They don’t have to all be pretty.

Toronto FC picked up a massive three points on Wednesday night with a 1-0 win over NYCFC at Red Bull Arena.

Alejandro Pozuelo scored the only goal of the game in the 90th minute from the penalty spot to claim victory following a combative, tenacious affair where Alex Bono kept the match tight with some fine saves.

It did not look like most TFC games have this season.

NYCFC had the lion’s share of possession – 59% to 41% – and TFC made roughly half their usual number of passes, but good teams find ways to win even when the night isn’t going their way.

“Yeah, very much so,” said Greg Vanney post-match, who started the match with two forwards in Jozy Altidore and Ayo Akinola and a four-man diamond midfield. “We had a bit of a makeshift group, a makeshift midfield. We tried something to get a couple forwards on the field. The game worked out that we just didn't have much possession and because of that we had to make some adjustments.”

“Credit to the guys playing roles that they don't usually play, doing things defensively that they don't necessarily always do,” he continued. “Guys gutted it out, they grinded it, they did whatever they had to do. Bones made some big saves and we had a few chances through the course of the game as well even though it wasn't perfect.”

“Wins like tonight are sometimes more valuable than the wins when you play teams off the field,” Vanney added. “We know we have a good group that can play soccer and tonight was a character win. I'm really, really proud of the effort.”

From the opening whistle, it was clear it was going to be a physical contest – in the end, eight yellow cards were shown. NYCFC were on the front foot and Bono had to be alert to get his hands to a dangerous early ball into the box destined for Alex Ring at the back-post.

He tipped another effort over the bar and had to be sharp to parry another hard shot inside the opening 20 minutes.

Toronto were forced to dig deep to find a response.

“This was one of the most difficult games we’ve played, but sometimes we need to be like this,” said Pozuelo. “We played a lot of good games and we lost – in Vancouver we deserved to win and we lost. This is football, sometimes you need to work hard to win the games. A little bit lucky today, but we win the three points, this is the most important.”

Between Bono’s heroics and a lack of sharpness in the NYCFC attack, the stage was set for a late decisive moment when Justin Morrow’s ball into the area struck the arm of Nicolas Acevedo.

Cue Pozuelo vs. Sean Johnson, part five.

“I'm pretty confident with him going up. He's got a way of going about things that is really difficult for goalkeepers,” said Vanney. “He’s been up against Sean Johnson [before]. Ale keeps track of what he does with goalkeepers.”

“He knows he's gone up the middle with him a couple of times, so he picks a side and Johnson just stood up to see if he was going to try that again – he wasn't going to get Panenka’d again,” he continued – Pozuelo has twice chipped the NYCFC keeper from the penalty spot. “I was confident, but the way the game was going I'd be lying if I told you that I was very calm.”

For the fourth time in five attempts, Pozuelo came out the better.

“I decided in the moment,” he explained. “I knew he would try to wait. He asked me before the penalty where I would shoot. He tried to [break my] concentration, but I focused on my shot.”

“I have a lot of confidence in myself and I waited for him,” Pozuelo added. “He went to the right side, so I decided to shoot to the other side.”

Said Bono: “He's a specialist, there's absolutely no doubt about that.”

“He’s asked me to stay and take a couple penalties with him. It's fun and I expect him to score on me, but once in a while I'll get a piece on one,” he continued. “The way that he strikes the ball it's almost bizarre, it's nothing I've ever seen. It's very difficult to read. I've succeeded about as many times as other goalkeepers have against him.”

“Having him take balls, put it down on the spot and just be automatic is huge for us,” Bono added. “Those are the differences between wins, losses, and ties. You always feel confident when he steps up to take one.”

But the moment wouldn’t have been possible without Bono’s contributions.

He took his lumps throughout – a few sliding challenges with Castellanos, one where Chris Mavinga landed on top of him, and a bit of an adventure coming out to deal with a ball that was handled gracefully.

All in a day’s work.

“This league is a physical league. New York City, they play hard. We expected that coming in – we knew it was going to be a battle,” began Bono. “Our goal today was to bring the fight first, to make sure that we brought the intensity and the physicality, match theirs on their home field and our quality would shine through.”

“We were up against it for long stretches,” he continued. “The one thing you can't fault on this team is our ability to fight and scrap and get results. And that's exactly what we did today.”

Prematch Vanney, with the defeat at the MLS is Back Tournament in mind, demanded that his side bring the compete level necessary on the night.

“The game by no means went the way we wanted it to, but we adjusted and realized that it wasn't going to be a game that we're going to be able to play through them and play out of the back a lot,” said Bono. “I told the guys, ‘We got caught out of the back last game, let's play up early, let's let the big guys – Jozy and Ayo– eat and give them a chance to play us into the game.”

“The first 10-15 minutes we're just launching it and letting those two fight and scrap and trying to pick up second balls. That set the tone for our physicality and our fight,” he continued. “By no means was it an awesome performance from us, but we found a way.”

“It's extraordinary circumstances,” he concluded. “For us to be able to fight and scrap and get three points on the road, not having been in Toronto for a while. That’s what it’s going to be about.”

It was only Bono’s second appearance of the season.

“It's something that we had mapped out, getting guys opportunities,” explained Vanney. “We’ve got to get everybody games. This season has to be something where everybody is able to move forward.”

“Bones has been outstanding in training, he was very good in the game against New England when he played earlier in the year,” he continued. “We're going to keep getting him games and keep both of [our goalkeepers] ready to go at all times.”

“We've got to continue to build in our depth,” stressed the coach. “Tonight we saw a few more guys that haven't played in a little while, but they came on and helped contribute to what was an important win.”

Erickson Gallardo put in a solid 45 minutes, Jayden Nelson looked lively in his half-hour, while the newest addition, Tony Gallacher started at left-back.

“It's a tough game to debut in,” admitted Vanney. “The speed of it is fast, we don't have a lot of the ball, so for me it’s not necessarily a big assessment of Tony, it's more for him to have an understanding of what it's like to play in this league.”

“We usually have our fair share of the ball, tonight that wasn't the case, you had a lot of decisions because in midfield we were pulled apart a number of times,” he continued. “He hung in there, did a nice job and he battled it out. Some decisions that we'll talk about and clean up, but he was a contributor in what was a really tough game and a tough win. He has more information now with what the league is like.”

Often at the other end of a late dagger, as recently as last weekend at D.C. United, the reversal of fates was a welcome change and something to build off.

“The late win was big. There have been games this year where we've had leads and we didn't close out,” recalled Vanney. “We've talked about that this week ad nauseam.”

“But it was also the character of the whole game: hanging in there, problem solving throughout the course of the game, figuring out better ways to deal with situations,” he expanded. “Everybody had to put in the work, so a huge win.”