Toronto FC goalkeeper Stefan Frei makes a save against the Colorado Rapids during the second half of their MLS soccer game in Toronto July 10, 2010. REUTERS/Mike CasseseMIKE CASSESE/Reuters
One of the hallmarks of all championship teams is being able to grind out a result, even on days when their on-field play barely merits it.
Now, nobody is suggesting Toronto FC is a championship team yet - actually making the playoffs is normally a requisite for winning a title - but there are certainly signs of a contender rounding into shape, albeit slowly, and Saturday's 1-0 win over the Colorado Rapids was another of the baby steps all teams must take to get to the top.
Most rewardingly, the victory showed an altogether different side of Predrag (Preki) Radosavljevic's team, one that was devoid of two of its regulars - midfielders Julian de Guzman and Amadou Sanyang were both serving a one-game suspension - and still awaiting the highly anticipated finishing touch of former Spanish international striker Miguel Angel Ferrer Martinez, otherwise known as Mista.
With captain and leading scorer Dwayne De Rosario pulled back into central midfield to help fill the void, the team was forced to rely on one of its lesser lights, the talented but inconsistent winger Fuad Ibrahim, to make the game-changing play to ensure Toronto didn't lose any more ground in the Eastern Conference after three consecutive draws in Major League Soccer play.
"I think when you're getting goals from a lot of different places it definitely helps the team," defender Dan Gargan, who scored the equalizer against Philadelphia last week, said. "We counted on DeRo for an awful lot at the beginning of the season … now that we can help him out, being in places for us to put the ball in the back of the net, that just makes us a little more diverse."
The first half was an almost entirely forgettable affair. While Toronto stands proudly by its unbeaten record at home this season, its last few games have also been marked by a distinct lack of goals.
The irregularity of games caused by the World Cup is certainly one factor - Saturday's game was just Toronto's fourth in the last five weeks - but one goal in the three games prior to the Colorado clash does not a playoff team make.
Preki's men conspired to create just three efforts on Matt Pickens's goal in the first 45 minutes Saturday, the most notable of which - a De Rosario effort from 25 yards - narrowly failed to break the deadlock. Former TFC frontman Conor Casey was unlucky not to do the same for the visitors, spurning an inviting cross from Omar Cummings just after the half-hour mark.
Preki switched things up at the half, hauling off the ineffectual O'Brian White in favour of new signing Maicon Santos, a striker who had previously played for the Serbian coach during his time with Chivas USA, with Nick Garcia replacing Martin Saric as the team moved into a 4-3-3 formation.
The changes almost had the opposite effect. Cummings, who looked dangerous all afternoon and was unlucky not to have his name added to the scoresheet, bulldozed his way into the penalty area barely 30 seconds after the restart, unleashing a right-foot shot that Stefan Frei did well to turn away.
But then the tide started to turn, and while Nick LaBrocca almost broke the stalemate, and De Rosario may consider himself unlucky not to earn a penalty, it fell to Ibrahim to make the decisive play.
Chad Barrett, once again showing his effectiveness when he's not asked to bear the goal-scoring mantle, swung over a ball from the left-hand side. Ibrahim got up well to control the ball between defenders Drew Moor and Danny Earls, before toe-poking it past Pickens for his first MLS goal since October 2008.
"I hope he's starting to understand what it takes to get to the next level," Preki said of Ibrahim, a fourth-year professional making just his second MLS start of the season. "… If he continues to make progress he'll see more minutes, but that's all up to him."
Toronto rarely threatened after the goal, and it was a backs-to-the-wall effort to withstand Colorado's onslaughts for the final half hour, but Preki's side stood tall to earn the result, one that will be as important from a confidence standpoint as it will for the three points that pulled it - temporarily at least - to within three points of second-placed New York in the Eastern Conference standing.