After his side's CONCACAF Champions League group-stage opener against Árabe Unido last week, Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis said the Panamanian club’s exhibition of soccer typified all that's wrong with the game.
The ensemble of acting, feigning, time wasting and diving was just too much for him to keep mum. Akin to a team playing well, RSL overcame the adversity by capitalizing on eight minutes of second-half stoppage to score the game-winner on a penalty.
But Toronto FC – a team still trying to become a consistent power in MLS this season – couldn't do the same on Tuesday night, falling to Árabe Unido 1-0 in La Chorrera, Panama.
The loss brought TFC (1-1-0 in CCL play) back to the pack and possibly into a four-way tie in Group A, pending the outcome of Wednesday’s Cruz Azul-RSL match. Add to that some questionable officiating and the damage to the team's Champions League aspirations could be significant.
Suspect fouls, cautions and ejections occurred throughout the game, and Toronto were at the receiving end of many of them. Salvadoran referee Marlon Mejía called Toronto for 18 fouls, compared to just nine for Árabe.
Nick LaBrocca and Fuad Ibrahim were ejected on suspect plays and will sit out the next Champions League game at RSL on Sept. 12. Maksim Usanov and Raivis Hscanovics picked up cautions and, with another yellow, are on the verge of missing a key CCL game later in the group stage when the matches mean more.
If there's a silver lining, the cautions were distributed over a starting lineup consisting mostly of second-stringers. But in just four short days, TFC have gone from the proverbial penthouse to, possibly, the outhouse.
The Reds rode the confidence of their upset of Cruz Azul last week into a key showdown at home with second-place Red Bull New York last weekend.
But the subsequent 4-1 loss not only put TFC close to slipping out of the MLS playoff picture, it was compounded by Tuesday’s loss, which also jeopardizes aspirations of a CCL run like the one the Montreal Impact had back in the 2008-09 edition of the tournament.
And it doesn’t get easier, with Toronto heading into the second of three straight CCL games on the road.
Playoff teams like Real Salt Lake find ways to overcome the type of bad officiating displayed in Panama, but Toronto are not yet at that point. They looked to be building a comeback with a strong start to the second half, but the momentum was thwarted when Mejía ejected LaBrocca on a questionable call for colliding with goalkeeper José Calderón on a 50-50 ball.
Frustration then set in as Toronto were called for a littany of fouls and silly cautions, such as Hscanovics’ for making contact with the fourth official. Refereeing aside, Toronto have to respond better to adversity.
Árabe Unido took advantage of Toronto’s foul trouble and disjointed attack to generate a number of good scoring opportunities leading to Fidel Caesar’s late first-half goal.
Despite the lackluster play, TFC were still in the game, and leading scorer Dwayne De Rosario continued to press, almost tying the game late when his shot off a rebound was stopped by Calderón.
It’s that kind of resolve that Toronto will need to display under difficult circumstances if they hope to get back inside the MLS playoff picture and revive their CCL campaign.
