CCC: Toronto give in to Houston’s dynamism before grabbing the Bull by the horns

By: Sam | March 29th, 2007

Well, well well well. While Sam was out having a good time with fellow Albertan francophones/snowboarding in British Columbia, Sam’s favourite MLS team was also up to good/no good, finally getting a taste of MLS action in the Carolina Challenge Cup. First up for Toronto were the reigning champions, none other than the Houston Dynamo.

That match turned out to be a wake-up call for Toronto. Not every team in the USA is Florida International University. Five minutes in, Houston scored a goal by Kevin Goldthwaite which was thankfully disallowed for offside. The Dynamo would make up for that ten minutes later, when Ryan Cochrane’s foot redirected a Brad Davis corner past Greg Sutton. With twenty minutes left on the clock, Chris Wondoloski put the Texans two-nil up to ice the match. Edson Buddle had a chance to equalize late in the first frame, but his shot skimmed wide. First match against an MLS side: Failure.

Next match against an MLS side: Not so much. Toronto came out cracking agaist the flat-footed Red Bulls, with Adam Braz narrowly missing on four minutes. Six later, now fit Ronnie O’Brien fed Alecko Eskandarian, who one-touched it past Ronald Waterreus to open the scoring against the team he was heavily rumoured to join in recent weeks. On 21 minutes, John Wolyniec met Dave Van Den Bergh’s cross to equalize past a helpless Sutton. Ronnie O’Brien, captain for the match, got his second assist when he crossed in and found former Red Bull Edson Buddle, who’s header bounced over Waterreus to give Toronto the advantage after only 36 minutes. O’Brien came this close to making it three just before the break, but his cheeky halfway-line shot went over. Red Bulls hit the post on 63 minutes, ten minutes before being awarded a penalty for a Toronto handball. Van Den Bergh stepped up… and was denied by Sutton. Final score: 2-1, and a reassuring win for the red and white. Next up is the Charleston Battery on Saturday.