Salt Lake 1 TFC 2: Succulent Second Half Equals First Road Win

By: Sam | July 5th, 2007

Scorers:
TFC- Cunningham 19′
RSL- Eskandarian 45′
TFC- Samuel 79′

Analysis:
No doubt about it, it was our first ever road win, and a very entertaining one. Lots of scrap-happy post-whistle nonsense, good combinations from both sides and a general lack of good finishing. Rice-Eccles was in a real good mood (fueled in part by Jeff Cunningham’s eventful performance) and was a joy to behold. After being held by Americans (really, who else) on Canada Day, it’s just a little bit of revenge.

The midfield is always where everything happens, but in this match, the midfield was almost where literally everything halfway important happened. Both sides held posession with extreme diligence, getting good touches and playing the smart ball instead of the over-optimistic one. Carrying over to the strikers, again, both teams had similar styles of play, with the forwards seemed keen on calming things down and controlling and directing more than darting towards the area. Perhaps some of that was caused by the thorough defensive marking that was demonstrated by the fullbacks, but the centerbacks offered less stick then their wide comrades. Both penalties were the result of lazy marking at the top center of the box.

Wouldn’t you know it, the three goals all started from the midfield. The first, scored by Jeff Cunningham, came to be through Danny Dichio’s super flicked header. Devoid of defenders and catching the backline on a miscue, the former RSL man struck both posts before seeing his 96th go past Nick Rimando. His celebration could have been totally arrogant, but he smartly chose a more conservative demonstration. The double-whammy of poetic justice was finalized at the end of the second half, when Esky, whom Cunningham was traded for, got on the receiving end of a great through ball but was pulled back quite blatantly by Chris Pozniak just inside the 18. Tweet, point, place, tweet again, goal. With a bit over ten minutes remaining, Carl Robinson sent an oh-so-delicate ball down the gut to Collin Samuel, who was bothered enough by Eddie Pope’s slight intervention to go down and earn himself a chance to score his first goal as a Torontonian from the spot. You bet your ass! Two-one, final.

Real were certainly not without their chances, especially after Samuel’s goal. Substitute Jamie Watson first missed the far side by less than a foot, then hit the crossbar after TFC’s backline completely messed up. Robbie Findley also hit the post in the opening minutes of the game. Phew.

Also, I just want to point out that RSL’s announcers were not at all bad. Especially the colour man, whom it was apparently the first game on the job, had some good insight. But the commentator did say some dumb stuff from time to time. First off, he declared Toronto to be in red and Salt Lake in white, pointed out the Samuel shot to Rimando’s right on the PK when it was not the case, and frequently seemed at a loss for words. But hey, I don’t feel like complaining.

Player’s grades:
Reynolds: 6/10 - Seems to understand his positioning really well. Couldn’t do much on the penalty of course, and was lucky on a few of RSL’s chances, but very solid. Pulled something late in the match, and was replaced by Djekanovic on 85 minutes. Ahhh! I’m scared.
O’Brien: 5 - Not exactly in the zone. Did, however, mix it up on a few occasions with Williams and co, and got involved in a few stretches. We’ve seen better.
Edu: 6,5 - A bit slow coming into the match, but was one of the premier players in the second half. Very intelligent passing, kept the RSL defenders guessing.
Dichio: 5,5 Took apart Jack Stewart for the better part of the match, but couldn’t muster much when they weren’t together. Great help on the first goal, but slowed down in the second half.
Brennan: 4 - Really disappointing. Had trouble coping with Findley and Williams and unsure when clearing. This trend has been showing itself more and more of late.
Dunivant: 6 - I like him! Clean, effective on the flank. Goldthwaite-like when he goes up, but very calm and smart in the back, especially against the trickiness of RSL’s forward attack.
Pozniak: 5 - Pretty neutral. Was the one who gave up the obvious penalty, and was behind his man more than once, but assertive the rest of the time stepping in for Wynne, who should be home soon.
Marshall: 6 - Impressive start for Tyrone in a red (gray?) jersey. Aggresive tackles (ask Kenny Cooper), a real force. Imagine Dichio playing centre-back, that’s what we got, and I like it.
Samuel: 6 - Creative but not stupendous on the left side in the first half, and moved to striker when Cunningham got injured, where he received many balls and eventually attracted a penalty and converted it. Can’t complain.
Robinson: 5 - Was invisible for parts of the match, but when he was there, he was there. A bit jumpy from time to time but took a good deal of control when he felt like doing so.
Cunningham: 6,5 - And he needed to be good. Scored the goal against his old side, was constantly on the run and made the defenders very nervous. Suffered a quad injury early in the second half, and was replaced by Andy Welsh. Welsh did extremely well, taking Samuel’s position, moved the ball well and was very smart with it.

Real Salt Lake: I didn’t really know what to expect from them, seeing as I didn’t watch many of their games this season. I mean, they’re not really attractive from a statistical viewpoint. But, I was really impressed. Andy Williams was very Ribéry-like, and Findley was equally dangerous, hitting the post like I said in the early going. The backline wasn’t majestic, but it often got the job done. The subs, Watson and Brown were very effective and could very easily have turned zero points into three. Bravo.

Officiating: It’s hard to ref games like this one, lots of things to take care of, whether the ball’s in or out of play. Toronto didn’t go offside once, so I guess I can’t fault the linesmen. Good job, then.

Looking ahead: Remember the first win? Remember it? DO YOU? Good. ‘Cuz we’re playing Chicago again. That’s on Saturday. Jesus jump a jackrabbit, we play a lot nowadays. Jeff Cunningham? Sam Reynolds? As usual, the Toronto FC official website offers as much updated info as a paving brick, so I don’t know what the deal is with the two fellas who got injured in Utah. And Greg Sutton is still out. Sigh.