Ryan Johnson Archive

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McInerney is MLS Player of the Month for April

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/03/2013

Jack McInerney

Jack McInerney

Philadelphia Union forward Jack McInerney was named the MLS Player of the Month on Thursday.

After the ballots from the members of the North American Soccer Reporters were counted, McInerney got 13 of the 26 first-place votes. The Union striker leads MLS with six goals so far this season, and four of them came in April.

But here’s the scary stat. Through Philly’s first seven games of the season, McInerney has either scored or assisted on, ahem, all of the team’s goals. That’s right, all of them. If there is a better definition of “player judged to be most valuable to his team,” find it.
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Ryan Johnson wins Player of the Week award: The 11 gives nod to former CSL keeper Clint Irwin

By
Steven Sandor
– 04/08/2013

Ryan Johnson

Ryan Johnson

For the second time in a row, someone named “Johnson” from the Portland Timbers has won the MLS Player of the Week award.

Last week, it was Canadian Will Johnson, who scored twice. This week, it’s former Toronto FC forward Ryan Johnson, who scored two second-half goals to give the Timbers a 2-0 win over the Houston Dynamo. Johnson got the most first-place votes out of the membership of the North American Soccer Reporters.

Johnson’s two-goal game was deemed to be more Player-of-the-Week worthy than the two-goal game of another ex-TFC striker, Maicon Santos. Read the rest of this entry »

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Impact wraps up perfect trip to Pacific Northwest

By
Mike Wyman
– 03/10/2013

Hassoun Camara: Fantastic bicycle-kick goal

Hassoun Camara: Fantastic bicycle-kick goal

The Montreal Impact finished its initial MLS season with a meagre harvest of nine points on the road. The team returns home after this season’s first two matches on the west coast with six points in pocket, having already matched 2012’s total of a pair of wins on enemy turf.

Last week it defeated Seattle 1-0 and this week downed Portland 2-1 in a robust encounter at JELD-WEN Field.

The host team held possession of the ball for more time than did the visitors and mounted 16 attempts on the enemy goal, twice the number Montreal managed, but was unable to complete its attacks as the Impact defence, anchored by former Timber ‘keeper Troy Perkins, held the Timbers off.

Montreal opened the match with a couple forays into Timbers territory, knocking on the door but failing to open it. Eight minutes in, a Marco Di Vaio pass found midfielder Felipe but the midfielder rolled his shot wide to the right of Portland goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts, traded for Perkins towards the end of the 2012 schedule. Three minutes later the Jamaican national showed that he still had his reflexes, nabbing a Di Vaio header.
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TFC gets first-round pick, Bendik from Portland for Johnson and Kocic

By
Steven Sandor
– 12/12/2012

Milos Kocic

Toronto FC has traded forward Ryan Johnson and keeper Milos Kocic to the Portland Timbers.

In return, TFC gets Portland’s top first-round pick (which, right now is third overall) in the SuperDraft. As well, TFC also gets Portland back-up keeper Joe Bendik, who appeared in five matches last season. Oh, and TFC gets some of that magical mystery allocation money.

As it stands, Toronto has the No. 1 and 3 picks in its pocket. And that opens up a lot of options — do the Reds use both? Or does this give the team some leverage for another trade before the draft?

But Portland GM Gavin Wilkinson made it obvious that he doesn’t think much of this year’s draft class.

“After weighing our immediate needs and evaluating the college pool, we felt it was in the club’s best interest to give up a draft pick to secure a talented goal-scorer and an experienced player like Ryan,” said Wilkinson in a release issued by the Timbers. “He adds another weapon to our attacking group and can create goals in a number of ways. He also offers versatility in a number of positions in either a three- or two-front system.”
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Breaking down TFC’s 2012 season, player by player

By
Steven Sandor
– 12/10/2012

Reggie Lambe: TFC winless when he plays the full 90; was a -20 on the season

We broke down the Whitecaps, now we break down Toronto FC.

We looked back at Toronto FC’s disastrous 2012 campaign, but we broke down the games minute by minute. From that, we came up with a goal difference for every player on the Reds, similar to a plus-minus in hockey. And, we also looked at the Reds’ record when each player on the team was utilized as either a starter or a sub.

(For more on our methodology, check out the Vancouver Whitecaps recap. Click HERE)

We did not include the CONCACAF Champions League or Amway Canadian Championship in this statistical snapshot. This only includes MLS regular-season matches.
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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.
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Another game, another late goal conceded by TFC

By
Mark Polishuk
– 10/06/2012

Milos Kocic… Takes the blame

You can describe Toronto FC’s 2012 season in any number of colourful ways, yet “comedy of errors” isn’t one of them. That specific term implies a variety of errors, whereas for the Reds, it’s just the same glaring flaw of surrendering late goals game after game. Sure enough, TFC once more fell victim to a late goal, as Hamdi Salihi’s 88th-minute strike netted D.C. United a 1-0 win and left the Reds wondering how this has happened again.

“We come to the end of every game and we don’t tense up,” said forward Andrew Wiedeman. “We all think this is the game we’re going to right the ship. I firmly thought we were going to pull it out and get the win, the way we were peppering the goal. We put them under so much pressure in the second half but we couldn’t pull it off.”

TFC’s lack of a finishing touch was the big-picture issue in the match, as the Reds indeed created the better chances of the two clubs and probably should’ve found the scoreboard at least once. Still, a scoreless draw was in the cards until the 88th minute, when Maicon Santos’s long attempt from outside the box was mishandled by goalkeeper Milos Kocic, allowing Salihi to fire home the rebound for the deciding goal.
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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.
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O’Dea: Toronto FC “is mentally weak”

By
Aman Dhanoa
– 09/15/2012

Darren O’Dea

Same old story.
 
Toronto FC was looking to bounce back from its dismal effort and the tongue-lashing dished out by coach Paul Mariner after Wednesday night’s dismal performance in a 2-1 loss to Chicago Fire at home.

The team definitely rebounded with a better overall team game but the Philadelphia Union (7-13-5) snatched victory out of TFC’s grasp with a goal in the game’s final minutes, allowing the visitors to escape BMO Field with a 1-1 draw. TFC (5-17-7) rued the missed opportunities in a strong first half and lacked the mental toughness once again in the late stages of a game that erased the advantage supplied by Eric Hassli in the 58th minute.
 
TFC’s winless streak has now reached nine games and the team remains entrenched in the cellar of the Eastern Conference. Read the rest of this entry »

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TFC’s loss in Kansas City is a rewind of so many other setbacks

By
Steven Sandor
– 09/02/2012

Paulo Nagamura

Toronto FC has seven games left on the schedule. The Reds trail the fifth-place Columbus Crew by 21 points in the MLS Eastern Conference, ahem, “race.”

So, on Sept. 1, with two months of regular-season soccer left to play, TFC is a single point from being mathematically eliminated from the playoff chase. That is the result of Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Sporting Kansas City.

Yes, TFC fans have known since about May, when it was winless two months into the season, that the playoffs were just a tease. But the loss that puts the Reds on the mathematical precipice was just so typical of the team. A late goal surrendered that was more the result of TFC’s errors than it was brilliance from the opponent; an ex-TFC player scoring against the Reds.
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