Nuke Soccer

There was no mystery about what the Puerto Rico Islanders were going to bring to BMO Field in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League qualifying tie. Toronto FC interim head coach Chris Cummins predicted it earlier in the week; the tough-defending Islanders (with five shutouts in their previous six games) would make defending the priority in the away leg, and try to steal a goal whenever they had a chance.

The opposition’s predictable game plan made TFC’s 1-0 loss to Puerto Rico on Wednesday all the more frustrating for the coach. The Reds accumulated 17 shots, but couldn’t finish any of their chances. Meanwhile, the Islanders converted one of their rare opportunities in the second half to leave Toronto with a vital away goal.

“We said there would be three things in the game,” Cummins said. “Be aware of the counterattack, that’s how they play. I thought the young kid, [TFC defender Emmanuel] Gomez, went in there and was a different class. I thought he was the best player on the pitch. So we dealt with the counterattack. We also said they’d be doing set pieces … we even told them the set piece that they were going to do, and they scored off it. It’s criminal. The third thing we said was when you get your chances, you have to take your chances, and we haven’t done that.”

“So that’s three things in the game and we’ve done one of them, through a young kid. You can’t be at home and take that many chances … I think [our] ‘keeper had one save to make. It’s just disappointing.”

Full Story

In The Game
Game In 6 Minutes
Cummins Speaks
O’Brien White Has His Say