RELATED: Defoe out for Columbus match | Steven Caldwell Suspended
INTERVIEWS: Ryan Nelsen | Michael Bradley | Nick Hagglund | Jackson
“Wow.”
It was one word and slightly out of context, but that’s how a friend who doesn’t follow the sport described Michael Bradley.
The U.S didn’t get a result versus Mexico, walking away with a draw against their rivals in Glendale.
But the purists, also known as the ones with little else to on a Wednesday night, saw what Captain America can do. Dominate. My goodness.
Adversity may be the dirtiest word in the Toronto FC lexicon, but right now it’s apt. There is adversity. How this team responds to a tough trip to Columbus will tell us something. Can we believe?
They’ll be without Jermain Defoe and Steven Caldwell, two of the most important cogs of this team, but that’s why we use that awful term: adversity.
Adversity doesn’t mean jack when you go into the house of the Eastern Conference leaders. Columbus found a way through four weeks.
Here’s everything you know leading up to the clash in Columbus, via MLSSoccer.com:
- The Crew have lost to Toronto FC just twice in 19 meetings all-time. TFC’s 2-1 win last July 27 at BMO Field was their first since a 4-2 win Sept. 10, 2011 at Columbus Crew Stadium, which ended a 12-game TFC winless run vs. Columbus.
- The Toronto FC victory last year was their first win ever against the Crew on their home ground, after three losses and five draws.
- Coaches record: Gregg Berhalter vs. TOR: first game … Ryan Nelsen v CLB: P3 W1 L2 D0
Doesn’t look pretty, does it?
This season is about the new, however. What this team can do with new expectations, new chances at writing a different history.
This may sound like a broken record, because it’s been said. The expectations associated with this club are different. Everything is there: the coaches, the talent and the system.
But the players know this. This fixture isn’t a harbinger of things to come, but a litmus test for what Toronto FC can do when not at full strength.
What we ask is that they give it their all.
As fans, we’re basically stuck in the middle. We see the injuries. We see the fact that Columbus is in an excellent run of form.
“I'm just so excited for this club and the direction we're going. This win – that goal – was not just for myself, but for this team and to be 3-0 is incredible. It's the best way to start,” said the winning goal scorer Justin Meram after a big win against Seattle.
Meram was the ‘spare part,’ but that’s what Columbus is this year. Harkening back to the Cup winning days of wore, everyone plays a part.
U.S international Michael Parkhurst. Goal scoring maven Federico Higuain is a threat from 15 yards or four, it doesn't matter.
It’s a test. One of many the Reds will have to pass on the road to stardom.
Here we go.
