The South Stand Report: Toronto FC v. San Jose Earthquakes... Or how many goals will Cronin bag?

I swear I'll have a better logo next year. I'm open to suggestions, however...

Ahhh... I'm here at the mint that is BMO Field. The place where ML$E prints money. I'm more compelled to see who, if any, can resist the lure of overpriced concessions. I can tell the tourists know nothing of our plight. Oh well, we can dream.

Toronto have been adopting a policy of aggression since the new "regime". The comeback in Houston, the point in Mexico. I'd rather pay to see them lose like this rather than Prekiball passivity. So let's see if they can keep the post-season fantasy intact.

Predictions:

• Cronin scoring on TFC
• "Vanilla" Peterson misses a sitter
• DeRo usual magic
• people not knowing about our "No Beer. No Gear." protestTFC 2, Cheesequakes 1
  

Starting XI

Frei
Garcia - Cann - Harden - Hscivicscivcsiciscicisscsicsvicsscics
Vanilla - Gargan - deGoo - DeRo
The Chad - Maicon Santos

3 - GOAL - I don't know how the penalty happened but the ref was super-enthusiastic to point to the spot. Wondolowski converts as Frei gets a hand to it.

4 - DeRo throws a cross the face of goal and Maicon's glancing header misses the target. At least they're not packing it in.

9 - Toronto works the box (no not like that pervs) as deGoo holds the ball a little too long and passes it off. Was going to accuse him of being the new Pablo Vitti but watch this screamer... (fun fact : 18 games, 9 goals with his new club)

17 - Toronto are going for the throat here, Chad sends a ball past four San Jose defenders, but just out of reach for DeRo and Maicon to touch it to even this sucker up.

Quote of the match

If Preki were still the manager, this weather would sure be affecting us.

~ Tony on the cold wind off the lake

27 - Finally someone demonstrates some backbone! North End Elite show some support in the face of greed of the footballing overlords with their banner (yes, I realize a pic would be perfect but I cannot find one). Other large supporters groups remain conspicuous in their silence.

35 - Hscoviscisicivcisicviscs with a pass down the line that heads out of bounds under no pressure. Deja vu...

43 - ex-Hull City Geovanni free kick parried by future Hull City keeper Stefan Frei (not a rumour, making a statement that I'll be shocked if he's still here next season cuz he's young and talented)

2 mins of extra time

HALF-TIME MOOD : interested.

Good half. The difference is finishing. Tons of reds chances and no goals. Two San Jose chances and a goal. So familiar and yet so close to being world beaters...

45 - SUB - Gargan out, Mista in. Tactical change. Gargan played well.

53 - GOAL - Wow! Bobby Convey runs down the wing and lays off a pretty ball for Wondolowski without a marker on him and easily beats Frei. San Jose's third legitimate chance and second goal.

60 - Mista has a ball floated to him dead centre of goal 10 yards out and no marker to have his header miss by a mile. At his payrate, that's a goal but it wasn't. Ugh.

64 - North End Elite debut an "All For $1" flag for another timely brilliant protest in reaction to customers being gouged for a price hike for a mediocre side (sorry DeRo and Chad and Frei, its true)

66 - GOAL - after a bit of pinball, DeRo has a bright idea and chips a ball 20 yards out and over Busch.

67 - GOAL - you couldn't even get a "DeRo" song off before (not that many sing for the hero anyways) San Jose counters and someone lays a ball through the 18 yard box, Wondolowski sets the ball down and gets a slight deflection off a TFC defender for his hat trick and ultimate crowd silencer. Brilliant.

70 - Vanilla lays a huge ball to Chad who gets hauled down with no call from the very near-sighted ref.

72 - Hscvciscovciscisici off for White. OMGWEHAVENOBENCHDEPTH!!!! Tony comes up with the brilliant line that we subbed out "a Latvian for a fatvian".

79 - GOAL - Wow, this game is fu*t! OBW to Chad to Maicon and in. Just crazy.

YELLOW - DeRo booked for wearing the wrong shirt apparently.

85 - after a brutal defending job from Garcia, San Jose counter leads to a WIDE OPEN Geovanni having a go at Frei but can't fully beat him and Cann clears the line.

88 - TFC are playing an all out attack. Harden sets to Peterson and skies it. Damn Vanilla...

89 - Peterson. 8 yards. No pressure. Over the bar. Failure.

4 minutes of extra time.

FULL-TIME : Toronto FC 2, San Jose 3

Man of the Match : Hmmm... part of me says Chad, part of me says DeRo. So both. Kept flying and keeping the pace.

Goat of the Game : Peterson misses 2 sitters in the dying minutes of the game. Yeah, I'm goating someone else...

Ref Rating : 2 out of 5. Some grossly questionable off-side calls and if you were wearing anything other than a black shirt, you were not getting the 50/50 calls.

The scoreline does not reflect the style of play that Toronto displayed. They showed aggression, desperation, brilliance, creativity and were tactically solid. This is fun to watch. However, San Jose had 5 legit opportunities and capitalized on 60% of them. TFC capitalized on approximately 17%. OK, I wasn't counting Toronto attacks, but it was significantly less.

I am almost anticipating the death knell for this season to ring so we can see who disappears and take our chances with the "devil we don't know". Because the devils we know make me weep regularly at 3am. I could list names, but you could also look at past reports because I seem to 'out' the same players over and over again. I think Dasovic is doing an amazing job. Undoing the defensively stifling and passive systems of days gone by to encouraging a free-flowing style. If we're going to lose, I'd rather lose looking like this than the D.C. loss again.

At least there's still Champion's League, right? Right?