CONCACAF Champions League Archive

0

Galaxy’s CCL hopes force Impact to juggle its schedule

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/21/2013

LA-Galaxy-logoAs has been expected for almost two weeks, MLS has postponed the Montreal Impact’s April 6 road date against the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Commissioner Don Garber had been quoted on MLSSoccer.com, saying that the league was looking at clearing the schedules of the Galaxy and the Seattle Sounders, who each play Mexican opposition in the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals. That came to pass Thursday, as the league has cleared the Sounders and Galaxy of playing commitments for the April 6-7 weekend. That now gives both MLS clubs the chance to have a weekend off between their two CCL midweek semifinal legs. The Galaxy will play Monterrey, the two-time defending CCL champs, while the Sounders play Santos Laguna, who knocked Toronto FC out of the tourney last season.
Read the rest of this entry »

Share
0

Canada’s Petrescu named the MLS top ref of 2012

By
Steven Sandor
– 11/20/2012

Canadian Silviu Petrescu has been named MLS Referee of the Year.

According to the voting stats released by MLS on Tuesday, Petrescu got exactly half of all the media votes tallied, 34.55 per cent from the clubs and 36.78 per cent of the player votes. So, more than one in three players think that Petrescu is the best official in the league.

Petrescu will work the MLS Cup finale between Los Angeles and Houston.

Petrescu worked 20 MLS matches this season, including the wild-card playoff match between the Los Angeles Galaxy and Vancouver Whitecaps, which was decided on a Landon Donovan penalty-kick goal. On that play, Petrescu ruled that Whitecaps defender Martin Bonjour had fouled Donovan in the area. It wasn’t an easy call, as Donovan was leaning into Bonjour as he went forward into the box, putting the defender in a no-win situation: Either let Donovan go by, or know that, no matter the contact, Donovan will go down.
Read the rest of this entry »

Share
0

Santos Laguna knocks a Canadian team out of CCL for the third time

By
Steven Sandor
– 10/25/2012

Herculez Gomez

The final thread of Toronto FC’s 2012 season of infamy was cut by a team made up mainly of Santos Laguna’s taxi squad.

After going to the semifinals of last year’s CONCACAF Champions League — where they were blown out by Santos Languna — TFC didn’t survive the group stage this season. On Wednesday, the Reds walked into the stadium in Torreon, Mexico, knowing that they needed to win by two goals. The last time they went into Torreon, in the semifinal of the previous CCL, the Reds lost 6-2.

This time, the loss was “just” 1-0. A sensational volley from U.S. national teamer Herculez Gomez offered little chance for TFC keeper Freddy Hall to react, and that was enough for the Mexican side to claim a victory it didn’t really need to advance to the knockout rounds.
Read the rest of this entry »

Share
1

No faith in TFC: CSA schedules Canadian Championship semis to fall on same dates as CCL final

By
Steven Sandor
– 09/28/2012

Even the Canadian Soccer Association has no faith in Toronto FC.

Today, the CSA announced the dates for the 2013 Amway Canadian Championship, which are in direct conflict with the CONCACAF Champions League final. In 2012, as Toronto FC advanced into the elimination rounds of the CCL, the ACC dates were pushed back, as organizers knew there was the potential for a TFC conflict between the Canadian Championship and the regional championship. That potential, at least today, still exists for 2013, even though the odds are against the Reds.

The dates for the ACC semifinal rounds are April 24 and May 1, 2013. The scheduled dates for the CCL final? April 24 and May 1, 2013.

In order to survive in the CCL, Toronto FC would need to beat Santos Laguna by two goals when the teams meet for their final group-stage match in Mexico. It’s clear by the scheduling — which would have needed TFC’s sign-off — that there is no faith that the Reds will have a run in 2012-2013 like they did in 2011-12, when Santos Laguna knocked them out at the semifinal stage.
Read the rest of this entry »

Share
0

TFC coasts to easy CCL win over listless Aguila side

By
Steven Sandor
– 09/26/2012

Terry Dunfield: Two goals

No Canadian team — club or national side — will ever have as easy a time of a match in Central America as Toronto FC did Tuesday night in its 3-0 win over El Salvador’s CD Aguila in CONCACAF Champions League action.

TFC went into San Salvador knowing that it needed three points in order to give its final group-stage match against Santos Laguna any meaning. Now, the Reds have given themselves a glimmer of hope for that match in Mexico — even though they’d need to beat Herculez Gomez and co. by two goals.

But Aguila, which already lost to TFC by a 5-1 count at BMO Field, was encountering a perfect storm. The team had to play in San Salvador, not at its home, meaning the game would take place in a cavernous empty stadium. Aguila had already been mathematically eliminated from having any chance of advancing to the knockout stages. And, its core group of players were away from the club, at a camp with the El Salvadoran national side.
Read the rest of this entry »

Share
0

Santos Laguna scores two late goals to all but seal TFC’s CCL fate

By
Mark Polishuk
– 08/29/2012

Not that Toronto FC didn’t already know they were cursed in the final minutes of games, but the universe is just rubbing it in when a black cat literally runs through your goal area. Sure enough, soon after the feline intruder appeared on the pitch, TFC conceded two late scores and ended up with a 3-1 loss to Santos Laguna that all but ends their hopes of another run to the CONCACAF Champions League knockout stage.

