Toronto FC and the San Jose Earthquakes opened up the 5th annual Carolina Challenge Cup on Daniel Island on Saturday night, under a tornado warning to make it quite a memorable start to the tournament. San Jose would end 1-0 winners in game that was not able to go the distance due to the weather conditions.
San Jose opened with the first good opportunity to score, former TFC midfielder Ronnie O'Brien playing on his usual right side, sent a ball into the box where Kei Kamara's shot just flashed wide of Sutton in goal. They continued to press and would go on to get the first goal of the game in the 21st minute and it all began off a corner by O'Brien. His shot, swung in Gavin Glinton getting a header off that was stopped by Sutton, there was more scrambling in front of goal as the ball was cleared off the line - but eventually put in by Jason Hernandez.
Toronto did not produce much in the way of offense in the first half finishing with just a single shot on goal...leaving the 20 or so supporters that made the trip from Canada with not much to cheer about, and the teams went to the locker room with San Jose up1-0.
There were a couple of changes to start the second half for Toronto with Collin Samuel entering for Dichio, and Kevin Harmse coming on for Pacheco, San Jose made one move with Shea Salinas coming on for Gavin Glinton.
Rain began to fall shortly after and it was Salinas that started things off in the 53rd minute for the west coast side. The midfielder with a burst of speed down the right side, and then breaking in on goal, Sutton came out to challenge and made a great sliding stop to keep him at bay.
Samuel made his presence felt in the 55th, Brittain found space on the right had side and played it into the box where Samuel had a shot from a bad angle, it rolled in front of goal and no one could knock it in.
77th minute, a major flash of lightning lit up the sky right above the stadium and that was enough for referee for Paul Ward to suspend the game, sending the players into the locker room. After a 15 minute delay, officials decided to call the match with San Jose holding the 1-0 lead and that would be how the score line would end. The game between the New York Bulls and Charleston Battery that was scheduled to start right after the TFC match was postponed as well, and those two will play their match Sunday in a 3p.m ET start.
Toronto next plays on Wednesday, and will face the New York Red Bulls once again in a 6p.m ET start.
Scoring Summary:
SJ: Jason Hernandez - 21'
Toronto FC Lineup: Greg Sutton, Marco Velez, Tyrone Marshall, Julius James, Jim Brennan, Martin Brittain, Carl Robinson, Victor Pacheco (Kevin Harmse 46), Todd Dunivant, Danny Dichio (Collin Samuel), Jeff Cunningham
San Jose Lineup: Joe Cannon, Nick Garcia, Ryan Cochrane, James Riley, Jason Hernandez, Ronnie O'Brien, Ramero Corrales, Ned Grabavoy, Ivan Guerrero, Gavin Glinton (Shea Salinas), Kei Kamara
