Toronto FC emerged victorious in their clash with FC Cincinnati on Saturday night. Here are three things we learned the Reds’ 2-1 win at BMO Field.
Toronto FC bounced back from last weekends 3-1 loss to the Houston Dynamo, defeating FC Cincinnati 2-1 on Saturday night at BMO Field. The Reds spent much of the first half on the front foot, retaining possession with ease against Cincinnati’s 4-1-4-1 mid-block. They created scoring chances via the right flank through the interplay of Richie Laryea, Marky Delgado, and Nick DeLeon.
TFC’s attacking strategy paid off in the 16th minute, the aforementioned trio resulted in DeLeon giving his side the lead from a corner kick. FC Cincinnati began to press Toronto FC’s backline in the second half, thus preventing the Reds from working the ball into preferred areas and creating turnovers. As such, the second half was more balanced, with each team scoring a goal apiece.
Toronto FC remain in the playoff hunt with the win and will look to leapfrog the New York Bulls in next weekend’s match-up in NY. Conversely, FC Cincinnati remain dead last in the Eastern Conference on 17 points.
Here are three things we learned from Toronto FC’s 2-1 win over FC Cincinnati.
3. Richie Laryea stakes his claim
Simply put, Richie Laryea was one of Toronto FC’s best players on Saturday night. Despite lining-up at right-back, the 24-year-old contributed to each of TFC’s goals. He helped his side win the corner kick culminating in Nick DeLeon’s breakthrough goal and his interception in the defensive third five minutes into the second half launched the counter-attack resulting in Jozy Altidore’s sublime long-range curler.
Contributions to the goals aside, Laryea played well on both sides of the ball. From a defensive standpoint, he continued to show improvement in his one-on-one defending by exhibiting patience as well as concentrating on his body positioning and footwork. Laryea also read the play exceptionally well, registering three interceptions and two clearances. When his side were in possession, Laryea made intelligent runs, providing an option in the attacking third via overlaps and underlaps complementing the positioning of Marky Delgado and DeLeon. He also excelled with the ball at his feet, finding a teammate eight times in the final third and shifting away from his marker on at least four occasions by my count.
Laryea will compete with Brazilian teammate Auro for the starting right-back role for the remainder of the season, however, it is hard to imagine Laryea losing his place in Greg Vanney’s starting XI provided he continues to perform as he did on Saturday night.