Toronto FC eliminated from playoff contention after 2-1 loss to Whitecaps

Toronto (9-16-6) joins the motley crew of already-eliminated Chicago, Orlando, Colorado and San Jose.

It was the same-old, same-old for Toronto, which dug itself a hole that it couldn’t get out of.

Russell Teibert scored in the fourth minute and Kei Kamara delivered the coup de grace in the 78th minute for Vancouver (12-12-7), which got some stellar defence from centre backs Kendall Waston and Doneil Henry and goalkeeper Stefan Marinovic.

Things went from bad to worse for the MLS champions before a muted BMO Field crowd of 22,886 when Toronto defender Gregory van der Wiel was sent off in the 66th minute for a second yellow card. Both times the Dutch veteran was caught bodychecking a Whitecap to the ground.

Toronto tied it at 1-1 in the 73rd minute after Henry, a former TFC player, was called for a handball in the box. Substitute Jozy Altidore hammered the penalty home to give Toronto hope.

But Kamara delivered a late dagger, tapping home a Jordon Mutch cross with the Toronto defence missing in action. It was his 14th of the season.

The game ended to a mixture of cheers and boos. Toronto will look to sell the season as a blip, comforted perhaps in the knowledge that its 24,500 season-ticket holders have already had to make the first instalment on next year’s tickets — many of which come with a price hike.

The win keeps Vancouver’s slim playoff hopes alive, at least temporarily.

“I’m really proud of the boys because they believed,” said caretaker coach Craig Dalrymple. “They came in at halftime 1-0 up and they still weren’t happy. They wanted more, and they wanted to fix a few things that weren’t quite right in the first half and they did it.”

For the second week in a row, Toronto went into the game knowing that a tie or loss coupled with a Montreal win would end its playoff hopes. Last week, TFC dodged a bullet by beating visiting New England 4-1 while D.C. United blanked Montreal 5-0.

But Montreal did not co-operate Saturday, defeating the Columbus Crew 3-0 to pile on the pressure on Toronto, whose game immediately followed.

Given TFC has put back-to-back wins together just once in the league this year, the task was tall.

The Whitecaps wasted no time adding to the pressure when Teibert found a crease in the Toronto midfield. Yordy Reyna fed him with a pass and Teibert beat Alex Bono with a left-footed shot.

Given the Montreal result, it meant Toronto had to score two goals.

It was just the third goal in 134 regular-season games for the Vancouver midfielder, who spent time with the Toronto academy prior to joining the Whitecaps organization.

Toronto has now allowed a league-worst 13 goals in the first 15 minutes of a game this season. And it is 1-15-1 when conceding the first goal and things looked bleak for the MLS champs.

“We spent so much time this year playing from behind, trying to come back in games,” lamented captain Michael Bradley. “It cost a lot of energy, mentally and physically.”

Toronto threw men forward in the second half and introduced Altidore, who left the last two games early with an ankle injury, in the 58th minute.

Sebastian Giovinco, recalled by Italy this week, had a bushel of chances in a wide-open game with five shots on goal (only one of which was on target) in the first half alone. But he also was a figure of frustration, throwing his hands up in the air several times when things did not go according to plan.

Whitecaps teenager Alphonso Davies, who was involved in the Teibert goal setup, had a rough start, needing treatment twice in the first 20 minutes. He eventually exited in the 69th minute.

Toronto, meanwhile, began to lose its cool with Giovinco and van der Wiel having words after the latter was cautioned in the 28th minute for clumsily taking down a Vancouver player.

TFC had 60.09 per cent of the possession and outshot Vancouver 18-7 (6-4 in shots on target). Giovinco had eight shots himself, but only one on target.

Toronto won the MLS Cup, Supporters’ Shield and Canadian Championship last year while collecting a league-record 69 points. It made the final of the CONCACAF Champions League and won the Canadian Championship again this year, but its league campaign was full of frustration and disappointment.

Injuries took their toll with Altidore, Chris Mavinga, Drew Moor and Victor Vazquez all missing chunks of time.

But Toronto can likely find the real culprit by looking in the mirror. The team made mistake after mistake, losing the ball in all the wrong places and paying for it.

“Lightning struck 40 million times in terms of injuries, whatever you want to call it,” said Altidore, who sounded like his Toronto tenure might be over. “We had a lot of things to deal with.”

TFC gave up just 37 goals in its 20-5-9 championship season. This year it has conceded 60 and, with three games remaining, is on pace to surpass the franchise-worst 62 in 2012.

The last MLS champion not to make the playoffs the next year was Portland, which beat Columbus 2-1 in the 2015 MLS Cup only to finish two points out of the playoffs in 2016 with a 12-14-8 record.

Vancouver arrived equally desperate, starting the day six points out of the playoffs. The Whitecaps had lost three straight to match their longest losing streak of the season (April 7-20).

It was the second game for Dalrymple, the Whitecaps’ technical director who took over after Carl Robinson was fired Sept. 25. Vancouver lost 3-0 at the Los Angeles Galaxy in his debut.

After the international break, Toronto plays at D.C. United and Montreal before wrapping up the regular season against league-leading Atlanta.

Vancouver hosts Sporting Kansas City before visiting Los Angeles FC and finishing at home to Portland.

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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Toronto FC eliminated from playoff contention after 2-1 loss to Whitecaps

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