TFC went to mexico on Tuesday night to face Cruz Azul, and pretty much everyone agreed they were on a hiding to nothing. A tough place to play, against a team that's currently tearing up the Mexican league and with a point to prove after embarrasingly losing in Toronto. It seemed with the line-up he put out Coach Nick Dasovic thought the same as well, many starters rested, Garcia and Hscanovics as the full backs, and a truly craptacular Obie/Ibbe forward line that was never ever going to score.
Injuries to Joseph Nane and Martin Saric within the first half hour burned two subs that would surely have been needed later on to deal with altitude and ball chasing related cramps and exhaustion. I haven't seen a possession stat, but I'd be surprised if TFC had 25%. They were outshot badly, with only 1 shot on target that I can remember, and that from about 60 yards away.
And yet, it didn't all go wrong, they put in an excellent defensive performance, limiting Cruz Azul to terrible shots from distance and putting crosses into the box that Adrian Cann and Ty Harden dealt with admirably, and they got a 0-0 draw that keeps their qualification hopes alive, and is only the third time an MLS team has got a point in a CCL game in Mexico.
An ugly game, but definitely one to be proud of, and I must say, given how badly the season as a whole has gone, there's actually been quite a few of those this year. Combined with some absolute horror shows, and the soap opera off the pitch, it's certainly been interesting.
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