It ended up being a casual evening at BMO Field Saturday evening; making head coach Greg Vanney’s polo look very fitting. The crowd of 26,397 was treated to a 5-0 Orlando City demolition. Orlando City simply looked like a Sunday league team.
One of the biggest stories going into the game was the benching of seven million dollar man, Jozy Altidore. Even Altidore, devoid of confidence and form, came off the bench in the second half to score two goals. It was that kind of night at BMO Field. The second greatest talking point was the benching of starting much-maligned goalkeeper Joe Bendik, with Chris Konopka taking his position between in net. Konopka could have consumed a post-game alcoholic beverage after the 50th minute if he wanted to, as he was likely more concerned about a possible sunburn than having to make a save. Orlando simply had nothing in the second half, as they failed to enter the Toronto half.
Toronto FC dominate Orlando City in crucial match-up
Orlando’s game-plan was to sit back in their own zone, defend, and be hard to break down, hoping to catch Toronto on the counter. Toronto was given ample space in their own zone with the ball. Star man Sebastian Giovinco, playing as the lone striker in Toronto’s new formation, found it hard to get any service in the first half. All in all, Orlando’s game-plan worked to perfection in the first half as the match was a bit a snooze fest. The plan was thrown in shambles in the 36th minute, when Orlando’s Rafael Ramos was sent-off for a rash challenge on Justin Morrow. Orlando lost their discipline at this point but carried the game scoreless until half time.
Media members were still busy grabbing their cups of coffee and seats at the start of the second half, when Marky Delgado put Toronto up 1-0. Michael Bradley drilled past defenders down the left wing to play a cutback to Delgado to finish. Simply said, the second half was dominated by Toronto. Osorio and Giovinco went close. Giovinco, after winning a free-kick on the edge of the 18-yard box, took it to go post-in to put Toronto up 2-0.
The fans started their chants of “MVP” as Orlando were run over for the rest of the game. Michael Bradley was at it again when he darted down the wing to set up Justin Morrow for a tap-in. This was after a 47 pass build-up and a nice interchange between Bradley and Giovinco, eventually leading to Morrow’s goal. Bradley surely wasn’t done there, as he sprung Robbie Findley free with a wonderfully weighted 20-yard ball. Findley ran in on a charging Tally Hall, who missed the ball, which left Findley to go one-on-one with Orlando defender Adrian Winter. Findley dropped a shoulder, and Winter dropped Findley in the box for a penalty. Orlando was reduced to nine men. Altidore stepped up to take the penalty and scored in the 82nd minute. Two minutes later, Bradley wanted more, as he played a beautiful set piece to the foot of Findley, who played a cutback to Altidore to finish at the near post.
Although the goals would suggest that Toronto were not effective in the first half, Vanney disagreed, “I thought they put in a lot of work into the first half to defend us as we had the ball a lot- we did a good job in transition to put pressure on them, we didn’t create a ton of chances but we forced them to expend a fair amount of energy defending us and over the course of 90 minutes it tends to wear on you a little bit, especially a man down.” Vanney’s team practiced to be patient over the course of the game and believed their breakthrough would come. It did, five times to be precise, in the second half.
All in all, a good night for Toronto as they increased the gap between themselves and Orlando to six points. Toronto take on Montreal Impact next weekend in a game that will not lack fanfare, as Didier Drogba will be in town.
