved the win.
“We played compact and we had the better chances,” he said.
The Whitecaps organization placed a huge emphasis on winning the Canadian title this season and qualifying for Champions League play and part- owner Jeff Mallett travelled to Toronto to watch the final.
Rennie started an experienced lineup, with Eric Hassli, Le Toux and Camilo Sanvezzo up front and his first- choice back line of Young- Pyo Lee, Martin Bonjour, Jay Demerit and Rochat playing in front of goalkeeper Joe Cannon.
Caps midfielder John Thorrington said the loss was “heart- wrenching.”
“It was a big goal of ours,” he said. “We set ourselves up to win a championship and I’ve been playing long enough to know you don’t get too many chances to do that. It just wasn’t good enough.”
Cannon felt his team put itself under pressure after not taking a lead in the two- game final after the first leg at BC Place.
“Any time you have to go on the road in the second leg, you really need to take care of business at home,” he said.
Cannon said the setback to Toronto was huge but the club has to move forward and focus on MLS.
The Voyageurs Cup triumph puts TFC into the 2012/ 2013 CONCACAF Champions League competition, which begins on July 31 and ends next spring. Toronto made it to the semifinals of Champions League play this year.
The Whitecaps have finished second in the Canadian championship six times since 2002, including a heartbreaking 2009 competition when they lost on goal difference to TFC and the bizarre situation last year when a potential cup- winning victory at BMO Field was abandoned in the 63rd minute because of bad weather.