Toronto edges Motagua, 1-0, in CCL start
TORONTO — Chad Barrett’s first half goal stood up to lead Toronto FC over CD Motagua 1-0 Tuesday, moving the Canadian champion closer to its first appearance in the CONCACAF Champions League group stage.

Toronto now takes a 1-0 advantage in the two-leg Preliminary Round aggregate goal series down to the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa for the second leg Aug. 3.

“It’s a great result, it’s a positive thing to take a win out of here. It’s better than last year when we lost to Puerto Rico,” said Barrett. “In Honduras, it’s going to be tough and we’re going to have to be just as good if not better on their own field as they have the thick grass, they got their fans. It’s going to be tough.”

The winner will advance to the group stage and join MLS champion Real Salt Lake, Arabe Unido of Panama and the winner of the series between Mexico’s Cruz Azul and San Francisco FC of Panama.

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Something had to give with both sides sporting streaks. However, the result extended Toronto’s unbeaten run at home to nine games while extending Dallas’ record of undefeated games on the road to seven.

Maicon Santos gave Toronto the lead in the 61st minute before Milton Rodriguez tied the game in the 77th minute.

With the draw, Toronto improved to 23 points, but more importantly they moved out of the precarious eighth playoff seed and into a tie for sixth with Colorado and San Jose.

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Seattle 2 Colorado 1
Salt lake 1 Chivas 1
Columbus 3 Houston 0
Los Angele 2 San Jose 2

Late goals continue to hurt TFC
Toronto FC made a liar out of Preki on Saturday.

The Reds’ coach assured us that his players learned their lesson after conceding an injury-time goal in a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to the expansion Philadelphia Union last week.

“They understand [that game] was maybe a good warning for us at this part of the year [and] that we can’t things for granted,” Preki told reporters ahead of Toronto’s crucial home contest against FC Dallas.

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The Union picked up their third win in five matches at home this season and foiled TFC’s impressive run thanks to a late handball from Maxim Usanov on a shot in the box from Jack McInerney. Le Toux coolly converted the ensuing kick for his seventh goal of the season and to erase some bitter memories from a dramatic late loss last week on the same field.

Philadelphia also received the first career MLS goal from Michael Orozco Fiscal, who headed home a Le Toux corner kick in the 61st minute to spice up an at-times sleepy and very steamy match played at temperatures hovering around 95 degrees.

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DC United 1 Los Angeles 2
Colorado 1 Kansas City 1
Columbus 2 New York 0
Dallas 2 Real Salt Lake 0
DC United 1 Seattle 0

In polling the members of the team for their World Cup favourites, most players predicted that one of the typical powers from Europe or South America would win the tournament, while others expressed a sincere hope that an African team would have a breakthrough and do the whole continent proud.

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Toronto FC go into break still looking for ways to improve
TFC appears to be moving into the next stage of its re-development program as the team takes the MLS World Cup break riding a five game undefeated streak. Coach Preki’s evangelism has preached the virtues of hard work and unity his players and anyone else who follows this team can repeat without thinking twice. After a slow, shaky start to 2010, the Reds sit in better shape than ever before a third of the way into the season.

Now it is the more subtle influences of the new man’s well practiced coaching style showing results.

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Sober Second Thoughts: Maybe we just need a little break
Late in Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Kansas City TFC Keeper Stefan Frei lined up an important free kick from about 40-yards up field. Every available player for the Reds pushed forward looking for the goal. Frei booted it long, towards a streaking TFC attacker. The attack lunged forward. The ball dropped and…

Went straight to me. No, really. I caught the ball off one bounce while standing in the front row of section 113. I literally was the first person to touch the ball after Frei kicked it.

It was that kind of game for the home team Saturday. Although there wasn’t anything terribly wrong with the Reds game, there wasn’t anything terribly right either. The result, a second straight 0-0 draw at home, left the crowd feeling more than a little let down. This wasn’t like the wide-eyed days of ’07 when a positive could be found out of a clean sheet and single point at home. No, TFC’s all grown up now. It dropped two this weekend; it didn’t gain one.

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The result extends TFC’s unbeaten streak to five games—eight in all competitions—while the Wizards have now gone eight league matches without a win. However, the draw gives KC their first road point of the season.

Arguably, the man of the match was KC goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen, who made three vital saves in the first half to preserve the clean sheet.

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Seattle 3 New England 0
Colorado 1 Columbus 0
Chicago 2 Philadelphia 1
Los Angeles 4 Houston 1
DC United 0 Salt Lake 0
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This was the sixth and final match of the 2010 Nutrilite Canadian Championship. All three teams played four matches each, with Toronto FC finishing first with eight points (2-2-0), Vancouver Whitecaps FC finishing second with four points (0-4-0), and Impact Montréal finishing third with two points (0-2-2). By winning the championship, Toronto FC qualifies for 2010-11 CONCACAF Champions League to face Motagua in the preliminary phase this July.

Both teams fielded very young teams. Toronto FC’s starting XI featured Milos Kocic in goal, Doneil Henry at right back, Ty Harden and Nane Joseph at centre back, Raivis Hscanovics at left back, Sam Cronin, Martin Saric, Julian de Guzman and Gabriel Gala at midfield, and Fuad Ibrahim and Allando Matheson up front. As Toronto had already clinched the championship, assistant coach Leo Percovich served as the team’s head coach for the day with Preki up in the stands.

Vancouver Whitecaps FC, meanwhile, featured Jay Nolly in goal, Wes Knight at right back, Luca Bellisomo and Nelson Akwari at centre back, Zurab Tsiskaridze at left back, Philippe Davies, Jonny Steele, Ricardo Sanchez and Nizar Khalfan at midfield, and Marcus Haber and Cornelius Stewart up front.

Just four minutes into the match, Toronto’s Joseph went down hurt, thus creating the first scoring chance for Vancouver. Vancouver hesitated, however, and was unable to capitalize.

As for Joseph, he was replaced by Maksim Usanov.

Then in the 31st minute, Vancouver got into discipline problem as Marcus Haber was shown a red card for his tackle on Jonathan Steele. The Whitecaps were forced to play a man down for the rest of the match.

Both teams had some chances throughout the match, but never seemingly dangerous at the feet of the young debutans from both teams. In the second half, Nicholas Lindsay had what could have been a good chance, but he fired it wide at the short side. Lindsay was the second of Toronto’s three substitutions during the match, replacing de Guzman in the 46th minute. The third substitution was Matheson off in favour of Dwayne De Rosario in the 66th minute.

As for Vancouver, coach Teitur Thordarsson replaced Sanchez off in favour of Martin Nash (70th minute), Khalfan off in favour of Justin Moose (78′), and Stewart off for Randy Edwini-Bonsu (81′). No combination for either side would produce a goal on this night.

As part of the post-match ceremony, Toronto FC captain Dwayne De Rosario accepted the Voyageurs Cup from Canadian Soccer Association president Dr. Dominic Maestracci. De Rosario also won the George Gross Memorial Trophy as the championship’s most valuable player for a second consecutive season.

The defence doesn’t rest
It’s never just about scoring goals, of course.

As this free-flowing, fast-firing Toronto FC side of oh-ten pushes forward and starts actually creating goals, they’re doing so with a confidence rarely seen in these parts.

But that confidence, I would suggest, is based only slightly on the fact that DeRo is hitting from everywhere, Chad Barrett looks confident and competent, and O’Brian White is playing more and more like a pro.

I think the real reason this crew is literally firing on all cylinders is not because they know they can score – they also know they’ve got help and support at the back.

The back! The defence! Goaltending!

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