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| The only apt metaphor for the MLS Playoffs. |
All the same, both final results – each of which featured
away goals – set up intriguing second legs for both series. Sure, the Seattle
Sounders could fuck it all up right away with an early goal, and Toronto could very well ruin every last thing by doing the same, but they might
not. I won’t dwell too much on what I think will happen, not least because that’s
bit me on the ass again and again throughout 2016. Think that clichéd saying
about the weather and sticking around…
Montreal 3-2 Toronto FC
How Much I Missed: Came in around the 29th minute for this
one.
The note above means that I only saw Montreal’s first two
goals in replays, not real time. As such, I have no clear sense of context –
and ESPN’s halftime notes didn’t give me context; they gave me detailed
breakdowns of what went wrong, but not a sense of Montreal blitzing at Toronto
again and again and again. Montreal did do that later, certainly during the
time I watched, even that dried up eventually, if not totally. On Montreal’s
first goal, I’d say nothing went wrong in any pure sense beyond Patrice Bernier
making the absolute most of a split-second to pivot and provide an inch-perfect pass to
Dominic Oduro (seriously, that was a helluva pass). The second goal, though, coming as it did only minutes later and
featuring bad positioning from a fullback and a TFC defense that had clearly
fallen asleep (otherwise, how does Matteo Mancosu beat two defenders to the
ball?), put Toronto in a hole that they barely crawled out of.
Then Montreal scored a third, just a weird thing that saw
Ambroise Oyongo dribble from the depths, then into scoring position, then to
scoring. A big hole, in other words, and one that involved a lot of digging.
