Steve Bottjer
writes at Red Nation
TFC show their mettle in Champions League draw with Santos
While TFC were unable to pull out a win, this match had pretty much everything else TFC fans could have asked for. The Reds showed plenty of mettle in delivering ninety minutes in which TFC were the better team. Outside of the goal by Herculez Gomez, the Toronto back line held up well, as the home side played solid team defense for the entire game. Furthermore, when Santos did engineer a chance, TFC keeper Milos Kocic was there to come up big as a final line of defense.
Team Captain Julian de Guzman delivered one of his best performances as a member of Toronto FC, as he once again looked excellent against Mexican competition. It’s becoming clear that his style of play suits playing smaller, more technical teams and he was a lynchpin who was always moving and making himself available to his teammates throughout this fixture.
The Dutch duo of Danny Koevermans and Nick Soolsma gave the Santos defense plenty of trouble and Aron Winter should be commended for his tactical gamble not to start those two players last Saturday against San Jose. Neither player scored, but they looked fresh and were dangerous and generated a lot of scoring chances.
