May 18, 2018 MLS Toronto FC--Toronto FC vs Orlando City SC (by Rocket Robin)

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Result and details of the Friday May 18, 2018 MLS game between Toronto FC and Orlando City SC
played at BMO Field in Toronto at 8:00PM.

62 min...TFC Jay Chapman GOAL...OC goalie Joe Benkik receives backpass from left and punts ball upfield from 7 yards. TFC Gregory van der Wiel heads ball at centerline on left down and forward to TFC Ryan Telfer at 45 yard line on left who turns and rolls cetnering pass to TFC Michael Bradley. Bradley rolls ball foward where OC Oriel Rosell does splits at 33 yard line in middle and ball deflects to TFC Victor Vazquez to pick up loose ball at 28 yards in midle and roll forward to charging TFC Tosaint Ricketts at 15 yard line eluding sliding OC Lamine Sane before he gets to it and Ricketts aligned with left post takes shot past sliding goalie at 12 yards and ball hits right post. The ball deflects straight off post and Chapman cuts across from center to right post and one-touches from 15 yards a roller past OC Mohamed El-Munir at 8 yards and between legs of Ricketts at 7 yards into middle of open net. 72 min...OC Cristian Higuita GOAL...OC Mohamed El-Munir dribbles up left from 35 yard line and splits defenders at 22 yard line. It looks like he has pushed ball too far forward but he slides forward at 7 yard line to stop ball and TFC Chris Mavinga tumles over him. El-Munir gets up first and backheels ball to elude TFC Auro and cross to cetner where OC Christ Mueller rushes over heads ball downwards at 12 yards as he's being dragged down. OC Jusue Colman gets to ball on left at 10 yard line and rolls ball to right where Higuita rushes over from cetner to steps in front of OC Sacha Kljestan and blast low 18 yarder while in alignment with right post forward and just inside post past flying TFC goalie Alex Bono. 86 min...TFC Ryan Telfer GOAL...TFC Victor Vazquez at 22 yards in middle rolls pass to TFC Auro on right but it's behind him and he runs right to retrive it near right sideline at 5 yard line. He now eludes lunging OC Mohamed El-Munir now a half step behind him. On the edge of the 18 yard box after surving bump he slides and crosses high over players in box and Telfer steps forward at 12 yards on left andan blasts midair shot low to left side of net and diving goalie gets a hand to it at near post at 1 yard lilne but balll deflects over him into left corner of net. Final Score:....Toronto FC....2....Orlando City SC......1..... Attendance was announced as 28009 on this mild evening but a windbreaker was required as the temperature dropped after the sun went down. The PA announcer after the game said “TFC would like to thank the fans and the squirrel”. A black squirrel had run onto the field after the Telfer goal. Fans in my section were paying more attention to the squirrel in the south end (Orlando's end) than the wild action in the TFC box where Bradley than Vazquez made a key two part headed clearance to relieve the pressure of OC Kljestan's freekick cross from 22 yards on the left. Man of the Match (who is always a TFC player) was announced as Jay Chapman who scored the all important first goal. I wonder if they pick the star in the 80th minute so they can get the sponsor cued up. The media outlets and even the team twitter named Ryan Telfer as the MOTM. He scored the late goal and played strong up the left wing the entire game including sending in crosses and drawing a freekick on the edge of the box. Chapman was subbed off at 63 minutes while still celebrating his goal. Telfer's goal was justice for a TFC goal by Ricketts at 70 minutes that was disallowed on a delayed offside call. At least the original signal was confusing as it appeared the referee's assistant was starting to run downfield but stopped even with the edge of the box. Vazquez took a cornerkick from the left that was over to Bradley in the center who teed up a 22 yard shot up the middle and bounced it left but it hit the midsection of Marky Delgado at 10 yards and OC Lamine Sane missed a clearance whiff and Ricketts behind him shot in the 8 yarder but he was one of three players offside. Less than 2 minutes later Orlando scored the tying goal. The first half had few scoring chances for either team. I felt it was a good strategy to start Jordan Hamilton at forward (often alone) and play him for an hour. Ricketts is used to coming in as a sub when the opponent's defence is tiring. His turn and fire goal called back for offside would have just about put the game away much earlier. Alex Bono made one crucial save at 67 minutes when he caught a header just under the bar sent into the box from the left by Chris Mueller that had Justin Meram head forward from 10 yards. Meram played for Columbus Crew until this season. Michael Bradley was back to playing defensive midfielder now that Mavinga and Eriq Zavaleta were back in the starting lineup but he was still back in deepest defence to help out like at 61 minutes where he reached back with his foot to hook the ball away in the middle of the box. TFC then ran upfield and scored their first goal within a minute. Once again TFC had enough Canadians in the lineup and actually playing to make me happy. With starters Jonathan Osorio, Chapman, Hamilton, and Telfer and eventually bringing on Ricketts (to replace Hamilton) and Liam Fraser (in injury time). Both TFC goals were scored by Canadians but I am sure they'll be relegated to the bench when the injured Americans and suspended Italian return to the lineup. Orlando had Canadian Will Johnson now playing as a defender who played for TFC for the 2016 season. Telfer played against him and got quite a few crosses past him and drew a Yellow card for Johnson tripping him up at 83 minutes which drew referee Allen Chapman's only card of the game. Richie Laryea is also from the Toronto area and came on as a sub at 82 minutes and almost had an assist and was a step behind a good goal chance. He played for the same academy (Sigma FC) as former OC star Cyle Larin who played for Orlando up to last year before leaving for Besiktas in Turkey. Sacha Kljestan was with New York Red Bulls last year and pushed huge Jozy Altidore over earning both players a Red card at halftime of the playoff game last year in Toronto. Kljestan played well and I was surprised that he still played 90 minutes...he is younger than I thought. Early arriving fans to tonight's game were given a “Toronto FC Official Yearbook 2018”. It was 64 pages like their old game programs but larger in size and with a lot less ads. It outlined current players and the progress of the team which won the MLS Cup. The only thing I didn't like is the five players posing on the cover, none were Canadians. Even their fridge magnets over the years featured one Canadian. Orlando had a six game winning streak ended last Sunday with a 2-1 home loss against Atlanta. There'd been complaints that Orlando had built this win streak with an easy schedule with Atlanta being their first tough challenge. Dom Dwyer who is tied for third in the MLS with six goals scored so far this season for Orlando did not make the trip because of an injury. Yoshimar Yotun who had five Yellow cards and is tied for the league lead missed the game because of Yellow card accumulation. TFC had lost their last two games—home against Seattle 2-1 and away in New England 3-2. Sebastian Giovinco missed tonight's game because of an injury time face grab on a Revs player earning him a Red card. The win improves TFC's record to 3 wins, 6 losses, and 1 tie for 10 points. The result moves them ahead of Montreal into ninth place for now as the first game of the weekend. TFC II of the USL was scheduled to play tomorrow evening at BMO Field until earlier this week when their game was suddenly rescheduled to Charlotte North Carolina to play the Charlotte Independence. The owners don't want the players to stomp up the field before next Friday's MLS game against FC Dallas. The day after that TFC II are scheduled to play against Tampa Bay and that game has not been rescheduled...yet! The grounds crew has the World Cup break to restore the field. One hour after the game I had just got to Union Station less than 1/4 of the way home. I finally got to the fare machine on board the streetcar after the people got off and bought my fare when the streetcar started back to the CNE grounds. I'm counting on it being easier to get to York University next season to watch 'York 9' of the Canadian Premier League. Ryan Telfer was a student at York University before being recruited to TFC II. Rocket Robin robing@eol.ca twitter @RocketRobin01

