Toronto FC forward Jozy Altidore celebrates at the final whistle as his late goal sealed a 3-2 win over the New England Revolution in MLS soccer action in Toronto on Sunday, March 17, 2019.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
There was an encouraging sign from Toronto FC’s home-opener Sunday night – the kids are all right.
With designated player Sebastian Giovinco leaving the Major League Soccer team in a messy divorce and Jozy Altidore still easing his way back from off-season ankle surgery, there was the question of where the scoring would come from this season.
Well, a trio of youngsters answered that, with Altidore himself providing the punctuation with the winning goal in a 3-2 decision over the New England Revolution.
Altidore entered the game in the 67th minute to a welcoming roar from the crowd of 23,271 at BMO Field. He scored the big goal, as he so often does, 13 minutes later.
“He has a knack for those moments, doesn’t he?” said TFC head coach Greg Vanney.
Ayo Akinola, 19, scored his first MLS goal for TFC in the 14th minute of his first league start and Jordan Hamilton celebrated his 23rd birthday with a goal in the 45th minute. Those two Reds forwards, along with midfielder Jay Chapman, were the driving forces of the offence and figured in both first-half goals. When Hamilton left in the 67th minute in favour of Altidore, at least some of that long, loud ovation was for Hamilton’s excellent work in front of his hometown fans.
“Safe to say it was up there with one of my best birthdays,” Hamilton said, noting it was a first for him. “Scoring a goal on my 23rd birthday in front of Toronto fans was a dream come true. No, I’ve actually never played on my birthday before. That was the first time.”
Ayo also called his goal “a dream come true.”
This made up for some struggles on the defensive side of things for the Reds. While they opened the game in good fashion, as TFC controlled the ball for most of the early going, the defenders, and Chris Mavinga in particular, had some wobbles.
In the ninth minute, after a couple of great TFC scoring chances, Mavinga chopped down Revolution forward Teal Bunbury from behind in the box for a penalty. Striker Carles Gil scored on the penalty kick.
However, the Reds picked up the attack and Akinola soon scored his first MLS goal with a tremendous individual effort. Showing a confidence well beyond his years, Akinola took the ball among a crowd of New England defenders, spun around and through four of them toward the goal and fired his shot home. It was just the way Vanney told him to play before the game.
“He is far stronger than I think anyone anticipates,” Vanney said of Akinola. “You see those two physical [Revolution] centre backs thinking they can physically handle Ayo and he just spins them. And his acceleration is good, too, so if you get too tight he’ll just pull away from you.
“Defenders don’t know him right now. What I said to him is these guys like to be physical so if you can spin them or get in behind them just accelerate because I don’t think they can stay with you.”
As the half progressed, the game grew more physical and by halftime the Revolution was a distinctly unhappy group. Hamilton’s goal, which came as stoppage time approached, did not help the visitors’ dispositions.
But at the same time the Revolution could be faulted for the inattention of its defence, as Hamilton was left by himself and snuck into the box where he converted a perfect cross from Chapman, who had taken a feed from Akinola.
The New England players argued fiercely that Hamilton was offside. The video-assistant referee (VAR) upheld the goal but the Revolution were still upset. Several surrounded referee Ted Unkel to argue their case and Gil was so incensed he had to be restrained by his teammates, although he felt better in the 52nd minute when he scored again to tie the game 2-2.
That set the stage for Altidore’s dramatic entrance and a result that Vanney felt was actually built on a team game. The coach said it is early days yet but with two wins in as many MLS outings, this year’s team appears to be more cohesive than the 2018 squad, which collapsed under a series of problems, including a lack of teamwork.
“It’s early but when I think you look at both of our results, for me they are mentality wins,” Vanney said. “They weren’t days when everything is perfect, it was days where guys stuck together. When things weren’t right they worked hard for each other.
“I don’t know if we find this win last year. It reminds me of our run in 2017 [to the MLS championship]. We didn’t win every game the same way, we didn’t win every game because we were always the best team. We won games because we played how we needed to play to get the result. [Sunday night] we found that.”