Toronto Hit Orange Wall

By: Richard | May 30th, 2009

*Toronto FC: More Grizzle than Gisele*

Houston Dynamo 3-0 Toronto FC

The old cliche goes that football is a game of two halves. Never more so than tonight at Fortress Robertson. Ever been out on a blind date with a chick who your mates all said was really attractive, only to find on meeting her that she was more grizzle than Gisele? That’s kind of what this game felt like. Much hype had been made (and rightly so) pre-game about the return of a certain Dwayne DeRosario and the high flying Toronto reds, but in the end, that’s all it turned out to be – hype. Thankfully.

A crowd of around 16,000 came out to witness a thrilling 5 minutes of action Saturday night, followed by a Dynamo master class in possession football and game management. Prior to the game, Toronto head coach Chris Cummins had been making noise about possibly tinkering with the line up ahead of a Tuesday date with Vancouver to determine Champions League qualification, but I’m not sure anyone, including the Dynamo, quite realized that meant dropping effective target man Danny Dichio and going with a three man front line that included right back Marvell Wynne on the right wing!? For the Dynamo’s part, Brian Mullan was a late scratch with a hamstring tweak, so the ever improving Corey Ashe got a rare start on the right wing. Still no Barrett or Mulrooney, so Mr. Craig Waibel and Andy Hainault continued to deputize at the back for the Orange.

The game actually got off to a pretty slow start, the Dynamo, obviously wary of DeRosario, were not all too keen on pressing forward leaving him potentially exposed and Toronto seemed very lethargic, perhaps due to the mammoth change in temperature and humidity. The one bright spark for the Orange was Corey Ashe, who was giving Adrian Serioux, another former Dynamo player, all kinds of trouble with his skill and speed. And it was this trouble that kicked the game into gear in the 20th minute. Ashe twisted and turned past Serioux, who tripped Ashe as he went by, 20 yards from goal on right side of the box. Perfect Brad Davis free kick territory. Davis stepped up and fired a shot straight under the jumping wall and flying past a totally unsighted Stefan Frei in the Toronto goal. Note the salute to Brad’s Brigade afterwards…a tribute to the charity work Davis has been doing for families with loved ones overseas in the military.

This seemed to be the shot in the arm that Houston had been looking for. Suddenly we looked like a different team. 2 minutes later, a cross-field ball found it’s way to Ching pulling off into the right channel – he turned and sent in a wicked cross which Kamara read beautifully and guided into the bottom left corner of the net. 2-0 in the space of three minutes. Like a tiger sensing the kill, Houston continued to press on from here. Not 2 minutes after that goal, Kamara (who I think has been at the 5-hour energy pills or something, dude was everywhere!) received the ball and was fouled just outside the box on the left side. Davis and Holden stood over the ball eagerly anticipating the free kick. Could this possibly be a third goal in 5 minutes? This is Houston and a set piece, therefore yes, absolutely! With Clark screening the keeper’s view, Davis flicked the ball to the right for the onrushing Holden who smashed the ball low, hard and in off the left hand post. 3 goals in 5 minutes and the game was effectively over as a contest half way through the first half.

Toronto’s 4-3-3 was not working as designed, Guevara/DeRo had barely touched the ball and they found themselves 3-0 down and out of energy. In truth, it should probably have been 5-1 at half time. Kamara blazed another shot from 10 yards straight at the keeper, when either side would have scored and Ching had a great header from 6 yards very well saved off the feet of Frei to prevent another goal. Right at the 1st half whistle, Toronto had their only moment of the game, Serioux putting the ball in the back of the net after a big deflection had looped the ball into the Houston 6 yard box from a Toronto free kick, but was adjudged to have fouled a sightly relieved looking (but otherwise excellent) Pat Onstad in the process and the goal did not stand.

Houston had dominated possession during the first half and this continued to be the case once we moved into the second. Toronto did show a little more life after the break, but this was quickly and expertly smothered out by the slick Houston passing and retention of the ball. Marvell Wynne’s right wing adventure abruptly ended, as he found himself in the more familiar position of right back and on came Ricketts and Vitti for Toronto. Toronto huffed and puffed throughout, but never looked like threatening Onstad further. DeRo and Guevara, the much vaunted central partnership were MIA – Guevara’s only major contribution being a yellow card in the closing minutes. The crowd got into the mood too – plenty of “Ole”’s going round the ground as Houston completed pass after pass after pass and shut down the game.

As has become customary, Akinbiyi got a run out for the last 10 minutes. We’ll likely see more of him now that Ching has left for national team duty for 4 weeks.Wondo replaced Ashe (who came out with a slight knock) and looked pretty comfortable on the right side of the midfield, and to many applause, The Birdman made his Houston debut for the final 5 minutes, showing us at least a little of what he may bring with his speed. The game closed out with neither team having any more chances, leaving the final score 3-0 to your favourite men in Orange.

So Houston moves to 5-3-2 (W-D-L) for the season and 18 points – coupled with the Chivas loss on Thursday puts us in a strong position in the West, 6 points back with two games in hand. Off to Chicago next, which will be tough, then playing Chivas at the Fortress in a 6 pointer top of the table West clash. Exciting times back for the Orange!