SIMMONS: Missed call, fluke goal, broken hearts in TFC championship defeat

SEATTLE — Justin Morrow sat on a stool in the dressing room, away from the lockers, looking down, his arms crossed, barely moving.

He tried to speak, but at first he could only whisper. He tried to look up, make eye contact. But it was all too soon in the near silence of the Toronto FC locker room.

“I didn’t see it,” said Morrow. “It went off my leg, hit me on the shin. It’s never happened to be before, ever … never had an own goal. This is hard. Really hard. Hard way to lose.”

The final score in the MLS Cup was Seattle Sounders 3, Toronto FC 1, but really the first goal in the championship game at a crazed, sold-out and loud CenturyLink Field was just about everything.

“We played a great game for about 70 minutes,” said Chris Mavinga. “But you know, it’s not a 70-minute game.”

The winning goal, credited to Kelvin Leerdam, was the first goal and it was then that the Reds began to unfold. The goal came in the 57th minute. It came when Toronto had been controlling the pace of the game, the style, just about everything right but scoring, almost quieting the crowd with its precise execution.

Then came the bad bounce. “Bad luck,” Mavinga called it. “You get a goal like that and it’s luck. That’s all it is.”

But that wasn’t all it is. The bad luck, the bad bounce, came after the FC players thought a foul should have been called. Jonathan Osorio had the ball. The Toronto players — especially captain Michael Bradley and best player Alejandro Pozuelo — vehemently believe Osorio was fouled. The foul was never called.

The ball ended up on the right side to Leerdam, whose harmless shot normally would have presented no trouble for FC goalkeeper Quentin Westberg, had it been on goal at all. Except that it deflected off Morrow’s shin.

And it was 1-0 and Toronto FC and Morrow had their Steve Smith title game moment.

“It changed the whole game,” said Osorio. “Everyone here knows what should have been called. It’s a crucial play. The official said I ran into (Christian) Rodan. That was the explanation given.

“That hurts. That ends up being a big play in the game.”

Morrow has known this kind of difficulty before at the championship-game level. In 2016, when Toronto FC lost the MLS Cup to these same Seattle Sounders at BMO Field, it was Morrow who missed on a penalty-kick attempt that prevented the Reds from keeping the game even. Toronto was the better team in 2016, but didn’t get the championship win. For almost 57 minutes, they were the better team on Sunday afternoon. And then one goal tilted the field here and they never quite recovered.

“It hurts bad right now,” said Morrow. “I thought we played really well. I thought we really battled. This hurts really bad right now, but I’m so proud of this group of guys.” As he said that his voice began to crack. He had to stop.

“This shows what kind of team we are,” said Morrow. “What kind of players and people we are.”

Bradley was playing his 200th game for Toronto on Sunday and he played it to the highest level. If this was his last game for TFC, the result was unfortunate, the leadership and strength of the captain evident. The result hurt. There is nothing in sports that stings the way losing a championship game stings. It stings even more when you are right there, when you’re controlling the pace, when your game plan is working, when you can almost feel victory. And then, almost in a matter of seconds, it’s over. And the score makes it look like it was one-sided when it wasn’t.

“Finals are tight,” said Bradley. “Both teams step on the field with everything to play for and concentration is at the absolute highest level … You know you’re going to need a little bit of a break, a bounce, a deflection, something. Obviously, they got that today. And they were able to use that to get the second goal.”

Jozy Altidore, who surprisingly got to play briefly in the second half, scored Toronto’s only goal after the 90-minute mark, with TFC down 3-0 at that point. He wasn’t as philosophical as Bradley about the defeat.

“We know the standard of MLS refereeing is next to horrible,” said the soon-to-be fined Altidore. He was talking about the first goal. The game changing goal.

“It’s a deflection,” he said. “A lucky deflection, unlikely for J-Mo.”

“Oso came away with the ball,” said Bradley. “And for me, it’s a foul. That’s football. Those things go both ways. A play that a lot of us on the field thought was a foul, wasn’t called.

“Right now, the feeling is not a positive one. When you lose a final like that, there’s no solace, no consolation prize. That part hurts. That part will always be there.”

“At the end of the day, you have to score to win the game,” said coach Greg Vanney, who was less emotional, more pragmatic in defeat.

They scored when it was already over, when it didn’t matter, when the championship had already been lost. And half an hour later, after the celebrations on the field, Justin Morrow sat alone away from his locker, silent and crushed. The season over. Another championship opportunity gone.

Source: Torontosun.com

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