Remember when Rabasca’s rabble was on the cusp of making history? Was fun while it lasted.

After being bossed off the field by two old NASL bruisers with more pro years between them than TFC II’s entire roster, the kids were back on a more level playing field against Tormenta, whose squad are mostly PDL holdovers.

They also didn’t have 4,000 braying Midwesterners in their ears. In spite some ‘soccer moms go free’ Mothers Day promotion the commentator wouldn’t shut up about, the crowd were a lot quieter.

The TFC II players who were around last year were denied a grudge match with Young Reds cast-off alumnus Lars Eckenrode due to injury. It was slightly surreal hearing him talked about like some vital missing piece, but his team got by just fine without him.

Boys battled hard but the home side scored late to take all three points. #TFCLive // #TRMvTOR pic.twitter.com/KVWQy2reGu — Toronto FC II (@TorontoFCII) May 13, 2019

Injury Bug Already Biting?

This game saw just two changes to the line-up that lost in Madison. Terique Mohammed swapped back in for Trev Swartz at left-back, and Caleb Patterson-Sewell made way for Jambo loanee Kevin Silva in net. Clearly determined to name as many different keeper combos as possible, Rabasca brought academy kid Spencer King along as the backup.

Yet another short bench fuelled fears the injury bug nibbling away at Vanney’s depth might be on the spread. Endoh and Srbely were absent for a second week running, and the elusive Franco Ramos Mingo was MIA again after being an unused sub last week.

Flying Griffin, Stumbling Terrier

There seems to be a pattern emerging with games Griff Dorsey and Jacob Shaffelburg both start: apparently only one of them gets to show out. On this occasion, it was Griff’s turn, orchestrating as he did both the Reds’ goals.

First, he helped Jordan Perruzza match his 2018 goal tally, setting up a 14th-minute strike that was the best bit of an otherwise so-so match for the forward. He then provided reassurance his wayward crosses in Madison were just a blip, placing the ball on the head of centre-back Patrick Bunk-Andersen from outside the box.

This isn’t to say Shaff played a bad game. He went through the motions of his Port Williams Terrier routine a few times, flying up the wing with reckless abandon. Tormenta were just a bit more, uh, ‘proactive‘ than other teams about heading him off.

Let The Battle Begin

Apologies for falling back on a cliché, but this match really was a game of two halves.

The first period was pretty tame. The most spectacular tackle Julian Dunn executed was on Dante Campbell, the only player to be booked in the half, after an incident off the ball and, inconveniently, off-camera.

Robust defending is clearly a cornerstone of the Tormenta way. At time of writing, they lead the league in yellow cards with 21, averaging 3 per game. That said, it seems they turned things a gear higher than usual in the second half. I dare say they were playing up to the “Fighting Ibises” nickname I tagged them with in pre-season.

The Reds were more than happy to fight fire with fire, to the point that the ref was soon doling out yellow cards like she was bloody Oprah. If the Ibises’ aim was to provoke, it worked a treat.

Minutes after the hosts’ equalizing penalty (more on that later), Terique indulged his Canadian predilection for winter sports and went bob-sledding into Marco Micaletto, milliseconds after he’d tapped the ball beyond his reach.

His straight red was the death knell for TFC II’s night. Not only had Terique been the Reds’ best defender on the night, pulling off some surgical tackles earlier on, but the lack of any genuine defensive options on the bench meant Rabasca sent on Trev Swartz.

In case this starts sounding like unprovoked draftee-bashing, let me spell out my reservations about the Trev-as-fullback experiment: the guy spent the last 3 years on the same team as Andrew Gutman, one of the best left-backs to play college soccer in recent memory. If Swartz ever played the position, he certainly hasn’t since 2014.

As it happens, Swartz wasn’t the human catflap he was in Wisconsin, which could be a good confidence booster when inevitably lines up against OCB. He did pick up an admittedly harsh yellow, courtesy of a pre-emptive push on an encroaching opponent.

It’s tempting to suggest she was bitter about being steamrollered by Okello earlier on, but she ended up carding more Ibises than Reds.



Menaced By Dennis

There have been worse goalkeeping debuts in TFC II history (just ask Drew Shepherd) but there won’t be too many moments from this game making Kevin Silva’s future highlight reels. That said, the Jambo pulled off some handy saves in the early going, when the Ibises weren’t slicing their shots wide.

Appropriately for a player on the books of a Scottish club, Kevin came away from the match with an Englishman to feel hard done by, namely one-time Southampton academy kid Charlie Dennis. He not only put two goals past Silva, including one between his legs, he was also the guy who won the penalty, stumbling over the debutante keeper’s overextended leg.

Hopefully this result won’t see him exiled to wherever Eric Klenofsky’s ended up.