It would be hard to pick just one good thing on a night of many positives as Toronto beat San Jose 3-1 Saturday and in their first away win of the season and prolonged the club’s undefeated streak to six games overall.
The club earned their victory by staving off a furious second half comeback attempt from the Earthquakes that last year likely would have led to the tying goal.
Last year, Toronto conceded over a dozen goals in the last 15 minutes of games that made any one-goal lead unsafe.
This time around the defense held firm and didn’t buckle under the pressure. The laurels, however, go to goalkeeper Stefan Frei, who was his usual consistent and effective self as he stood tall and made big saves when he had to.
“It feels awesome keeping the streak going,” Frei told Rogers Sportsnet after the game. “I love being undefeated. I don’t care about the shutout streak (487 minutes) as long as we keep the undefeated one going.
“On the road, it comes down to grit and hard. It wasn’t the prettiest game, but we got the result that we wanted.”
Another key figure for the Reds was Dwayne de Rosario, whose empty-net goal in the dying minutes --his second of the game-- quashed any late-game heroics from San Jose and added to his torrid scoring pace.
DeRo’s brace pulled him within one goal of Los Angeles’ Edson Buddle, who leads the league in goals thanks to his hot start this season.
Better yet, the win catapulted TFC into sole possession of second place, ahead of the New York Red Bulls and within four points of the Eastern Conference-leading Columbus Crew, which had its undefeated record snapped with a loss to the Galaxy earlier on Saturday.
What the win and the club’s recent move up the standings all point to is depth and collective buy-in to Preki’s system, which has the Reds on the same page playing a highly effective, if not spectacular, style of soccer.
Preki doesn’t have a team of all-stars --the MLS salary cap doesn’t allow it-- but what he has is a group of players that can step in at any time and play the way he wants them to play without taking a step back.
Case in point: Preki’s decision to start Chad Barrett and O’Brian White as his strike partner instead of De Rosario. Some would question Preki’s decision to leave DeRo’s six goals on the bench against a winning team on the road, but TFC’s head coach opted to give the team captain some rest even though he had been off since playing for Canada against Argentina on Monday.
Thirty-one minutes into the game, Chad Barrett proved Preki’s decision correct as he scored on a pure hustle play in the first half to give Toronto the lead.
Then, when Preki inserted De Rosario and Julian de Guzman into the game, the team didn’t skip a beat. DeRo ran roughshod over his former club and after 45 minutes got his seventh and eighth goals of the season.
Having depth on a team and being able to replace players without negatively impacting your lineup is not a luxury many teams have. In fact, it took Preki a while to instill his philosophy of focusing on fitness and hard training sessions, but the results are paying dividends.
“It gives some guys rest if they need it,” said Frei on the team’s depth. “If they’re banged up, I know there are guys that are capable of stepping in behind them and it shows that don’t have just 11 guys that can work hard and win games and compete, but it’s the whole squad.”
“It’s very refreshing to see --especially when I was in Argentina watching-- the effort they put forth to grind out three points,” said De Rosario. “You saw again the effort [tonight]; it’s teamwork and that’s why we’re getting the results that we’re looking for. [Everybody is] working hard everyday in training, and it’s starting to pay off.”
Toronto may not be playing pretty, but pretty doesn’t matter as long as their effective style of play helps them continue their climb up the standings.
