When it comes to Major League Soccer’s 31st round, almost every match stood to have something to say about the coming playoffs – either in positioning or in perhaps telling us who would or wouldn’t grab one of these coveted, tightly contested berths.
One match, that is, except the real stinker of the bunch, Toronto FC against D.C. United, two teams with a combined record today (hold your nose, please, and ask any small children to leave the room, because they don’t need to see this) of 8-36-17.
Worse still, United wasn’t even coming into this one with plans to use its top men. (“Top men” being a relative term, of course; United is steaming toward some of those historic lows to which we have referenced previously.)
It was the right call for Ben Olsen, whose team travels to Utah for the mid-week U.S. Open Cup final against Real Salt Lake. If the Black and Red are to salvage anything from this season of epic woe, they’ll do so at the base of the Wasatch Mountains, inside Rio Tinto Stadium. Resting the starters makes perfect sense.
So Olsen rolled out the reserves for Saturday’s contest at BMO Field, where Toronto FC, troubled in their own ways in 2013, still had plenty of horsepower to run away with a 4-1 result. Bill Hamid, James Riley, Dejan Jakovic, Perry Kitchen, Nick DeLeon, Luis Silva, Dwayne De Rosario and Chris Pontius were among the regulars rested by the visitors.
The match was hardly worth watching – and fans once again voiced their displeasure with the bumbling Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment ownership group by staying the heck away, even on a brilliant afternoon in Ontario.
BUT … there were some dandy goals, at least. And there was some small, early measure of validation for TFC and that controversial trade that brought forward Bright Dike to BMO. More is needed, but this is a start, at least, as Dike had the game-winner and a strong all-around match.
The 35th-minute twisting effort from TFC’s Darel Russell is especially worth watching.
Highlights from Saturday at BMO Field:
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