First Person View – Rarified Air

    I finally caught the action from Toronto FC’s match in Colorado; GolTV’s Game in an Hour came through in the end. I know, I know, what kind of fan misses a match, I was busy cooking some dinner for the family. It was only the second match I’ve ever not been able to watch live, I had to work for a disappointing TFC performance in Houston two seasons ago. As for home matches, I’ve only not been present for two, one my sister’s wedding, though I did manage to sneak away in time to catch it live, and another in season one, we were sharing tickets with another fellow and he used all the seats for the Houston match… something about Houston.

    Anyways, some thoughts on why Toronto was able to find success in the rarified air of Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. A point on the road, several chances to win, and only a few potentially very costly mistakes, overall a splendid performance for the Reds. I am quite sure the cause of this decent performance was due to the extra space on Colorado’s supersized pitch. The Rapids had the dastardly foresight to exploit their atmospheric home advantage by maximizing the surface area of their pitch to the allowable extremes. This extra playing space gave Toronto the time necessary to play their newly installed system.

    Another thought, the match ended up being stretched with the big surface and the distance between players Toronto was not as heavily pressured as they have been in the past. The best example of the opposite case that I can recall is the terrible performance TFC put in at Qwest Field at the end of April. Seattle played a tight pressing game, a quick aggressive style that limited Toronto effectiveness and time on the ball, forcing the mistakes. The enthusiastic nature of Seattle’s pressing game is something that Barcelona uses to great effect to quickly regain possession on the rare chance they misplace their ball.

    So, if Toronto wants to see such small measures of success on a more regular basis it would be prudent if they could stretch the match more and up their tempo. Something that will come as the team becomes more practiced in each other’s movements and tendencies.