As records go, it’s not much of one. Still, with three straight results on the road – Colorado 0-0, L.A. 2-2 and last night’s 0-0 in New England – Toronto is on the cup of equalizing its record for its longest undefeated streak on the road. From July 1 to July 15, 2007 (nasty little road trip that was, wasn’t it) the mighty Reds went four straight without losing away from BMO Field.
Included in that was the club’s first road win ever on the concrete in Salt Lake City. It was about 200 degrees if memory serves. Danny Dichio scored and it looked like anything was possible.
It turned out that anything was possible, but that not everything is something you should wish for.
Regardless, on June 25 Reds’ fans that like to find the positives in things can look to that road game and hope that the modest record can be equalled. Their opponents that night?
Salt Lake City.
OK, so it’s best to find something else to focus on, but still...
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]The point is that, as I’m said in this space over and over again, this season is all about the small victories. Wednesday night was a small victory. You can nitpick over things, sure – what the hell was Winter doing with the subs? Where did the first half energy go? Scoring would have been nice! – but overall the game was a nice little Wednesday night -- all that was missing was the trip to Bed Bath and Beyond.
Having wallowed in the negativity that is the Canadian National Team all week it was nice to have something positive, even if it was just a little bit positive. Does a point in New England propel TFC back into the playoff race? God, no, but that’s hardly the point.
The point is that players like Doneil Henry stepped up and that the Reds closed it out when the legs got weak and they found a point playing on the road on a short week. Baby steps, you know.
Football is a grind and over the course of a season the pretenders are identified and exposed. However, the beauty of the game is that every 90 minutes offers the chance at redemption, or, at the very least, self-respect. It’s a slow progress, but every so often the evidence is there – maybe things aren’t as hopeless as it feels.
As my colleague Ben Knight would say...Onward!