Toronto FC took a giant leap forward Tuesday night as they battled back to tie Motagua 2-2 and reach the CONCACAF Champions League group stage for the first time in club history.
WATCH: FULL MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
Playing under the warm, tropical weather of Honduras, Preki's team had to battle hard to secure their pass to Group A. Led by Amado Guevara, Motagua threatened to derail Toronto’s Champions League plans, as the former Red twice gave his current club a lead.
But Toronto would have none of that and, through Dwayne De Rosario and Chad Barrett, pulled even both times. In the end, the Reds were good enough to get by the Honduran side 3-2 on aggregate.
“It was a difficult match,” De Rosario told CONCACAF TV after the match. “We worked ever so hard in a tough environment and we came out of here with the point we needed to move to the next round. The team was the best part. Every guy worked for each other – defensively, the midfield, goalie, right to our forwards. The guys that came in worked hard and you need every guy to win this match as you saw tonight.”
WATCH: DeRo's postgame interview
It was a gutsy effort from a club that withstood trying conditions, even in the lead-up to the game in stifling Tegucigalpa. On Monday, the team’s flight couldn’t land in the capital and had to be rerouted to Honduras’ second-largest city, San Pedro Sula. From there, the team bussed five hours cross-country to Tegucigalpa.
Then, during the game, the team had to deal with the typical heat that has given the Canadian National Team fits during previous World Cup qualifying, a feeling De Rosario and Julian de Guzman are all too familiar with.
Nonetheless, Toronto hung in there, battled back and earned the draw. And despite a relatively lackluster performance, the club can walk away with some positives.
Goalkeeper Stefan Frei was again a lifesaver and came up big, especially towards the end, when Motagua pushed forward to find a pair of goals that it needed to go through. Also, the Reds’ offense found the net twice, a welcome relief for head coach Preki and his charges, considering the fact the team had scored just five goals in its last nine games overall.
Finally, the draw away was nice, too, and obtaining a pass to the tournament’s group stage should instill some confidence in the players.
Still, TFC have several challenges in front of them if they're serious about both staging a run in the Champions League and also making the MLS playoffs for the first time.
The Reds still must find better cohesion from the defense to the midfield and from the midfield to the forwards than they did on Tuesday, and the linking pass seemed to be amiss. Additionally, Toronto showed a tendency for broken plays and missed assignments when they were pressured by the Hondurans in the second half. Those are problems TFC must learn to deal with, especially when they go up against the elite clubs in CONCACAF.
But this first taste of real success is sweet for Toronto, and reaching the CCL group phase could be a big boost. What it won't provide, however, is time to iron out the kinks. And time is something that will be at a premium down the stretch now that TFC have added six games to their schedule.
Toronto are in the midst of a three-game winless streak in MLS and sit tied for the seventh playoff seed with San Jose. With the postseason hanging in the balance, the Reds must play smart, effective soccer in games that will take on must-win importance the rest of the way.
