Toronto FC put New York Red Bulls on away, MLS Cup
Toronto FC will simply be relieved to fight another day after advancing to a second straight Eastern Conference Championship by defeating the New York Red Bulls on away goals.
Despite losing the second leg at home, 1-0, the reigning Supporters’ Shield winners advanced on the away goals tiebreaker following a 2-2 aggregate scoreline and will now make preparations to face Columbus Crew SC with a chance to host a second consecutive MLS Cup on the line.
“We deserved to go through. They scored a goal… a really weird goal,” TFC midfielder Victor Vazquez said afterwards. “We don’t have to be happy [with] the way that we go through, but we have to be happy because we go [to the Eastern Conference] final.”
In a chippy game that saw the ejection of both Jozy Altidore and Red Bulls captain Sacha Klejstan for the continuation of a first-half tussle in the tunnel at halftime, Toronto had its championship credentials put to the sternest of tests.
“Any other team finds a way to lose this series,” Toronto captain Michael Bradley said. “They did nothing. They score a deflected goal, which makes the last 30, 35 minutes tight. But we kept our nerve, made big plays when we needed to.”
Following a first half devoid of a New York shot for the first time since 2012, Bradley Wright-Phillips’ redirection of a Daniel Royer drive on 53 minutes threatened to give the visitors a lifeline back into the series.
However, after being put clean through on goal nine minutes later with a chance to put his team on top in the two-legged tie, Wright-Phillips pulled the trigger, but Toronto goalkeeper Alex Bono responded with a reflex save to his right.
The two-time MLS Golden Boot winner said it might take him some time to get over the miss.
“We should have won the [series]. We were the better team,” he said. “… The chance that fell to me at the end, I’ve got to score that and we’re in the next round.”
After holding Toronto to just three shots on goal over 180 minutes of play, New York coach Jesse Marsch said the Canadian club should feel fortunate.
“They should be feeling like they escaped because they did,” he said.
Adjusting his formation to a midfield diamond with Tyler Adams deployed at the apex to disrupt Bradley, Marsch said his tactical plan was to slow down Toronto’s usually high-powered offensive flow. Knowing his team needed to score at least two goals to stand any chance of advancing, Marsch said the onus was on his team to take the game to the home side. Though the Red Bulls started slowly, his plan nearly worked.
“We … didn’t want it to be a game where we possessed the ball and they sat back and countered so we did a lot of little things to try and combat their conservative tactics and for the most part I thought that a lot of what we did was successful,” he said. “We just weren’t able to capitalize enough.”
GREG VANNEY – HEAD COACH, TORONTO FC
Losing two forwards moving into the next match, how do you deal with that?
You put someone else in. I mean that’s the way it is, we’ve lost them as of now. There’s video footage of what happened in the tunnel. From my estimation and what I’ve heard, Jozy got ambushed in the tunnel and we will see where that goes.
Did you get a good view of what happened in the tunnel?
I was at the end of it, I just have witness account essentially but we are currently working on the video. Jozy was followed in, basically confronted, he turned around and next thing you knew there were 4-5-6 Red Bulls people rushing at him at the same time. The refs, we will see.
Greg what’s your take on this afternoon, you advance but it was a game that seemed to spiral out of control?
Yeah I think that’s perfectly okay for them, it was antagonizing and trying to get the game to be a bit chaotic and off-tilt was okay for their side. It is what it is, it’s the officials job to keep the game under control. On the field, I think that was lacking a bit. In terms of the tunnels, we try to police them as much as we can, but when multiple people come rushing in behind, it’s not as simple. This is our first encounter like this from a stadium perspective. This game became a little bit about soccer and a lot about nonsense. That’s irritating for spectators, coaches, players, it’s not what this league is about.
JESSE MARSCH – HEAD COACH, NEW YORK RED BULLS
Thoughts on Sacha Kijestan and Jozy Altidore were sent off
Obviously what exact the details are but that was the precipice of it and it turned into a melee. I think that set the tone for the second half sure, I mean, both teams didn’t want to back down. I don’t want to focus on that, I want to focus on our team’s performance. In two games against the supposed best team in history, I thought that we played well both games, dictated the game both games, went after it in a big way and we were a little bit unlucky to come up a little short on a few plays. I’m proud of my team, I’m proud of the fight they showed, I’m proud of the way they played. In life you don’t always get what you deserve, that’s what I told them, and that’s what sports is about, that’s what life’s about, but in terms of now, really going after it in a way to represent what we’re trying to do here I thought that so many of our guys laid it on the line so a little bit unlucky to come up short.
If you’re in TFCs locker room are you feeling like you escaped?
They should feel like they escaped because they did. It’s not whether they feel like that or not, they have to move on and ultimately survive. They accomplished the goal. Again, I think that we are a little bit unlucky in this series not to come out with more. But congratulations to Toronto, I don’t want to take anything away from them but I want to focus more on us, the way we played and how we were a little bit unlucky.
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