Bad luck wasn’t to blame for the outcome, given that Santos drastically outshot the Reds (11-1 in shots on goal and 22-12 overall) and could’ve found those two goals earlier were it not for the heroics of TFC goalkeeper Freddy Hall. Still, Toronto was close to escaping with a point against their heavily-favoured opponents before things fell apart in the 90th minute.

“There’s no way that was a 3-1 game,” said TFC head coach Paul Mariner. “I thought we were a little tentative in the first half and in the second half we played much better… We matched them for 89 minutes.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Share
0

Toronto FC locks up defender Doneil Henry

By
Steven Sandor
– 08/21/2012

Doneil Henry

The scene: Frisco, Tex. The time: Last October.

On an evening just a couple of weeks out of Halloween, Toronto FC recorded which, at the time, was the club’s biggest win in its history. The 3-0 shellacking of FC Dallas ensured that TFC would go on to the knockout stages of the CONCACAF Champions League.

On that October evening, TFC fans feted Joao Plata, the diminutive rookie who set up the first goal and added two more. But, on that evening, we saw the emergence of a player whose long-term future may mean more to the club than any other Red who was on the field that night.

On that night, Doneil Henry was inserted as an emergency right back, and was asked to contend with Brek Shea’s runs down the left channel of FCD’s attack. Henry was very much TFC’s unsung hero on that night — and we can point to that evening as the moment when Henry transferred his status from “prospect” to “player.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Share
0

TFC scores 5 in CCL opener, but the game wasn’t seen by many

By
Mark Polishuk
– 08/02/2012

Luis Silva

With just 5,324 fans in attendance at BMO Field and no TV broadcaster airing the game, Toronto FC’s performance in its CONCACAF Champions League opener against CD Aguila could well become an urban legend.

“Did you hear TFC won a game 5-1?”

“Yeah, sure! Was it a brace for the Loch Ness Monster and a hat trick from Bigfoot?”

As unlikely as it sounds, the Reds did indeed score five times against an overmatched Aguila side. It was just the second time in team history that TFC reached the five-goal plateau, finishing one shy of the club record of six, set in the famous “Miracle In Montreal” victory over the Impact that won Toronto the 2009 Canadian Championship.

“It’s good for our confidence,” said striker Ryan Johnson. “Going into Chicago [on Saturday], it’s a big game for us, and this helps everybody. We had a lot of opportunities on offence and this will make us more comfortable when we’re in those positions.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Share
0

TFC’s need for a centre back is evident in loss to Houston

By
Mark Polishuk
– 07/29/2012

Calen Carr

Toronto FC’s three-game winning streak ended with a thud on Saturday as the Reds turned in arguably their worst effort of the Paul Mariner era in a 2-0 loss to the Houston Dynamo at BMO Field.

In an evenly-matched first half, all it took was one mistake to break things open and, unfortunately for TFC, that mistake took the familiar form of poor set-piece defence.  Just moments before halftime, Brad Davis’s corner was tipped by Bobby Boswell on the left side over to a wide-open Calen Carr on the right, who had plenty of space to head the ball past goalkeeper Milos Kocic.

“It’s a terrible goal to concede, especially at that time,” said head coach Mariner.  “That’s when you really should be on your mettle since you know it’s the last kick of the half and you’ve got to be resolute.  If you flip the coin and look at Houston’s defending of set pieces, it was exemplary.”

The goal underscored TFC’s need for an experienced centre back and, while this has been a season-long (and beyond) weak point for the Reds and the MLS transfer window is closing fast, Mariner said he hadn’t made any acquisitions because he was looking for a permanent solution.
Read the rest of this entry »

Share
0

CONCACAF Champions League draw: TFC to face Santos Laguna… again

By
Steven Sandor
– 06/05/2012

Toronto FC will play Santos Laguna more times in 2012 than it will play many MLS teams on the schedule.

The CONCACAF Champions League draw, announced Tuesday, saw TFC put into a group with Santos Laguna, the team that knocked them out of the previous CCL at the semifinal stage. And that likely means another visit to Toronto for American scoring ace Herculez Gomez, who scored against Toronto FC at BMO Field for his Mexican side, then played last Sunday for the Americans against Canada in Toronto. By the end of 2012, TFC and Santos Laguna will have played each other four times over the year.

Santos Laguna is the reigning Mexican champion, and has the honour of being the team that eliminated Canada’s most two successful CCL teams, TFC 2011-12 and the Montreal Impact 2008-09, from the competition. Toronto FC was tied 2-2 with the Mexican powerhouse at halftime of the second leg of their semifinal. But Santos Laguna exposed TFC over and over in the second half, and the Mexican fans celebrated what became a 6-2 rout.

But Santos Laguna lost the CCL final to Monterrey, who claimed its second regional championship in a row.
Read the rest of this entry »

Share
Older Entries