September 15, 2018 MLS Toronto FC--Toronto FC vs Los Angeles Galaxy (by Rocket Robin)

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Result and details of the Saturday September 15, 2018 MLS game between Toronto FC and Los Angeles Galaxy played at BMO Field in Toronto at 7:30PM. 4 min...TFC Victor Vazquez GOAL...TFC Jozy Altidore in middle at 35 yard line one-touches rolling pass straight across to find TFC Gregory van der Wiel on right near sideline. van der Wiel runs forward to 25 yard line and sends cross into box where Vazquez runs forward and ducks his head at 7 yards even with right post and bounces header into left corner of net on bounce with goalie David Bingham guarding middle of net. 15 min...TFC Jozy Altidore GOAL...TFC Marky Delgado on left edge of box turns and rolls pass back to TFC Justin Morrow on edge of box near top left of box and he rolls cross over to Altidore even with right post whose first touch is into sliding LAG Ashley Cole at 15 yards. Ball rebounds to 22 yards for TFC Jonathan Osorio who passes forward and to slight right where Altidore is now at 15 yards and he steps forward and shoots low 12 yarder under sliding Cole and into left corner of net past diving goalie. 35 min...TFC Sebastian Giovinco GOAL...TFC Gregory van der Wiel on run to 40 yard line near right sideline and centers pass to Giovinco at 35 yard line and he one-touches pass forward down right for TFC Jozy Altidore at 22 yards but he tangles with defender and they both fall over. Giovinco who has followed up the run regains ball at 15 yard line on right between two retreating defenders and he shoots 12 yarder past goalie who'd come out to 6 yards to cut down angle and ball flies into low left side of net. 42 min...LAG Zlatan Ibrahimovic GOAL...LAG Jonathan dos Santos at 35 yards chips ball down middle and Ibrahimovic even with right post and jabs leg out to karate kick ball from 10 yards that banks off inside of right post past goalie Alex Bono. 53 min...LAG Ola Kamara GOAL...LAG Jonathan dos Santos 35 yard freekick from right has charging Kamara jump and head in 12 yarder down middle into right side of net past flying goalie. 57 min...LAG Rolf Feltscher GOAL...LAG Ashley Cole crosses from 20 yards on left near edge of box and TFC Justin Morrow charges forward to try for header and misses and Feltscher just behind him heads in 10 yarder from right into left corner of net over flying goalie. 74 min...TFC Jonathan Osorio GOAL...TFC Sebastian Giovinco at 33 yards in middle passes forward and to right for TFC Marky Delgado who crosses from 10 yard line on right edge of box and Osorio flies forward between two defenders and heads 6 yarder into right side of net. 93 min...TFC Jay Chapman GOAL...TFC Sebastian Giovinco receives centering pass from left and shoots low 18 yard shot up the middle and goalie dives to right to save but big rebound and defender rolls out partial clearance from 8 yards and Chapman blasts 22 yarder up middle into bottom left wide of net under diving goalie. Final Score:...Toronto FC.......5.....Los Angeles Galaxy........3........ Attendance was announced as 30,799 people which is a sellout. The place was slow to fill up but I will agree with their numbers. The two seats in the row below me finally filled up with some strangers I didn't know at the 55 minute mark. Is it worth even coming? BMO Field held a tennis event this afternoon as I saw a lot of fans leaving the grounds before our game. We had surprisingly warm weather for this time of year while in the Carolinas are having hurricanes and flooding. Man of the Match (who is always a TFC player) I didn't hear announced but I'd guess it was Jonathan Osorio as TSN Kristian Jack was talking to him although that could have been for the TSN network. Canadians scored the winning goal and the insurance goal but I was not happy. Again for this game Jonathan Osorio was the only Canadian starter and Jay Chapman came in at 79 minutes. Three other Canadians remained on the bench. The new CPL league will change that with six Canadians on the field at all times. The Galaxy to me looked rough with some senseless Yellow cards maybe from a sense of frustration as their season is slipping away too. Still of the ten Yellow cards, five were to each team. Now I can say that I saw Zlatan Ibrahimovitch play in the twilight of his career and score too. I didn't realize until reading it later that was his 500th career goal for club and country. It's like he got his goal without turning around--just putting his leg out like some kind of karate kick. I also read later that he has a black belt in taekwondo. He received one of the biggest cheers of the night during the intros where most visiting players are met with "Who?" by the home crowd. There were a good collection of his personalized jerseys besides his new Los Angelese Galaxy obviously bought by fans during the last year. There were some with Manchester United (2016-2018), Paris St Germaine (2012-2016), AC Milan (2011-2012), and Barcelona (2009-2011). Before that he also played for Malmo FF (1999-2001), Juventus (2004-2006), and Inter Milan (2006-2009). Thanks wikipedia! He was born in Sweden and played internationally for them although they deemed him too old to play in this summer's World Cup. Only Messi and Ronaldo have a scored more goals on the player's active list. Zlatan is currently age 36. Jozy Altidore was receiving treatment during the warm-ups by a therapist right on the field after he went down. I didn't think he'd last the game. If TFC had have held on to their 3-0 lead longer I believe he would have been subbed out 20 minutes earlier. Sebastian Giovinco's freekicks and corners were just average tonight with no highlite reel chances. Michael Bradley played wll as a defender and onlyk moved up to the midfield with maybe 20 minutes left. I can't see him playing defender on his $6.5 million contract as many good defenders can be found for a lot less money than that. I think the rest of the league would have loved a tie result because it would have just about eliminated both teams as only wins will help them. TFC's playoff chances rose by 0.9% for winning but results in other games took some of this increase back off. Montreal who holds the last playoff spot won 3-0 against NYCFC and knocks TFC down 0.3% so TFC's chances of a playoff spot have a net increase to 1.2%. Sunday's result had DC United only getting a tie and that improves TFC's chances to 1.3%. TFC's next league game is on the road next Saturday against New York Red Bulls. It's another 'must win' game but before that they play Wednesday night right here in the inaugural Campeones Cup between the 2017 Champions of the MLS (them) vs the Mexican League Champions Tigres UANL. TFC split their series against Tigres but won on the away goal rule this spring to advance in CCL league play. I wonder if next year the game will be held in Mexico or will it always be in the United States/Canada? I don't expect to see a lot of TFC II player's help as they play both weekends including tomorrow against first place FC Cincinnati who are MLS bound next season. TFC II have no chance of making the USL playoffs. I also think there's a rule for 'exhibition' games that first teamers are supposed to play at least 45 minutes. Media types are dreading this mid-week fixture because of TFC's poor league results this season. Today's cardboard ticket was titled 'MLS Best XI' and had Victor Vazquez as the centerpiece of a picture of three TFC stars. Vazquez did play the first 65 minutes tonight. Rocket Robin robing@eol.ca twitter @RocketRobin01

