By: Michael Crampton
Mired in a 13 game winless run in MLS, in the same season that began with a separate 9 game losing streak, any idea of Toronto FC defeating Santos Laguna in Torreon, Mexico Wednesday night seems more or less impossible. Add to that the need for the Reds to score a minimum of three goals to actually have any hope of advancing on to the quarterfinal stage of the CONCACAF Champions League and it’s easy to see why so many Toronto supporters have seemingly either forgotten that the team is still alive in the tournament or written off their chances entirely. In truth, neither position seems particularly unreasonable.
To be fair to the fans, even the club themselves seems to be doing the minimum necessary to promote the game. Serious participation in the CCL was, until very recently, a major point of pride for Toronto FC. Unfortunately, yearly progression in continental play, from winning the Canadian Championship in 2009 through participation in the CCL group stage in 2010 to a Cinderella run to last season’s semi-final, has been accompanied by three seasons of regression in the league. The dissonance of those two experiences has made it very difficult for the club to point to legitimate Champions League success without coming across as, at best, cynically exploiting the CCL as a distraction from their failures in MLS play.
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In another year, even married to simple relevance if not outright success in the league, going into the last game of the group stage needing a multiple goal win might not be seen as a bad return in continental play. CD Aguila competes with FC Edmonton and Real Esteli as the weakest team Toronto FC has ever faced but, to a neutral observer simply looking at the standings, TFC’s 6 points and +5 goal differential ranks them among the more successful sides in the tournament so far.
Even in the home loss to Santos Laguna the Reds managed to hang around for most of the match and entertained hopes of an unlikely victory until eventually conceding two late goals as Santos increased the tempo of the match in the late stages. Those goals were likely decisive and leave TFC in the virtually impossible situation they find themselves but, realistically, even a draw or narrow win at home would have left Toronto with a mountain to climb.
Let’s be clear: as soon as they were drawn against Santos Laguna, the task facing TFC became monumental and the Reds would quite literally need to make history to advance further in the 2012-13 edition of the tournament. It is any easy fact to forget, so it bears repeating: since the Champions League replaced the old Champions’ Cup in 2008 no non-Mexican team has ever eliminated a Mexican opponent and no Mexican side has ever failed to advance to the knockout stage.
This season, with the groups featuring Chivas de Guadalajara and Tigres far from decided in addition to TFC’s, it’s quite possible that the streak may be broken. In that sense the new format, that requires teams to win their three team group rather than finish first or second in a four team group, has worked as it was intended and forced the Mexican sides to take the group stage seriously. However, unless one of Xelajú, Alajuelense, or Toronto FC can actually pull off the result they need in Mexico the idea of a Mexican team being punished for a slip-up remains purely hypothetical.
Obviously, of the groups still to be decided, Toronto FC’s is the least likely to see the necessary result. Based on past performances of MLS teams in Torreon, TFC included, the final whistle might come as a relief if Santos Laguna decide to heap on the misery, impress their home fans, and really take the game to Toronto. That could result in a nightmare of Canadian men’s national team proportions. If Toronto manages to score an early goal or two Santos’ remarkable propensity for second half comebacks would likely prevent them from being rattled; Santos is a team that has confidence in their ability to score when they need to and no reason to not believe that they can.
That’s the reality Toronto FC faces: one last meaningful game at the end of a mostly miserable season needing a multiple goal victory against a team that should beat them easily. Nothing is expected of TFC and, really, nothing should be.