TORONTO — It wasn't exactly the homecoming befitting a treble-winning team, but Toronto FC did enough to hold off a plucky Colorado Rapids side and advance to the next round of the CONCACAF Champions League.
With a 2-0 lead in hand from last week's round of 16 first leg in frost-bitten suburban Denver, TFC was content with Tuesday's 0-0 draw in the second leg, despite squandering a handful of chances to win the game — Toronto's home opener for 2018 — in front of 23,383 at BMO Field.
"We try and play our game and at least get a draw when we're ahead," TFC goalkeeper Alex Bono said. "If we can get a draw then we know that gives us a chance to move on, so for us we went into it at 0-0, we play our game, we make sure that we're focused and ready. We can't take anything for granted in these 180-minute games."
As the reigning MLS Cup, Supporters Shield and Voyageurs Cup champion, Toronto was certainly the favourite heading into the the series against the Rapids. Things tilted even more in TFC's favour with the result of the first leg, but Tuesday's match was played a bit more evenly.
That suited new Colorado coach Anthony Hudson, tasked with rebuilding a squad that finished 20th overall in MLS last year, just fine. The Kiwi noted several times throughout the past couple weeks that his team is very much in preseason mode and was treating the games against Toronto as such.
"I hope [Colorado] gets credit because for 50-60 minutes they were the better team, for sure," Hudson said. "And then at the end Toronto were the stronger team."
Visibly perplexed when told of Hudson's comments, TFC boss Greg Vanney stressed that advancement to the next round was all that mattered to his team.
"The problem is when you lose the game 2-0 you're already losing so I don't know why it matters," Vanney said of Colorado. "At the end of the day, our job today was to go through. We did that."
“This is how 180-minute ties are played; you do what you need to do to get through.” - head coach Greg Vanney#TFCLive | #TORvCOL | #SCCL2018 pic.twitter.com/bc4MhX5B0W
— Toronto FC (@torontofc) February 28, 2018
Having experienced a lot of two-legged soccer games over the past two seasons in both the Canadian Championship and MLS playoffs, Vanney said his team wasn't going to be rattled by a single match in which the opposition enjoyed stretches of good play.
TFC has seen it all over the past two seasons, and Tuesday's game was just a means to an end.
"We were up 2-0 [heading into Tuesday], so it wasn't like we were here with the onus to have to go really spread ourselves out and win the game," Vanney said. "It's the way 180-minute games are played. You get through, that's what you're supposed to do.
"I think people forget that. They forgot that in the playoffs last year and they forget that right now, but it's not about that. If you can give yourself a lead coming in from the road then you utilize that lead the best way you can."