stats from MLSsoccer.com
Match Information

Goals and Assists
 5'    TFC  Víctor Vázquez             Assisted By: Gregory van der Wiel
16'    TFC  Jozy Altidore              Assisted By: Jonathan Osorio
36'    TFC  Sebastian Giovinco         Assisted By: Gregory van der Wiel
43'    LAG  Zlatan Ibrahimovic         Assisted By: Jonathan dos Santos
54'    LAG  Ola Kamara                 Assisted By: Jonathan dos Santos
58'    LAG  Rolf Feltscher             Assisted By: Ashley Cole
75'    TFC  Jonathan Osorio            Assisted By: Marco Delgado
90'+4' TFC  Jay Chapman   

Disciplinary
24'    LAG  Jørgen Skjelvik            Reason: Unsporting Behavior
28'    TFC  Jonathan Osorio            Reason: Unsporting Behavior
53'    TFC  Nick Hagglund              Reason: Unsporting Behavior
58'    TFC  Justin Morrow              Reason: Not visible
68'    LAG  Dave Romney                Reason: Unsporting Behavior
79'    TFC  Jozy Altidore              Reason: Unsporting Behavior
82'    TFC  Zlatan Ibrahimovic         Reason: Unsporting Behavior
86'    LAG  Rolf Feltscher             Reason: Unsporting Behavior
90'    LAG  Jonathan dos Santos        Reason: Argument
90'+3' LAG  Emmanuel Boateng           Reason: Unsporting Behavior

Lineup
Toronto FC
10 F Sebastian Giovinco
17 F Jozy Altidore           (80')
 7 F Víctor Vázquez          (66')
25 G Alexander Bono
 9 D Gregory van der Wiel
15 D Eriq Zavaleta
 6 D Nick Hagglund
 2 D Justin Morrow
18 M Marco Delgado
 4 M Michael Bradley
21 M Jonathan Osorio

Bench
 1 G Clint Irwin
12 D Jason Hernandez
 5 D Ashtone Morgan
87 F Tosaint Ricketts
14 F Jay Chapman              (80')
16 F Lucas Janson             (66')
54   Ryan Telfer

Manager  Greg Vanney

LA Galaxy
 7 F Romain Alessandrini
 9 F Zlatan Ibrahimovic
11 F Ola Kamara
 1 G David Bingham
25 D Rolf Feltscher
 4 D Dave Romney
16 D Jørgen Skjelvik            (HT)
 3 D Ashley Cole
 8 M Jonathan dos Santos
 2 M Perry Kitchen              (78')
38 M Bradford Jamieson          (69')

Bench
41 G Justin vom Steeg
28 D Michael Ciani              (HT)
 6 M Baggio Husidic             (69')
14 M Servando Carrasco
24 M Emmanuel Boateng           (78')
15 F Ariel Lassiter
19   Chris Pontius

Manager  Dominic Kinnear

Officials
Referee                  Nima Saghafi
Assistant Referee        Jason White
Assistant Referee        Andrew Bigelow
Fourth Official          Silviu Petrescu
Video Assistant Referee  Guido Gonzalez Jr.

Match Information
MLS at BMO Field
Toronto, ON
Attendance 30799
Weather Clear

Team Statistics

TFC                              LAG   
 17    Shots                      10    
  8    Shots on Target             6       
  5    Shots off Target            3   
  4    Blocked Shots               1      
  5    Corners                     3     
 12    Crosses                    22     
  3    Offsides                    4       
 10    Fouls                      15       
  4    Yellow Cards                6
  0    Red Cards                   0        
488    Total Passes              446     
 86 %  Passing Accuracy           83 %     
 51.8 % Possession                48.2 %      
 22    Duels Won                  25       
  2    Tackles Won                 4        
  3    Saves                       3     
 13    Clearances                 14

Toronto FC starters