New England 4 TFC 0: Sucky, sucky, sucky, embarrassing, sucky, sucky

By: Sam | April 14th, 2007

Scorers:
NE- Twellman 12′
NE- Twellman 18′
NE- Joseph 60′
NE- Dorman 72′

Analysis:
Ho-ho-horrible. Absolutely abysmal performance by Toronto. Quite simply, our eleven couldn’t do much at all. The defenders were way too nice and unsure, our midfielders gave away the ball too way too much, and our strikers played like they didn’t know that you were supposed to put the ball in the net. You could tell the Revs had come to play early, when they scored a goal on five minutes that was rightly disallowed for offside. No help from the refs eight minutes later, when Twellman took advantage of TFC’s why-don’t-I-just-back-off-a-little central defense and fired a well-struck ball into the left side. He made it two six minutes later thanks to a great cross from Ralston, a oh-hey-I’ll-just-leave-this-guy-alone play from Reda and a textbook header that went under Sutton. They weren’t done. Shalrie Joseph added a third from the spot after Boyens did the little I’ll-tug-on-Dorman’s-shirt-like-it’s-my-hobby just inside the area. The fourth and final came from Dorman thanks in part to Reda’s hey-I-just-might-get-there-without-sliding-in-oh-oops routine. Worst game I’ve ever seen Toronto play (I know, but still, I think it’ll be for a while now).

Player’s grades:
Sutton: 4,5/10 - Less saves and a less impressive performance than last game. The goals were not primarily his fault, but definitely could’ve had a better outing.
Boyens: 3,5 - Didn’t make any crucial tackles, had a bit of troubles with his passing and gave up an obvious penalty. Lame.
Reda: 4,5 - Was at fault for a handful of their goals. Lazy and unimpressive, he’s got to make himself more visible, in a good way.
Brennan: 5,5 - Came back well most of the time, and was the best defender of the three, but could have been more agressive and decisive.
Welsh: 5,5 - For sure a better match than last time, lost the ball a good deal less and caused more problems with New England’s defense. However, couldn’t get the ball into the area as much as he wanted to.
Mulrooney: 5 - Neutral performance. Really didn’t see much of him during the whole 90 minutes. Some good tackling, but that’s about it.
Robinson: 5 - Not too bad, came back defensively well enough most of the time, but struggled with the corners and getting the attacks started.
Nagamura: 4 - Had more offensive spark than last week, but then again was less helpful defensively. Always looked guilty whenever the camera zoomed in on him. Booked for dissent after the penalty call.
Canizales: 3 - Was totally dominated by Khano Smith. Couldn’t keep up to anything he did. Got outran, rarely got the ball on the attack and was just plain slacking on his flank. Subbed for Conor Casey on 57 minutes.
Buddle: 3 - Like against Chivas, failed to contribute seriously. Lost the ball unnecessarily too much and wasted the few chances he had. Subbed for Abbe Ibrahim on 87 minutes.
Eskandarian: 4,5 - More active than Buddle, but still unsatisfactory. Kept the ball to himself when he could have passed, and kept it on his foot when he could have shot.

New England: Can’t really say much about a 4-0 win, but I’ll give it a shot. If it weren’t for Toronto’s lackluster defense, it may have only been one or two. Twellman was rock solid, Ralston was decent and Smith was just deadly. Dorman and Cristman had meh performances as I saw it, but the former got a goal to make up for it. Their defense kept Toronto to the outside, however easy it was, but did what they needed to do. Reis looked like he never needed to anything except scoop up a few errant balls and look ugly (in the words of my buddy Matt: He looks like one of those assholes who beats his wife!).

Officiating: Not too bad. Mr. Geiger was a bit severe on our four bookings, but in the end it made zero difference. The linesmen did a stellar job, correctly washing out the illegal goal in the early going.

Looking ahead: Jimmy Conrad and his gang of Wizards, who won their first match of the season in convincing fashion over DC United. We’ve got to work on our simple passing, as stupid as it may sound. The midfielders have to step up and make sure they’re making good decisions. That’s where we faltered today.

Video coming soon.