The start of Saturday afternoon’s match was everything the previous two matches lacked.
In the fourth minute, Dylan Chambost sprayed a long ball to Max Arfsten, who played a scintillating cross toward the box. There, Wessam Abou Ali scored with a header that flicked toward the back post. Not a keeper in the world would’ve stopped the goal.
This was vintage Black & Gold.
However, Toronto FC responded, then scored once more, as the Columbus Crew lost, 2-1, at BMO Field in the Trillium Cup.
Following the match, Head Coach Henrik Rydström said he was disappointed with the result and thought the Crew played shy and with a “handbrake,” lacking the cutthroat intensity that was there in the early goings.
“The game is quite bad, I would say,” Rydström said. “I don't think we deserved to win the game, for sure. Maybe we could have got like an even result, but we didn't do enough to win the game. That's the lesson. It’s still a little bit we played with the handbrake. Very disappointed of the performance and the result.”
Players within the locker room offered similar sentiments.
“It's up to us,” Chambost said. “We're going to talk a lot again. We're going to do meetings, we're going to see what happens, we're going to work on the pitch. It's the only solution. We need to talk within each other. We need to work on the pitch. It's going to be okay.
“The group, we have a lot of quality on the team. We need to find this confidence. It's a tough period right now. We hit the post again tonight. We have to keep working and things are going to change.”
While Columbus left Toronto without a point, things are changing – the Crew have just been on the wrong side of luck.
Twice this season, goals were conceded late. On Saturday, Diego Rossi nearly had his third goal of the season, but a second-half shot smacked the post and fell directly into the arms of TFC goalkeeper Luka Gavran. If the ball went anywhere else, it’s probably a two-goal lead and a positive result to build upon, Rydström noted.
“Sometimes, just on the day, maybe the luck's not there,” captain Sean Zawadzki said. “I don't want to lean on that, but it's a game of inches sometimes, and that stuff happens. And it's not to feel sorry for ourselves, it happens to anyone, but how can we flush it out and forget about it? Okay, now focus on next action. How can we improve, how can we forget that and go on from that point?
“If we hang our heads on that, it's only gonna make things worse. So, it's flushing out and focusing on the next action.”
The reality is this is a Black & Gold side in transition. While there’s a new coach, there’s also a new squad trying to build chemistry.
For the second straight match, a Crew player made a debut. Nariman Akhundzada entered in the 88th minute and became the first Azerbaijani to play in MLS. André Gomes made only his second appearance.
“We have some time here to lick the wounds, gather us and come together, but we need more competition,” Rydström said. “I hope that the new players that come in with Gomez and Nariman that they can also raise the levels to compete even more because right now, we are too shy.”
