Andy Boyens scores!

 

TORONTO -- Danny Dichio and Andrew Boyens tallied first-half goals to lead Toronto FC to a 2-1 victory Saturday over the Colorado Rapids in front of 20,195. Dichio, who has a team-high three goals - including the first in Toronto FC's brief history - put the expansion franchise on the board quickly as his short-range tally beat Colorado goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul in the ninth minute. "I'm poppin up with goals but the most important thing today was the 3 points," Dichio said. "We had a good result last week and we wanted to build on it. We had some International absences today but I felt we stuck together and played well." Coupled with Boyens' goal off a corner kick in the 28th minute, that enabled Toronto FC (3-5-1, 10 points) to leapfrog out of the cellar in the Eastern Conference. Boyens, a lanky 6-4 defender from New Zealand, camped out in front of the net and headed in Jim Brennan's corner kick to give Toronto FC a 2-0 lead. Three minutes later, Rapids midfielder Herculez Gomez continued his strong play with his fourth tally of the season. Gomez has scored in each of his team's last three games, including the lone goal in a win May 26 over his former club, the Los Angeles Galaxy. "I don't really care about that," Gomez said about his streak. "I would have rather gotten the win. I didn't know about it to tell you the truth. It would have been nice to get out of here with a good result." Although his team received the good result, Toronto FC coach Mo Johnston was not pleased. "I was concerned and disappointed when we gave up the goal," he said. "We've got all our guys moving up the field and giving the ball away. It was a very disappointing goal to lose. In the first half we created a lot of chances and should have scored more." Toronto FC's Kevin Goldthwaite was given a red card in the 80th minute for abusive language, thereby giving Colorado the man advantage for approximately the final 10 minutes and stoppage time. "I was arguing with (Colorado's Nicolas) Hernandez and we were going back and forth. I said something to him inappropriate and he went back at me in Spanish. Clearly the ref only understood what I said because I was sent off. It's pretty ridiculous." The loss proved costly for Colorado (4-3-3, 15 points), which failed to gain ground on idle Western Conference leader FC Dallas (5-4-1, 16 points). Coundoul made several key saves for Colorado. By comparison, Toronto FC's backup goalkeeper Srdjan Djekanovic wasn't tested much and recorded his first MLS career win. "It was great. The guys played excellent for me," Djekanovic said. "It was a great way to start it off. It was very nice." The Rapids, who were outshot by Toronto FC, 9-2, in the first half, dictated much of the play in the second half.

 

Seppos (or possibly canadians) really don't get football, do they......

 

Toronto really should have won that game 5-1 but Colorado's keeper made some amazing saves to keep them in it.

 

BY THE WAY- please don't say canadians don't get football. Yes, football is not the most popular sport here (like in NZ), but it does have a strong following of hardcore fans like myself. If you don't believe me, just look at a Toronto FC game. As an expansion franchise, they lead the MLS in attendance and are the only club to sell out all their games this season. Also, take a look at the upcoming Under-20 world cup in Canada. It has already sold somewhere in the neighbourhood of 6-700 000 tickets, and is at this point the largest single-sporting event ever staged in Canada.

 

But back to the topic, I love Boyens and am so happy about today's result. woo go TFC!

 

nuff said

http://ww2.mlsnet.com/media/player/mp_tpl.jsp?w=mms%3A//a1503.v115042.c11504.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/1503/11504/v0001/mlbmls.download.akamai.com/11504/2007/open/gp/06/060207_cortor_gp_350.wmv&w_id=8878&catCode=mls_game_tv&type=v_free&_mp=1

 

Highlights from the MLS site above!!!! Boyens goal

Maybe he could have made a better attempted tackle to stop the Gomez goal.

But who cares. Great to see him pick up his first goal for Toronto.

 

He's not on any all-star ballots, but he holds his own. He did miss a tackle that led to the Gomez goal, as mentioned earlier, and sometimes will commit a foul, but he usually makes smart plays. Obviously if you compare him to Toronto's other starting cb, Jim Brennan, he's the less experienced and more erratic defender, but Brennan's a veteran and team captain.

 

Defences in the MLS tend to be on the sloppy side, with lots of mad scrambles in the box and quite a few breakaways, so I'd say he does a good job in relation to other backs.