TORONTO – It was all going so well, until it wasn’t.
It’s a story that’s been written several times this season, and the trend continued up north on Sunday night as a two-goal lead turned into yet another draw.
For a neutral, Toronto vs. New York turned out to be well worth the hype and exceeded expectations in a highly entertaining affair at BMO Field. But for the Red Bulls, more frustration resulted at the final whistle despite extending their league unbeaten run to 12 games.
Late Lead Slips Away
Points on the road are always hard to come by in MLS, but the Red Bulls certainly feel like they should be walking away with all three.
Instead, they will once again have to settle for just one after seeing their 3-1 lead disappear late in the game. Despite looking the stronger side for the majority of the match, the Red Bulls defense buckled under immense pressure as two late goals from Jozy Altidore completed the comeback.
“Our team did so much in that game to establish themselves and play well, and it’s frustrating because we gave up the lead again,” head coach Jesse Marsch said.
“They started throwing everything at us like we’ve seen at times. Now you have two choices, you can either try to take pressure and see if you can hold up defensively, or see if you can get another goal and put the game out of reach that way, or do both at the same time. We had some chances to make it four, but we shouldn’t need to make it four. At 3-1, we should be able to close the game out in a smart, competitive, tactical way. We’ve shown weakness in those moments and it’s hard because we do so much well in that game.”
Despite charging out to two separate two-goal leads, the Red Bulls appeared to wilt as the game went on as Toronto managed to gain traction late in the second half. In an attempt to cope with barrage, Marsch switched formations to utilize five at the back. In the end, TFC still managed their breakthrough, but midfielder Sacha Kljestan chalked it up to a lack of will to compete.
“I thought [the change] was necessary because when they went with 3 in the back they had guys on both wings so we needed to be able to shut down those crosses otherwise they would have just kept putting balls in our box,” he said. “The thing is when we go five at the back, we need to keep playing; we need to continue to play at the back. We can’t just sustain the pressure for 25 minutes; it’s too much work. We can’t just boot the ball up the field and wait for them to ram it back at us. We need to sustain some pressure to tire them out and take the crowd out of it.”
BWP Makes History
It almost feels like it shouldn’t be news anymore, but Bradley Wright-Phillips keeps breaking records.
Bagging a brace against TFC, BWP extended his lead atop the golden boot standings with goals 19 and 20 on the season.
“Brad has been on fire,” Marsch said. “He’s playing so well and he does so many little things. I feel like I sit here and gush about him every week, but he’s been really good, really sharp, focused and committed. The relationship between him and Sacha [Kljestan] has been fantastic.”
In typical fashion, Wright-Phillips was in no mood to talk about it himself. Despite another stellar performance, the bad taste left from the dropped two points ruled the mood in the locker room.
Even still, his teammates had no problem speaking on his behalf.
“Bradley is incredible,” goalkeeper Luis Robles told NewYorkRedBulls.com. “He doesn’t deserve these types of results with the work that he puts in for us, but he’s a team-first guy and I know he’ll be disappointed. He’s not going to look at his two goals or his record, he’ll just look at the result and that’s what makes him so great.
“Congratulations to what he’s done. We wouldn’t be half the team we are without his ability to put goals away in big moments like he has over the past three years. If anything, the sad part about it is that there’s still not attention on him. Everyone likes to talk about the other big names like they have more influence on the game, but let’s face it, he’s up there with anyone.”
Playoff Preview?
With the result, Toronto FC became the first team to punch their ticket to the 2016 MLS Cup playoffs. Making just their second-ever trip to the postseason, TFC have become favorites to advance to MLS Cup in the minds of many.
The Red Bulls failed to clinch on Sunday night, but sit on the precipice of a seventh-straight playoff appearance themselves. Given the magnitude of the match, both teams produced some highly entertaining soccer that delighted the crowd of 24,078 at the newly-renovated BMO Field.
Could we see more of that come November?
“I think it was a great match,” Felipe said. “Anything can happen in this league, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Toronto is in the final and we are, too.”
While Marsch wouldn’t go so far as to pencil the two sides in for a showdown in the Eastern Conference Finals, he did have plenty of positive things to say about the match as a whole.
“It felt like a heavyweight fight, both teams throwing punches, both teams taking punches,” he added. “I thought it was a high level game tactically, competitively, a lot going on in that game for the league in many different ways.
“We’d like to think that we can get there. We believe in our team and we’ve been quite good for three months. We believe in who we are and we’ve stood up tall in a lot of games. Right now, I’m not projecting anyone in the final, I’m just trying to take it a game at a time.”
As for Toronto FC head coach Greg Vanney, he was decidedly more bullish on a potential playoff rematch.
“Yes, I do,” he said when asked about the prospects of a November matchup. “I don’t think there’s a grand secret with what they do, they’re just very good at what they do.
