Post-Game: Cruz Azul vs. Toronto FC

[Shakes McQueen]

That first half was one of the finest halves of football I've seen Toronto FC play. The second half was predictably more defensive from Toronto, and more attacking from Cruz Azul, but our defense looked strong throughout. They deserved a clean sheet.

The Cruz Azul goal was a load of shit, handed to them by a bogus foul call on Attakora (seriously, go back and watch it). And don't even get me started on the guy that choked DeRo for getting in his way in stoppage time, only to have both players get yellow cards.

Aside from that, a good game for us. We beat Cruz Azul!

- Scott

[pedro]

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

[dclaro]

WOOOOO i dont think many predicted a win, but we did it

[James17930]

Can we call that a shock result, even though we were at home? Hmm . . .

[TFC/Everton]

Any night that TFC wins is a good night in my books.

[ArmenJBX]

WE WON!? :O

Good job TFC!

[sampace]

Great result. Would of been gravy if we could of held out for the shut out or a third goal, but a win is a great way to start.

[T_Mizz]

I would've preferred the clean sheet but a win's a win and that goal was really no one's fault just a really good strike, the foul was even a weak one so I don't fault Nana (was it).

[manic.street.preacher]

wow. just wow. obviously Cruz thought it would be a cake walk and i'm soooo glad we proved em wrong. easily the best i've ever seen TFC play and totally worth staying up til 4am to watch.

[Luanda]

wonderful!

[Vince Whirlwind]

Feel like we're all grown up now...!

Amazing effort by the boys! Way to go!

[Red Rat]

Shakes, I agree great first half by TFC. I love to see this game continue to play this way and maybe we can have more wins at home and away.
Mista is looking better... Keep it up

rr

[Nerepis]

Well done!

[ginkster88]

http://www.concacafchampions.com/pag...,12856,00.html

[TheKing7]

I can't get enough of this love/hate relationship.
I love our boys tonight.
Endless pressure everywhere on the pitch, we truly deserved 3pts.

[Detroit_TFC]

What a first half. Beautiful. I knew the second half would be tricky.

Our guys showed some heart tonight, that's great to see.

[James17930]

FYI . . .

Two teams made it out of the group stage last year with less than 10 points:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CONCACA...10#Group_stage

So it is possible to advance without getting a result on the road, providing one team dominates the group. Of course that also means getting the results at home -- if we can keep doing that and pick up at least one point on the road we're through no problem.

[mclaren]

The fourth official was Silviu Petrescu (Canada) - would've been interesting if the ref got injured lol

[TFC/Everton]

Agree! That was the best Ive seen our boys pressure another club, and they kept it up all night long. They played like a top table team tonight.

[jloome]

Mexicans came out flat, paid for it. Won't be like that down there. And Arabe Unido will fight a lot harder in the first half.

But our guys earned it. Their upfield pressure was really good, consistent.

[Shakes McQueen]

Shakes, I agree great first half by TFC. I love to see this game continue to play this way and maybe we can have more wins at home and away.
Mista is looking better... Keep it up

rr

Mista's left foot was magic tonight. I can't wait to see what he can do as he becomes more and more fit.

But I also can't say enough about pretty much everyone out there tonight. How about Cann and Attakora? Those guys were cool customers all night long.

- Scott

[ginkster88]

We have all of our road matches before we're back home. Even two points would set us up nicely to bring it home at home in the fall.

[London]

best team we have ever beaten!!!

great first half, got it done in the second.

[Red Rat]

Mista's left foot was magic tonight. I can't wait to see what he can do as he becomes more and more fit.

But I also can't say enough about pretty much everyone out there tonight. How about Cann and Attakora? Those guys were cool customers all night long.

- Scott

let's not forget Usanov, played with his heart out tonight.

rr

[TheKing7]

Cruz Azul must've been seriously unprepared for this one...they thought we still had astroturf until they got here...

[James17930]

Anyone got the attendance number? Around 17k?

[ArmenJBX]

And just to note, Martin Saric, good stuff today! You
are the argentine I think we actually got a good deal on!

[Chubbs]

What a great game played by TFC... The work rate of the whole team was commendable, I haven't seen our boys that hungry for a win in quite some time.... Yet again, it seems like we got the short end of the stick officiating-wise, but the true test of a great team is their ability to play through it and not loose their cool when it started getting ugly.

I have to admit, when I saw Conway in goal tonight I was worried, but he showed incredible poise and played a great game... The only ball that got by him was a world class strike, no keeper would have been able to make that save.... His punch in the 84th minute really saved this game, its amazing the depth we have at keeper, if only the rest of our positions were the same.

Defensively, CannNana was on top form again, really can't blame nana for that foul that potted the goal... Usanov played fantastically... Especially that header in the 3rd minute to keep the ball in play that lead to the Saric goal! Hscanovics played solidly as well, both defensively and setting up Mistas cracker at the end of the first half.

yet again, our midfield shines... DeGuz and Saric both held the ball up well, and were very agressive at closing down their men defensively, sticking to them like glue... You could see the hunger in DeRo to really win this game... Granted he made a few uncharacteristic plays nearing the end of the game that could have easily left the scoreline at 3 or even 4-1, but the man can only work so hard... you could tell he really gave it all tonight and boy did it ever pay off!

Up front, Mista was on point tonight, so many smart balls into space, and obviously his goal was a touch of brilliance... It seems like he's getting his form back quite quickly, and his first touch on the ball is smooth as can be. I'm really excited to see more of him in our Red, notice he kissed the badge (or was it the Canadian flag?) when he got subbed, you can see hes starting to enjoy being here, and really finding his role on the field.

Unfortunatly, I cant say the same for OBW... you could tell he was working quite hard, but he just makes too many mistakes with his positioning and seemed to be really slow on the field.. Too many times it seemed like he was in a great spot to set something up, only to be closed down by a chasing defender in an instant. That being said, without the depth of our strikers, there really was no other option tonight.

Overall this was one of the most impressive showings from TFC yet.. if this is what we can expect from them throughout the Group stage, we might be sitting alot prettier than most (myself included) expected.

Considering 75% of the board was expecting a loss tonight, I'm pretty sure we would have all been happy with a tie, so these three points are a delight!

Now lets take it to these suckers on the road!!

[Luanda]

OBW really can not score. But he is quite good at pressing. The first goal was the result of OBW pressing hard.

[Chubbs]

Anyone got the attendance number? Around 17k?

Didn't look very busy at all at BMO, seemed to be quite a few empty seats in the east end, and the north stands looked completly empty.

I would have pegged this game as a sellout for sure... what happened?