A Heartbreaking Loss

By: Robert | July 13th, 2008

Result: 2-1 Chicago
Attendance Toyota Park: 15,118

Last night was spectacularly depressing. We really needed a victory on the road, at least we needed to walk away with a point. Unfortunately some poor defending by Valez allowed a late Chicago goal which not only put a damper on a lively match, but also on my rather fine night. There are so many things to be dissatisfied with that I’m way to down to be angry. I’m just left with a bitter taste in my mouth and an emptiness in the pit of my stomach. The Reds have now lost 6 of 7 away games causing them to fall back to 5th place in the East, just one point from the last place, currently shared by KC and NY, though New York is a game in hand.

Now, I’m starting to hear some supporters mumble that we’re on the road to have a repeat of last season where we dropped from 4th place midway through the season only to finish last, largely due to a string of unfortunate injuries and lack of depth in our roster. I’m going to have to say this is the time to suck it up boys and girls and stand proud for the Reds. Even though last night was a poor result, we are indeed a much better team than we were last year and once Carver solves the roster riddle and finds a solid starting line-up, we’re going to rise back up and clinch our playoff spot. Though its too early to tell, the first piece of the puzzle may have been found in Abdus Ibrahim. The 6 foot, 16 year-old forward from Richfield Minnesota showed well as a substitution against Pachuca and was brilliant in his MLS debut last night. For those of you who don’t know, we picked up Ibrahim last month from FC Dallas in exchange for a draft pick in the 2010 Superdraft. If Ibrahim can maintain and improve upon last night’s performance he could very well be an important part of the Toronto line-up. Ibrahim wasn’t the only one to shine last night. Edu, possibly boosted by the news that he’s been picked to play on the All-Star team, came to life last night and really put forth a solid effort. It might have been a completely different game for him and for Toronto had he been awarded the very obvious penalty, which I’ll address in my post-coverage rant section.

OK, on to my rough version of the match coverage. I was happy to see our supporters make a strong showing in Chicago. With our slate full of non-MLS games, its difficult to get away for a road trip, so thanks to those who could make it down to remind the Fire that regardless of the result we still have the best supporters in the MLS. I was shocked at Carver’s choice for the line-up (listed below). A radical 2-5-3 formation with Robert and Smith in the front 2 offensive midfielders for support and 3 defensive mid-fielders for support in the rear. Hey, that’s one of the things I love about Carver, the man isn’t afraid to take chances. Too bad this one failed so miserably. Chicago completely dominated the early play as our boys seem to struggle with the formation. To me it looked like chaos and no-one seem to be in the right position. Long passes went to out to empty sidelines, short mid-field passes ended up at the feet of Chicago attackers. That feeling of dread start to rise within me and it was quickly realized as Chris Rolfe fired an early goal past Sutton’s outstretched hand and into the top right corner putting Chicago ahead in just under 6 minutes of play. Chicago continued to dominate the midfield. With 5 midfielders we should have controlled that area yet somehow Chicago had two guys attacking and resulting in our boys being dispossessed or forced into a hurried pass that was usually collected by another Chicago player. This went on for about 5 minutes before we managed to capitalize on a counter-strike that saw Edu play the ball down field and past keeper Jon Busch. Busch made a desperate grab for the ball and pulled Edu’s legs out from under him, causing Edu to come crashing to the ground. It was an obvious penalty. Really, blatantly, obvious. Referee Jorge Gonzalez came rushing down the pitch, hand in pocket, at the pub we were yelling and cheering, waiting for the yellow card to be drawn against Busch and for Edu’s penalty, which would almost surely allow us to draw this game even. We should have known better. What happened next caused me to almost throw my pint glass at the screen. Instead of a penalty that wanker Gonzalez gave Edu a yellow for DIVING! I went fucking mental, I think most of us did. The frustration at the poor quality of officiating has reached a boiling point, I’m surprised some drunken supporter hasn’t stormed the field and battered one of the officials by now. Anyway, you know what my rant is going to be about so lets get back to the coverage. The blow of injustice knocked the wind out of Edu and the rest of the team for a few minutes forcing Sutton to pick up the slack and make a great save against a rushing Chad Barrett, for which Sutton took an accidental boot to the head which left him barely moving for a couple of minutes. Chicago continued to own the pitch and less than 10 minutes later they almost doubled their lead when John Thorrington cracked a great shot from centre field that just went high of the cross-bar. In hind-sight I think Carver should have played 5 back and 3 in the midfield because our defending was pathetic. The 29th minute finally saw things turn around when Marvel Wynne had an excellent scoring opportunity in front of the net which barely passed over the cross-bar. The Reds seem to wake up after that and pick-up their game. Just a few minutes later Edu fired a shot on goal which slammed off the inside left post and bounced behind the keeper and back into play before being kicked away by a Chicago defender. The rest of the half played out enthusiastically with opportunities from both sides. I was happy when the half-time whistle blew allowing me to catch my breath and empty my bladder.

