TORONTO — After going through an unprecedented dry spell, Sebastian Giovinco has once again become the hottest player in Major League Soccer.
The Italian produced another masterful performance on Saturday night, recording his second hat trick in four games to lead Toronto FC to a 4-1 win over the New England Revolution before 27,495 fans at BMO Field.
With the victory, Toronto completed its four-game homestand with a perfect 4-0 record, improved its overall record to 10-7-6, and moved to within a point of Eastern Conference leader New York City FC, while still having a game in hand. Not bad for a night’s work.
Giovinco’s trio of goals means he now leads the league with 15, two more than NYCFC’s David Villa. After going eight games without scoring, his longest drought since coming to Toronto, the Atomic Ant now has seven goals and three assists in four games. Molto bravo!
“Sebastian is Sebastian. The goals were of the calibre of the player he is; just first class,” coach Greg Vanney simply said.
Giovinco’s first two goals on this night were majestically crafted, and lifted fans out of their seats, while reporters in the press box let out a chorus of oohs and aahs in amazement.
After the game he was asked if he ever visualizes scoring such spectacular goals?
“It’s a bit of an instinct. Sometimes if I think too much then I’ll go out and miss. Then there are other moments when I don’t think about it at all, and I’ll just score, and it’ll just happen,” Giovinco said through a translator.
Captain Michael Bradley was back in the starting XI, making his first appearance for Toronto since May 21. He missed the previous 10 MLS games due to international commitments and spraining his knee while playing for the United States at the Copa America.
Bradley wasn’t the only line-up change for TFC, who was playing its third game in seven days. Vanney gave rare starts to defenders Nick Hagglund and Mark Bloom, as well as Canadian forward Tosaint Ricketts, in going with a formation that switched between a 3-5-2 and a 5-3-2 at times and featured three centre backs. TFC was still missing midfielder Benoit Cheyrou—the Frenchman has now sat out the last three matches with a hamstring problem.
Giovinco was outstanding on the night for Toronto, but he wasn’t the only one. Drew Moor did a marvellous job of marshalling a defence that neutralized the Revs’ dangerous attacking trio of Kei Kamara, Lee Nguyen and Kelyn Rowe.
“This was going to be a gruelling week with [so many games]. … I’m extremely proud of the group and the way they dug down and competed, and physically hung in there and battled,” Vanney said.
Bradley hardly looked out of place after a lengthy absence, seamlessly integrating back into the starting line-up. The TFC captain was full of energy, running himself ragged in chasing down opposing players while in possession, and doing an expert job of protecting the back four.
“To walk out onto a field like that, a stadium like this, a city like this, it’s why I came [here],” Bradley said as he beamed with pride.
Despite the four wins in a row and being within reach of top spot in the East, Toronto’s captain issued a warning against complacency and the team resting on its laurels.
“The margins are very small. The second that we think we’re a little bit better than we are or the second that we feel we can afford to let our foot of the gas a little bit, we’re going to get punished. We have to continue to have that killer instinct,” Bradley stated.
A fairly evenly contested opening 15 minutes gave way to two moments of individual brilliance from Giovinco. First, after New England failed to clear its lines off a corner kick, the Italian struck a sweet, powerful shot with the outside of his boot from across the box that nestled inside the far post in the 20th minute.
Nine minutes later he was at it again, this time peeling away from two Revolution players before curling a gorgeous shot from the edge of the penalty area into the far upper corner.
Giovinco’s second goal was the turning point. New England was never in the game after that, as they chased a pair of equalizers in vain.
Ricketts had golden opportunities to pad Toronto’s lead in the 36th and 60th minute. Both times he was played in alone on goal, and both times Revs goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth came up big to deny the Canadian.
Giovinco completed his hat trick in the 76th minute when he converted from the penalty spot after Jonathan Osorio danced his way between two New England players and was hauled down inside the penalty area.
Teal Bunbury scored a late consolation goal for New England. Jozy Altidore added a fourth goal for TFC deep into injury time.
NOTES: New England leads the all-time series against Toronto with 10 wins and nine draws in 24 matches. This is the second and final meeting between the clubs this season—they battled to a 1-1 draw on April 9 in Foxborough… Toronto on Saturday ended an eight-game winless run (five losses and three draws) against New England that dated back to 2013… TFC now embarks on a three-game road swing: Houston (Aug. 13), Philadelphia (Aug. 20) and Orlando (Aug. 24). The Reds then return home to play Montreal on Aug. 27.
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