How Did the Columbus Crew Win Against Toronto FC?
The Columbus Crew came to BMO Field with a plan to stop the league’s top scorer, Sebastian Giovinco. It worked. Funny enough, Toronto matched Columbus with an impressive game plan to stop joint top scorer Kei Kamara. It also worked. Josh Williams did a fantastic job to shut down the 22-goal man, matching his strength from beginning to end. However, the difference between the two teams was with the other 20 players on the field.
The Columbus Crew defeated Toronto FC 2-0 in a game where they outwitted the Canadian side in key parts of the field. The tired looking Toronto team was outnumbered in midfield for most of the first half. Columbus eliminated any threat Toronto had early on by cutting off the supply lines to Giovinco. They did this by tightening up on Benoit Cheyrou, who is the key distributor in the Toronto midfield. Most games, Cheyrou has the most touches on the field and is key to the win. With the Frenchman being forced to chase the game, Toronto struggled to maintain any possession to mount an attack.
Eventually when the middle opened up and Cheyrou did get more involved, Columbus kept the pressure on the Toronto wingers. Columbus’ fullbacks pushed up so high, forcing wingers Marky Delgado and Robbie Findley very deep in their own end to provide extra cover. By the time Toronto managed to gather up possession, the wingers were late and exhausted to push up the wing, and therefore allowing ample time for Columbus defenders to return to position. When Toronto did maintain possession outside the opponent’s 18-yard box, the Crew were determined, disciplined, and absolutely intense in their defense of their net. Toronto did try to adjust by playing a 4-4-2 and even 3-5-2 to counter this tactical move, but they just lacked vigour and quality to mount any solid goal scoring opportunities.
Toronto FC’s designated player Jozy Altidore was not eligible for the game as he was sent off from the bench in the midweek game against the New York Red Bulls for mouthing off to the linesman. Toronto could have used the US men’s national team striker, as they rarely threatened in the final third all game. Top scorer Giovinco was left isolated, and when he did receive service, the Crew were physical and unforgiving to him. Toronto were also unable to threaten as they were missing Jonathan Osorio through injury. Osorio is one of the few players on the team who can penetrate opposing defenses. While the likes of Delgado, Findley, and Cheyrou are fantastic distributors who can execute a task, they are not difference makers who can start a play out of nothing. Fortunately, Osorio should be back for the game against the Montreal Impact next Saturday.
While Toronto did maintain much of the ball, Greg Vanney was not happy with the tempo of ball movement. “We weren’t as sharp as we needed to be with the ball. I thought there were too many missed passes, short passes, too many straight passes.” Vanney suggested that he wanted his team to switch the ball quicker to get the Crew defence moving more to open up space.
Toronto have a week to recuperate before taking on the Impact in the beautiful city of Montreal. The game will have huge implications in the tight Eastern Conference. Toronto could enter the playoffs anywhere between 2nd and 6th place, with home field advantage, or not.
NOTES: Osorio will return from injury next week against Impact. Damien Perquis’ MRI was yesterday; he has a hamstring strain and will be out for atleast 2 weeks.
