

Posted by

Armen Bedakian ,

April 14, 2013 Email

Armen Bedakian Twitter @ArmenBedakian

The Good

Earnshaw’s fifth and Richter’s debut worth noting



Goalscorer Earnshaw

Five goals in six games, leading the league in scoring alongside the LA Galaxy’s Mike Magee, is there any stopping Robert Earnshaw? His first “goal” was counted offside, which was evident on the replay, but that didn’t deter Earnshaw from scoring the exact same goal later on. Earnshaw’s ability to flick the ball over the goalkeeper is a wonderful trait.



Goalkeeping Bendik

What a performance! Bendik is a keeper, through and through, in both definitions of the word; he is an undeniable number one for Toronto FC, and a great pick-up in a trade that saw Ryan Johnson and Milos Kocic head over to Portland. Each save was thought out, every ball was handled with skill, and Bendik’s one flaw, his tendency to kick the ball out the sides without meaning to, seemed to occur less frequently, too.



Richter Impresses

Darel Russell had come under scrutiny in his first two games for Toronto FC – volley goal aside, of course – but Ryan Richter was strong on his debut for the club. Replacing Russell who went down with an injury, Richter took no time to adjust to the pace of the game, showing off his decent defensive capabilities and settling in well on the right hand side.



The Bad

Referee Sorin Stoica, Ladies and Gents



The Cards

Nine yellow cards, one red card, most of it the result of a game that was unnecessarily rough and most of which went to Toronto FC players. Consider that two thirds of the yellow cards were flashed toward Toronto FC red when the foul count between the two was 17 Philadelphia, 18 Toronto, and you see the huge disparity in terms of referee parity in this match. As for Morgan’s red card? That second yellow was a bit of a stretch.



The Calls

This match was not played in any traditional sense; much of the game was split up between free kicks, foul kicks, throw-ins and corners (for Philadelphia). The amount of dead ball situations made the whole encounter stale, and the referee’s refusal to play advantage for either side made for frustrated players throughout.



The Added Time

Why is it that when Toronto FC heads into the 90 minute mark with a lead, the added time sits at minimum four minutes? Watch any other game of football in Major League Soccer and you’ll see that this isn’t a normal trend; when the Galaxy hold a lead, the added time wavers between two and three. Also, five minutes means five minutes, not seven.



The Ugly

As Toronto FC fans experienced over the past two weeks, a draw can feel very different based on the order of goals. When down, a draw can feel like a late rally and, well, a victory. When up, a draw can feel like a blown chance and has the same bitter aftertaste as a loss. One point gained may be the optimistic way of looking at it, but against Philadelphia, a last-minute draw feels much, much more different than the one against Los Angeles.



For one thing, against the Galaxy, the game was well-contested and, in truth, Toronto were battling above their weight; against Philadelphia, Stoica turned the game of soccer into a game of NFL football, favouring his whistle for every challenge. It would not surprise me if Dan Dunleavy gave us a “Philadelphia, third down, trying for the Hail Mary!” before the goal.



Stoica doesn’t get marked into the ugly column: this particular game of soccer does. There was none of the movement, the skill or the fluidity of a game of soccer; this was an exercise in physicality and foul kicks.



This was an ugly game.



Quoteworthy

“The sending off was a major factor for us, it was a very inexperienced decision by the referee. The guys looking at the ball, he’s gone up, gone to header it, and nothing happened. Then again, he was just showing real lack of experience out in the middle, but I suppose that’s what happens.”



“Unfortunately, it was inexperience from the referee, probably cost us three points today.”



– Ryan Nelsen on Sorin Stoica, post-game.