Jonathan Osorio
Osorio returned to Toronto’s starting lineup in Saturday’s 4-2 win over Houston – it was his tenth start and eleventh appearance of the season.
Paired in the centre of the pitch with Collen Warner, Osorio put in the sort of performance that earned him such rave reviews last season. Part the burgeoning understanding between him and Warner – when to push and when to hold, reading each other’s intentions, and part him finally looking fit after a half-season spent nursing various injuries, this was undoubtedly his best outing of the campaign.
An early miss-touch led to a strong run by Will Bruin - Steven Caldwell was on hand to cut out the low cross, snuffing out any danger – was symptomatic of TFC”s sluggish start, falling behind by two goals after 30 minutes, but it was Osorio who helped turn the tide.
In the 39th minute, Osorio gambled, running deep into the Houston box when Jermain Defoe had drifted wide right before sending a cross through the six-yard box; his risk was rewarded when Tally Hall bobbled the cross, allowing
Seven minutes later, in first half stoppage-time, it was Osorio who collected a loose ball on the edge of the Toronto area and turned up-field, sparking a counterattack. He played up to Defoe in the centre-circle, who in turn found Dominic Oduro streaking down the right. Hall would save his initial effort, but his f
Osorio did not record an assist on the goal, his would come from the winner, when Jackson found Osorio with a deft back-heel from the right touchline. The Canadian charged towards goal before dishing off to
The Toronto, Ontario-native’s night was not done, however, as he nearly won a penalty kick after trying to work his way through a wall of Houston defenders at the top of the box, but the referee waived away his complaints.
Given TFC’s busy stretch of matches and the importance of collecting vital points from their matches in hand before the playoff race begins in earnest, a continued in-form Osorio will be very useful addition.
Doneil Henry
Henry returned to the TFC lineup after a two-match absence, resuming his left-sided centre-back role alongside Steven Caldwell – it was his eighth start and ninth appearance of the season.
As with the rest of his side, Henry looked a little shaky through the opening half-hour, battling with Houston’s physical and quick centre-forward tandem of Giles Barnes and Will Bruin, conceding an early foul when drawn out wide by Barnes, leading to the first of many Brad Davis set-pieces.
With Houston looking to stretch the play by playing long balls into the spaces behind the TFC full-backs for their forward to chase, Henry was required to cover a lot of ground, getting into a foot-race with Barnes on one play – the forward clipped his heels, conceding a foul, and later rising up high to head a dangerous cross away from Bruin on another occasion.
Such movement caused a lot of trouble for Toronto, leading to the game’s opening goal in the 13th minute, when Barnes drove towards goal, moving from right to left, before finding Davis unmarked at the back-post.
Houston would add a second goal seventeen minutes later, a goal that served to wake up a sluggish Toronto, who would go on to score four unanswered goals to win the match.
Going forward Henry was a factor, nearly picking out Jermain Defoe with a long pass, only for the forward to have drifted offside and fighting to get on the end of a corner kick, wrestling past David Horst to send a right-footer over the bar.
That is not to say that the Dynamo did not continue to prod the TFC defense, but that Henry and Co. dealt with those threats much better throughout the rest of the match, barely allowing Houston a sniff, aside from that one chance that Barnes whisked wide of the far-post after Caldwell went down injured in a foot-race.
With Caldwell leaving the field, the Brampton, Ontario-native assumed the captain’s armband and played up to that task through the final twenty minutes, most notably making a desperate sliding intervention, safely turning a potentially troublesome Ricardo Clark cross away from goal and out for a corner.
Patrice Bernier
Bernier started his fifth-straight match for Montreal at home to Kansas City, who swept the season series with a 1-2 win – it was his eleventh start and sixteenth appearance of the season.
Tasked as the sole defensive midfielder, playing slightly behind Felipe, who did well to provide cover at times, Bernier was his usual solid self, after settling down from the opening KC goal on a long throw from Matt Besler, met by Dom Dwyer at the near-post inside of four minutes.
Bernier played a crucial role in Montreal equalizing in the 28th minute, collecting a throw-in from Kryzsztof Krol on the left, turning in field and finding the streaking run of Justin Mapp down the right-side of the box. Mapp knocked the ball down and back towards
With the match wearing on and Montreal holding Sporting at bay for the next hour of play, Bernier was constantly looking to spring attacks from his deep-lying playmaker’s position – once picking out Mapp on a break that led to a Jack McInerney chance and then picking out the striker himself with a long ball, though McInerney shot wide.
There were segments of this match where Montreal looked more like the team that made the playoffs last season, testing the opponent with prodding counterattacks, largely initiated by Bernier’s ball movement.
All their hard work was for naught, when KC capitalized on a momentary lapse in the defenses to punish Montreal’s hesitancy, finding the winning goal in the penultimate minute of regular time.
CJ Sapong poked loose a ball that should have been dealt with by either Heath Pearce or Troy Perkins, leading to Dwyer’s 89th minute winner – it was the second-straight match were a moment of indecision proved costly late in a match.
