Toronto FC trailed entering the second leg of the Eastern Conference Championship. They had somehow coughed up three goals in the first 53 minutes to the Montreal Impact just over a week ago, and then somehow clawed two back heading into an eight-day break.
And so they were behind on the scoreboard, but still came into Wednesday night as prohibitive favorites because of those two goals, and because of how they'd played all season long, and because they seemed to have answers -- via restarts, via formation switches, via simple and reliable depth -- in spots where Montreal didn't.
But this is TFC we're talking about here, and this is the Audi 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs. Nothing was going to come easy.
And that was the case. The Reds gave goals away midway through the first half and early in the second, and generally did everything in their power to keep their long-suffering fanbase on the edges of their respective seats for the full 120 minutes at BMO Field. But they came out the other side with a closer-than-it-looks-now 5-2 win on the evening, and a wild, legendary 7-5 win on aggregate.
Toronto FC are thus the Eastern Conference champions, almost in spite of themselves. It had to come with this level of drama, didn't it?
Roll the Bones
The story of this game was very nearly TFC's vulnerability through central midfield in that 3-5-2 they played. It was supposed to be a little more sturdy than the look they trotted out for the first hour last week -- the one that saw them drop into a 3-0 hole -- and to be fair, it's not like they were conceding chance after chance.
No, the problem is that in the few instances when space did open up for Montreal, the Impact were ruthless, direct and clinical, and the Reds didn't do a great job of putting out fires:
Another look at Oduro's opening goal, this time focusing on Will Johnson's trailing (or not trailing) run. pic.twitter.com/sG97GeiMor
— (((Ben Baer))) (@BenBaer89) December 1, 2016
Two big things went wrong here. First is that Michael Bradley has to force Patrice Bernier to play square or back, or even win the ball outright. Getting beat like this and letting the Impact get vertical is No. 1 on the "things not to do" list.
Second is that Will Johnson doesn't recognize the error early enough and get back to protect that space in front of the backline. Once Matteo Mancosu has the ball on his foot and takes off, he's really only going to look to his right, and if Johnson's there he makes that a harder proposition, while allowing Drew Moor to come off his line a little harder and Nick Hagglund to stick to Dominic Oduro.
There were obviously other things that went wrong here. Steven Beitashour didn't do a great job of harrying Mancosu; Justin Morrow is ball-watching; the backline is kind of a mess.
But really, this came down to Bradley and Johnson not doing the jobs they should have done. Things looked bleak... and then they got better.
The Trees
Montreal have a very obvious weakness on set pieces and have for years. It was put in the spotlight the last time these teams met in the regular season, and it was put in the spotlight in the first leg, and it was the decisive in Leg Two.
The Reds became just the second team in the last 14 seasons (we only have data going back to 2003) to score on three corners in one game. First it was Armando Cooper following up Hagglund's header; then it was Jozy Altidore beating a napping Hassoun Camara to the near post; and then, in the second half, it was Hagglund again.
There's nothing in particular to diagram here, and no other point than the obvious fact that set pieces really, really matter, and Toronto looked like they were going to score any time they were able to serve a decent ball in. If it wasn't for Sebastian Giovinco having one of his worst games in MLS, it's pretty easy to convince yourself that TFC could've gotten one or two more off of restarts.
Limelight
While Giovinco and Bradley were less than stellar, the third Designated Player in Toronto's lineup was the story of the night. Altidore is on an almighty, record-setting tear:
Both of TFC’s goals in extra time came through him — the first a simple touch to the flanks for Beitashour, whose cross was headed home by Benoit Cheyrou, and the second when he burst past Victor Cabrera and fired low across the box for Tosaint Ricketts to slide home. That's in addition to his own first-half goal, and the slaloming late run through the Impact backline that almost won it in regulation.
It was more than those plays, though. Altidore spent about 30 minutes tonight playing as a wide midfielder as TFC’s shape shifted from a 3-5-2 to a 3-4-1-2 to a 4-4-2, and he was relentless in his tracking, available for easy distribution, and positionally better than you'd expect for a guy who hasn't played that spot in nearly a decade.
Physically, meanwhile, Montreal were unable to match him.
It was his best performance in a year filled with great performances from him, and it came on the second-biggest stage in MLS. The main act will follow on December 10, when the Reds host Seattle in the MLS Cup.
A few more things to ponder...
3. If I get a time machine one of the things I'll do is travel back to about 1998 and convince the CSA to build the subsequent 18 years of their men's national team around Bernier. He was phenomenal once again.
So too was Marco Donadel, who is a master tactician and one of the more Machiavellian off-the-ball players in league history.
2. Didier Drogba didn't miss a pass in his final Montreal appearance:
He was a step slower than he needed to be on one or two chances, but for the most part I thought he did good work holding the ball up and bringing everyone into the play. Montreal just weren't able to find that last touch over the final 50 minutes of action.
1. I wonder if Giovinco was hurt even before he had to be subbed off in the 96th minute. He covered less distance than usual, wasn't able to create separation from defenders and struggled to complete open play passes.
That's something TFC will obviously want to figure out starting tomorrow. Tonight, they should feel free to join their fans and celebrate.