stats from MLSsoccer.com
Match Information

Goals and Assists        
63'  TFC   Jay Chapman
73'  ORL   Cristian Higuita              Assisted By: Josué Colman, Chris Mueller          
87'  TFC   Ryan Telfer                   Assisted By: Auro            

Disciplinary         
84'  ORL   Will Johnson                  Reason: Unsporting Behavior            

Lineup

Toronto FC
 7 F Víctor Vázquez    
22 F Jordan Hamilton       (60')         
25 G Alexander Bono
96 D Auro   
15 D Eriq Zavaleta
23 D Chris Mavinga
 9 D Gregory van der Wiel
14 M Jay Chapman           (64')
 4 M Michael Bradley
21 M Jonathan Osorio       (90'+4')
54 M Ryan Telfer

Bench
 1 G Clint Irwin
12 D Jason Hernandez
18 M Marco Delgado          (64')
 8 M Ager Aketxe
27 M Liam Fraser            (90'+4')
88 M Mariano Miño
87 F Tosaint Ricketts       (60')

Manager  Greg Vanne

Orlando City SC
29 F Stéfano Pinho          (64')
 1 G Joe Bendik
 4 D Will Johnson     
22 D Lamine Sané
 3 D Amro Tarek
13 D Mohamed El-Munir
20 M Oriol Rosell            (89')
 7 M Cristian Higuita
17 M Chris Mueller           (83')
16 M Sacha Kljestan
 9 M Justin Meram

Bench
36 G Earl Edwards Jr.
28 D Chris Schuler
27 D RJ Allen
 5 M Dillon Powers           (89')
 8 M Tony Rocha
 6 M Richie Laryea           (83')
10 F Josué Colman            (64')

Manager  Jason Kreis    

Officials
Referee                  Allen Chapman
Assistant Referee        Nick Uranga
Assistant Referee        Andrew Bigelow
Fourth Official          Fotis Bazakos
Video Assistant Referee  Silviu Petrescu

Match Information
MLS at BMO Field
Toronto, ON
Attendance 28009
Weather Clear

Team Statistics

TFC                            ORL
 14    Shots                    10       
  5    Shots on Target           5         
  4    Shots off Target          4       
  5    Blocked Shots             1       
  7    Corners                   3        
 19    Crosses                   7       
  3    Offsides                  0        
  7    Fouls                     5       
  0    Yellow Cards              1       
  0    Red Cards                 0     
513    Total Passes            559      
 84 %  Passing Accuracy         85 %     
 48.5 % Possession              51.5 %     
 51    Duels Won                48      
 15    Tackles Won              13     
  4    Saves                     3       
 17    Clearances               20

Toronto FC starters