Toronto FC 0-2 FC Cincinnati: Big Win! (& 280 Characters Is Too Limiting)

Who squares off against who matters.

I know. I know. Look, 280 characters is really confining. I tried. Once.

Overall
FC Cincinnati won its second straight (road?) game against Toronto FC (I asked the question because I’m not sure what mattered more, venue or opposition). The game ended 2-0 and Cincy never looked like losing. I reviewed the condensed game to confirm I wasn’t missing anything and, some half-chances on a couple set-pieces and a full chance Patrick Mullins absolutely should have buried aside, I did not. The box score backs it up as well.

Toronto was a mess yesterday and is a mess in general in the season’s early weeks. Moreover, I can’t see them turning it around. Players they rely on - e.g., Jonathan Osorio and Marky Delgado (in particular) - had horrible games and, to name and credit the one guy who looked good for them, I’d be pissed off if I was Chris Mavinga.

Oh, and I need to retract a tweet: Kenneth Vermeer was not pretty good; he flailed a lot, especially on crosses. That’s it for a summary, on to…

Five Thoughts
1) Who’s Next?
As MLS’s Matt Doyle noted yesterday, the first step to becoming a good team comes with beating bad/struggling teams. FC Cincinnati has done that twice now. As such, I’m excited to see them play different and slightly better teams - Houston on the road will do nicely - which will give Cincinnati fans a clearer benchmark for what’s starting to look like progress in 2021. Too many fans make the mistake of treating every game like the one before it, but there’s a world of difference between losing to New York City FC or Orlando on the road (because, good teams) and losing to, say, Inter Miami CF at home. The latter should surprise/anger you; the former, less so.

Toronto FC 2-1 FC Cincinnati: My Ongoing Allan Cruz Obsession

This is on the ceiling above my bed, and in 3 other rooms. No, 4.

To start with the good news, FC Cincinnati gave fans a couple things to chew on last night. And, for those who know how this schtick works, the bad news is that the game ended in (yet) another loss for FC Cincy, 2-1 at Toronto FC this time. Moving on now to ambiguous news, what does pushing this current iteration of Toronto FC to within one header of coughing up a point actually mean at this point?

First and foremost, this game recalled the home loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy as much as any recent game. It took Cincinnati too long to come into the game - during which dry spell they gave up a goal they can ill afford – but, once they did, they generally passed the eye test, looked the part of team in North American soccer’s top flight, and so on. In something that may or may not come as a surprise, Cincinnati wound up creating more/better shots by the end of the game – and that’s without some (“alleged”) stars missing. I’ll get to that, but the sad, blunt truth is that Jozy Altidore’s goal for Toronto put the game beyond realistic reach for the Ohioans.

Before focusing on Cincinnati, I want to say, this win should scare the crap out of Toronto and their fans. I think as highly as the next guy of Altidore, but that’s not a goal he scores every week; what’s more, he benefitted (a little) from the pass coming in slightly behind him, in that his touch backwards widened the space for that shot between him and the nearest defender (Hoyte, whose momentum carried him deeper toward Cincinnati’s goal). You can quibble with that – I mean, Wonderwheel (that’s Mikael van der Werff) had the angle to step harder to close down the shot – but, as the broadcast booth kept repeating down the stretch, all it takes is a moment, and Jozy fired that shot pretty goddamn fast.

TFC had a moment or two after that, but nothing remarkable – and certainly not anything like the unrelenting frequency of what Nick DeLeon and Richie Laryea did to Mathieu Deplagne’s flank during the first half. Had you watched only the first half of that game – or even if you shut it off after Jozy’s goal – you probably would have expected the gradual withering of FC Cincy’s resistance until TFC knocked in another goal or two to labor the point about which was the better team. That didn’t happen, and that’s how Cincinnati replicated and, as I see it, improved on that earlier performance against LA. And, Toronto, one of the most expensive teams in MLS, almost let that happen, at home and against the worst team in the league. These are not TFC's finest days...