ClapAs the Toronto FC prepared for the game on Sunday against the San Jose Earthquakes, Greg Vanney, Toronto FC’s was worried. That worry was over the king of goals in the MLS, Chris Wondolowski and giving him room can be a big mistake and one Vanney wants to avoid.
Unfortunately for Vanney, his squad seemed to miss that message and gave Chris Wondolowski the room he needed to score twice and in doing so, increased his total career goals to 150 and leading the San Jose Earthquakes to a 2-1 win over Toronto.
Vanney, known for keeping his cool was unimpressed after the match and showed it after seeing Toronto FC lose its fifth game in a row. Commenting on Toronto’s poor performance, Vanney said,
Major League Soccer
“I think it’s B.S. … The dude can score 150 goals in our league (and) 120 of them are the same way. And we don’t have the presence in the situation to find that guy’s body and to know where he is. Like that just has to be better.”
After TFC went up 1-0 at the 27 minute mark with a goal by Richie Laryea, their first on almost 250 minutes of play, Ashtone Morgan failed to stop Cristian Espinoza from crossing the ball to Wondolowski who scored to tie the match.
Drew Moor, who plays centre back was the second to make that mistake at the 80th minute mark. Moor, Liam Fraser and Chris Mavinga were left watching as Wondolowski connected with the ball and sent another past goal minder Alex Bono.
This was the first road win for the San Jose Earthquakes and their sixth win of the season. Wondolowski has been a big part of that success scoring all four of the Earthquakes goals again Chicago last week and with it surpassed the previous all-time goal record held by Landon Donovan (145). Commenting, Wondolowski said,
“It’s been fun. Goal-scoring comes in bunches, whether good or bad and right now they’re coming so I’m trying to take advantage of it. To be honest it was a great play by Cristian Espinoza, the way he was able to fly down that flank tonight. He sent in a few good balls and I was just happy to find myself on the end of a couple of them.”
Wondolowski has had a good amount of goal scoring success against Toronto, scoring 11 goals in their last 15 matches. That was not lost on Moor, even if in part responsible for letting Wondolowski get hold of the ball. Commenting, Moor said,
“He got some good service and found a couple of soft spots on us … That’s why he’s scored 967 goals. He finds a way to put the ball in the back of the net and it’s got to be better from, for sure, myself and we’ve got to deny the service as well.”
Toronto has now not won a home game since mid-April and are 3-3-2 this season. They also have given up multiple goals in nine different matches, and Vanney has been vocal in his complaints with respect to their defence and the failure to finish.
While TFC had chances to score, Delgado 74th minute shot was off the point, and Terrence Boyd missed an opportunity during stoppage time when he missed a pass by Delgado. Adding insult to injury, Liam Fraser failed to connect on a shot across the penalty box. Vanney spoke of his disappointment post-match stating,
“It’s frustrating because our performances aren’t so bad. Our execution in the final third on either side — if you want to take points — has got to be better. We’ve got to protect our goal better and we’ve got to put away chances that we have in front of their goal.”
The Toronto FC next will have the opportunity to improve and get back to winning when they visit the Vancouver Whitecaps on Friday for a 10 pm game. What is clear is Vanney will be looking closely at the squad hoping to figure out what needs to get done to win.
