Playoff Race Ends With Massive Defeat
Reds come out flat and lose 5-0 in pivotal match
Facing its second must-win game in eight days, TFC surrendered a goal less than two minutes into the game and went on to give up four more, losing 5-0 to the league-worst New York Red Bulls in both teams' regular-season finale.
New York forwards Macoumba Kandji and Juan Pablo Angel did the visitors in with two goals each. Kandji put the Red Bulls ahead in the second minute. Angel then found the net in the 33rd and 62nd before Kandji struck again in the 70th. Four minutes into second-half stoppage time, substitute Matthew Mbuta converted a penalty kick to complete the rout.
The five-goal margin marked the worst defeat in Toronto FC club history.
Needing three points to remain in the playoff chase, Toronto's night got off to the worst possible start. New York midfielder Albert Celades received a short pass from Angel and quickly sprung Kandji into space. The Senegalese striker split TFC defenders Emmanuel Gomez and Nana Attakora, raced into the box and coolly beat Reds goalkeeper Brian Edwards to put the visitors in an early hole they never looked close to digging out of.
The hosts doubled their advantage in the 33rd minute with Kandji playing provider this time. He picked out Angel at the top of TFC's box, and the former Colombian international's brilliant first touch wrong-footed defender Adrian Serioux. From there Angel fired clinically into the lower corner past Edwards, who was making his third consecutive start in place of injured rookie Stefan Frei.
Despite the lopsided scoreline, Toronto had plenty of chances of its own. Amado Guevara, who on Oct. 14 helped Honduras qualify for the World Cup, had both of TFC's clearest scoring opportunities in the opening stanza.
In the ninth minute, Guevara just missed the target with a long-range bomb. Five minutes later, his clever cutback set up wicked half-volley from 25 yards that forced a diving stop from Red Bulls 'keeper Bouna Coundoul.
Serioux also missed from distance in the first half, while Dwayne De Rosario went close with a header and O'Brian White sent a shot right into Coundoul's arms from just inside the area.
In the second half, TFC imploded. Red Bulls midfielder Jeremy Hall found Angel with a slick layoff pass, and the former English Premier League star effectively killed off the game by rounding Edwards and slotting home.
Eight minutes later, Kandji capitalized on a mistake by TFC rookie midfielder Sam Cronin, running onto Cronin's poor back pass and easily beating the Toronto backstop.
Three minutes into injury time, Serioux hauled down Kandji in the area to set up Mbuta's tally.
TFC coach Chris Cummins stuck with the same starting XI as he had a week earlier in the friendly confines of BMO Field, when the Reds scraped past Real Salt Lake 1-0 in another must-win encounter.
However, forward Chad Barrett left the game in the first half shortly after colliding with Coundoul on a 50-50 ball just outside New York's 18-yard box.
It was the final soccer match played at Giants Stadium. Next year, TFC will meet New York at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J. Toronto opens the 2010 season in Columbus on March 27. The Reds' home opener at BMO Field is on April 17, against the expansion Philadelphia Union.
