CA Independiente 4, Toronto FC 0 | 2019 Concacaf Champions League Recap

February 20, 2019 admin US MLS 0

Toronto FC suffered a disastrous opening to their 2019 Concacaf Champions League campaign on Tuesday night, falling 4-0 to Panamanian upstarts Club Atletico Independiente at Estadio Agustin Sanchez in La Chorrera, Panama.

The result puts the Reds in a deep, deep hole as they return to BMO Field to host the second and decisive leg of the round-of-16 clash next week, requiring them to produce a rout of equal or greater proportion to overturn CAI’s hefty aggregate advantage.

Unfortunately for head coach Greg Vanney, he and his staff may find relatively little to build on in this match. TFC fell behind early thanks to some slack defending on Abdiel Ayarza’s opener, then spurned a chance to equalize after half an hour when debutant Terrence Boyd fired a penalty kick over the crossbar after Laurent Ciman was fouled in the Independiente penalty box. 

It got worse after halftime. Lunging in on Omar Browne with little cover behind him, Ciman was exposed by the Panamanian’s quick feet, leaving Browne with space to blast a swerving shot past Alex Bono into the far top corner of the net. 

Romeesh Ivey piled on with a third mere moments later, and later added a fourth against a demoralized Reds side who will need to summon a performance for the ages if they are to extend their CCL adventure beyond next week.

Goals

  • 9′ – CAI – Abdiel Ayarza
  • 48′ – CAI – Omar Browne
  • 52′ – CAI – Romeesh Ivey
  • 78′ – CAI – Romeesh Ivey

Next Up

  • TOR: Tuesday, Feb. 26 vs. CAI (2nd leg, 8 pm ET | YahooSports.com, UDN, TSN4)
  • CAI: Saturday, Feb. 23 at Tauro (7 pm ET)

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