Drilling down on: at Toronto 1, Philadelphia 0

Man of the Match: Danny Koevermans didn’t come on until the hour mark, but when you score the goal that ends a league record run of futility, you get the honor. Taking advantage of a nice effort from fellow sub Nick Soolsma, TFC’s oft-injured striker thighed home the winner in the 88th minute, improving Toronto to 1-9-0 on the season.

Packaged for takeaway:

• Koeverman’s goal, combined with some poorly-taken chances from Ryan Johnson, will only heighten the refrain: What would this season be if TFC’s big ticket attacking purchase was healthy?
• For much of this match Toronto was the better team, particularly in the first half. With Reggie Lambe and Joao Plata on each side of Johnson, Torsten Frings and Julian de Guzman sitting behind Luis Silva, there was a nice balance to the team.
• The only problem was the end product. Plata missed an easy chance early. Johnson continued to have trouble putting his opportunities on frame. The team continues to direly miss a healthy Koevermans.
• Plata, however, was TFC’s best player before Koevermans scored, yet he came off at the hour mark. TFC’s spark plug left to a nice round of applause from the home fans, and although he came off for Koevermans, the move was still a bit of a header-scratcher. Why not take off Johnson?
• Frings, still coming back from injury, looked decent, even if some of this passes in the final third could have been better. The TFC captain did seemed to be bothered by his shoulder at times, and a Gabriel Farfan (unintentional) forearm to the face gave him some trouble in the second half.
• Philadelphia started 4-4-2, with both Danny Mwanga and Lionard Pajoy up top, but the Union never really caused Milos Kosic much trouble. While Philadelphia feigned some second half ascension, the best chances at match’s end were Toronto’s.
• Chris Konopka, essentially a third-choice `keeper for Philadelphia, played well, even if he could have done better on the goal.  With Zac MacMath and Chase Harrison already out, the Union nearly had to bring on Brian Rowe (a league pool goalkeeper), with their final sub after Konopka tweaked a hammy in the 81st minute.
• There was already grumbling amongst Philadelphia fans disgruntled over their team’s poor start. Today’s result won’t help. It would be one thing if the Union played well but gave up a late heartbreaker, but that’s not what happened. The final score was fair, leaving Union fans to ask If we’re not better than Toronto, what exactly’s going on?