Post-match, the Brossard, Quebec-native stressed the need to take the positives from the strong performance, “We have to keep our heads high, because we can’t say they outplayed us, controlled and could have won 3-0. The game could have gone either way. A tie would have been ideal. We have to keep going, keep our heads high and maintain that standard of performance. But we have to stay alert 95, 96, 97 minutes in.”
Noting the importance of collecting points at this stage in the season, “We need to finish these games off or at least hold onto the draw because for us every point is crucial.”
Before admitting, “This is a tough loss to swallow. We give up a gift goal and we hurt ourselves. A game like today where we came back after going down early hurts even more. It’s those little mistakes that keep us from winning or earning points that we deserve.”
Prior to the match, Bernier was in touch with new Montreal Alouettes wide receiver, Chad Johnson, formerly known as ‘Ochocinco’, who was his guest at Saturday’s match.
Will Johnson
Johnson made his nineteenth-straight league start for Portland in their 2-0 loss in Seattle on Sunday, continuing his streak of having started every match this season, though he did begin their midweek US Open Cup match on the bench before entering in the 81st minute – Portland lost to Seattle then as well, 3-1 at Starfire, the Sounders’ training complex.
Paired with Jack Jewsbury at the base of the midfield, Johnson was tasked with shoring up Portland’s defense, rarely venturing forward throughout a hard-fought first half. With heavy legs on both sides, neither could find much purchase through the first 45, cancelling out each other’s efforts.
Even when he was by-passed, as when Clint Dempsey and Marco Pappa combined to move around him, Johnson refused to concede, recovering back to poke the ball off the boot of Dempsey towards his keeper – Seattle would howl for a back-pass, but a call was not forthcoming, nor likely warranted.
He would rack up seven recoveries, four tackles, three clearances, and an interception.
Johnson was essential to a combative midfield duel, putting in a big tackle on Ossie Alonso, stripping him of the ball through the early goings – no prisoners were to be taken; Alonso returned the favour in the 30th minute, catching the Portland midfielder late with a biting tackle on the ankle of his standing leg, which drew the first yellow card of the match and a crowd – it was a nasty one.
The Toronto-born midfielder regularly stood over any dead-ball chances that came Portland’s way, seeing one free-kick routine, taken low and short in attempt to catch Seattle napping, fizzle out, and sending a later effort, straight at Stefan Frei.
The Sounders went ahead in the 71st minute through Dempsey, after a goalmouth scramble was partially cleared to Gonzalo Pineda, who picked out his teammate near the right-post. Johnson was inches away from clearing the initial free-kick that led to the scramble and was then a little slow to clear his lines, pushing forward after covering the left-post,
Had Johnson been covering the other post and been closer to Dempsey, perhaps the match would have turned out differently – such small margins in tight matches.
Despite tired legs from the midweek exploits and the uphill battle of trailing away from home, Johnson refused to give in, pushing forward with late runs, trying to find the space for an equalizer – part of the reason that Seattle were able to break forward on the counter, sealing the result with a second goal in the 86th minute.
After the match, he commented on the turning point in the second half, ““We had heavy legs from Wednesday obviously. They brought in Obafemi Martins—good player, I thought he changed the game. It really gave us a lot of problems when him and Dempsey went up top. It was a tough matchup, so we did our best to contain them, but eventually they broke us down.”
Making special note of Martins’ threat, “It was just his movement. When it was just Dempsey coming back in the midfield, we could track him. Jack [Jewsbury] and I did a really good job of that for 60-70 minutes, but once they brought in Martins and there were two of them floating back in there, we were outnumbered and they were able to get some combinations off and get more looks than they were throughout the first 60 minutes. But that’s what you would expect from guys of that quality coming in the game.”
Before looking with a critical eye at their own failings – and praising Seattle, but only a little, “I think we were covered well enough, but they put us under a lot of pressure. And obviously going forward, we’re a better attacking team than we showed tonight. We were quite poor going forward. We didn’t create a whole lot, and that’s also credit to them. They’re a very, very good team, and they’re first place for a reason. It’s a combination of factors. There’s no one thing that you can blame tonight on. We’ve just got to move on quickly.”
Issey Nakajima-Farran
Nakajima-Farran entered Montreal’s match in the 67th minute, replacing Andres Romero with the match tied – it was his fifth appearance (second from the bench) for Montreal and his tenth in MLS.
On the left-side of midfield, the Calgary, Alberta-native caused trouble on the break for Kansas City, once nearly breaking in from a Jack McInerney touch, only for Matt Besler to cut out the chance, before cutting inside on right-back Igor Juliao to lay Gorka Larrea down the left-side of the area – his cross for McInerney was headed away.
The Rest
Nana Attakora, Russell Teibert, Rob Friend, Karl Ouimette, Ashtone Morgan, Dwayne De Rosario, and Kyle Bekker were unused substitutes for their respective sides (DC, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Montreal, and Toronto, times three).
All videos and quotes courtesy of MLSsoccer.com
Each week James takes a look at the contributions of Canadians in the league and the league as a whole.
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