By DAN KARELL
Toronto FC Designated Player Jermain Defoe showed off the quality that has turned TFC into a playoff contender overnight.
Defoe scored two second half goals as TFC came back from a two-goal deficit to defeat the Houston Dynamo, 4-2, at BMO Field on Saturday evening. The victory came despite Michael Bradley not making TFC’s gameday squad and fellow Designated Player Gilberto starting the match on the bench.
The match began in the worst way possible for the hosts, as they conceded twice to returning U.S. Men’s National Team midfielder Brad Davis in the opening 30 minutes.
Davis grabbed his first in the 13th minute, taking advantage of open space cleared up by a great barnstorming from Giles Barnes. Barnes, who dribbled through a few TFC defenders, fed Davis on the left and the veteran midfielder finished low at the near post.
The second goal of the match came in the 30th minute, just seconds after Dynamo goalkeeper Tally Hall parried away a smashed free kick from Defoe. Dynamo midfielder Warren Creavalle sent in a ball from the right wing that evaded the TFC defense and fell to Davis. Davis took a touch before slotting home to give the visitors a stunning 2-0 lead.
From then on out, it was all TFC.
In the 39th minute, Defoe received the ball on the right side and after holding up the play to allow his midfielders to run into the box, floated a cross into the middle. Hall mis-played the cross, allowing TFC midfielder Jonathan Osorio to head home from point blank range.
TFC amazingly tied the match in first half stoppage time, and Defoe again played a huge role. Defoe ran unopposed towards the Dynamo box before dishing to his right to winger Dominic Oduro. Oduro fired a shot on goal that deflected off Hall and went right back to the Ghanian, who finished on the second time asking.
In the second half, it was Oduro and Osorio who played provider for Defoe as TFC completed their comeback. In the 63rd minute, Oduro used a beautiful back-heel to spring Osorio into action moving forward. Osorio fed Defoe at the edge of the box and the Englishman supplied a left-footed finish to five TFC the 3-2 lead.
Defoe added an insurance goal for good measure in the 89th minute, taking Hall one-on-one on a breakaway and finishing on the second opportunity after Hall got a piece of Defoe’s original shot. It was Defoe’s ninth and tenth goals of the season.
Watch the highlights below:
It was actually Jackson with the back heal to Oso, who then played the ball into Defoe’s path. And Bradley could have been the best player at the world cup and TFC wouldn’t have sold him to anyone, period.
I didn’t see the game so it is difficult to know what happened just based on the highlights. But it looks like Hall has lost some confidence and is not playing well at the moment. It looked like the first three goals were at least partly his fault. The fourth was a horrible pass back by Carrasco.
Bottom line – the Dynamo are in trouble this year.
It was one thing for the Dynamo to keep the status quo coming into the season, but it’s time to make some moves and improve this awful team, particularly at CB, defensive depth, and forward. Unfortunately, the Dynamo management seem to be the last ones to realize this.
Houston is a bad team. They don’t have any players that are worth the price of admission. Collectively they can string some good passes, but they don’t have a world beater. They need new ownership. In the past seasons, they have been able to squeeze in the post season. Most arguably because Hall has stood on his head.
and yet they always seem to sneak into the playoff and make some noise. from where I sit, that looks like heaven.
Probably not this year
Nice to see this team has some fight in it without Bradley on the field. He needs some time off I think. Frankly (and I apologize to all the MLS purists in the cyber room), I think the best thing for him is to go overseas again. This past world cup was a stark benchmark for a lot of our heirs-apparant (Zusi, Bedoya, Cameron, Bradley, Diskerud). They all need to keep climbing the ladder and pushing themselves against and surpassing players that outclass them. I get that money was ridiculous and the playing time before Brazil was essential, and in some way it was a clever gamble (up your market value, play your face off in Brasil, have European teams match the demand–oops). It was a good strategy for the buildup, but it’s a different reality now. Toronto is in a groove without him playing, and he needs to play his way onto a CL team and log more the kinds of high intensity hours in his legs and his head that he just experienced. The quality of play in MLS is getting better, but it can’t compete with the quantity of opportunities that Euro-based CL teams offers. They simply don’t exist yet.
Those Euro CL team offers are not available anymore. His WC performance wasnt exactly the greatest.
Is Defoe…Arjen “Robbeing”?.
Don’t quit your day job…