Carver made a couple of changes to the line-up bring in Abdus Ibrahim and Rohan Ricketts for the ineffective Smith and Robert combination. To be honest, Laurent Robert played a very disappointing half and deserved to be taken off. Jarrod Smith wasn’t much better. Carvers changes however were and the 2nd half saw Toronto charge forward with a new energy. The first 7 or 8 mintues flew by until the controversial midfielder, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, failed to score when the ball dropped at his feet in front of Sutton, and he put the ball on top of the net. 10 minutes later, Guevara makes a long pass to a charging Ibrahim who confidently ran the field, deftly stepped around the Chicago keeper and tapped the ball into the empty net scoring his first MLS goal and equalizing the game. It was magical and I’m sure it was even more magical for Ibrahim. He definitely earned a chance to prove himself further on the starting line-up for the next game. Chicago tried a quick come back off a free kick but fail to capitalize. 72 minutes in and its anyone’s game. Ibrahim takes a long shot about 30 yards out and finds the target but not the net and Busch makes the save. The Reds fail to do anything with the corner and play continues fast and furious. Both teams played hard and had several opportunities, including a brief rally in with only 4 minutes of regulation time which saw Marshall and Sutton working hard to keep the score level. As we moved into stoppage time it looked like we’d be celebrating a draw, walking away with a point, and scoring a big psychological road victory as well. But we go ahead of ourselves… With less than a minute of stoppage time left, Valez made a huge defensive blunder, failing to stop Thornington from slipping the ball past Sutton and into the net. I was instantly crushed as I think was everyone else, including the players. We played that 2nd half hard and well and one small slip up caused us to lose the game. I can’t be too hard on Valez though, he knows what he did wrong and I’m sure he’s feeling enough guilt without me adding to it. Toronto looked deflated and were unable to find anything in them to rally a come back. It was the toughest loss of the season but because of the play I saw from our boys last night I feel that we’ve hit rock bottom and it all up from here starting with our first home game in a long time against San Jose.

This is a long post and I’m tired. Look for my rant against the Refs in my next post tomorrow. I think its time for a protest!

Game details here:
Toronto FC — Greg Sutton, Tyrone Marshall, Marco Velez, 1st half Julius James, 2nd half Abdus Ibrahim, Marvell Wynne, Jim Brennan, Maurice Edu, Amado Guevara, Carl Robinson, Laurent Robert, 1st half Jarrod Smith, 2nd half Rohan Ricketts.

Chicago Fire — Jon Busch, Brandon Prideaux/Mike Banner 83, Wilman Conde, Daniel Woolard, Gonzalo Segares/C.J. Brown 63, Logan Pause, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Chris Rolfe, John Thorrington, Justin Mapp, Chad Barrett/Tomasz Frankowski,

Refs if you can call them that:
Referee: Jorge Gonzalez
Assistants: Adam Wienckowski; Jeff Muschik
4th official: Abiodun Okulaja

Toronto Til I Die y’all!