Chris Wondolowski scored two more goals on Sunday to run his MLS-best career total to 150 and down Toronto FC in the process, and Greg Vanney could not contain his exasperation at becoming Wondo’s latest victims.
As a longtime player and coach in Major League Soccer, Vanney has seen plenty of the San Jose Earthquakes icon's work and his postgame comments suggested that he’d witnessed some version of Sunday’s strikes – textbook finishes of low, driven crosses that were almost mirror images of one another – many times before.
“I think it’s BS. I think we can talk about it and the dude can score 150 goals in our league – 120 of them are the same way, and we don’t have the presence in those situations to find that guy’s body and to know where he is,” said Vanney. “That just has to be better.
“They got two off of switches of play, we don’t close out the crosser, give him too much space and he smashes one across the face of the goal.”
TFC had staked themselves to a 1-0 lead via Richie Laryea's well-taken debut MLS goal, only to find themselves on the wrong end of another galling loss. On both occasions Cristian Espinoza was given ample room to smack an inviting delivery into the danger area with Wondo left unattended by both Drew Moor and Chris Mavinga.
“We don’t know where the forward is – the one guy who’s leading the league in the history of scoring, and we don’t even know where he is – and he puts one in,” said Vanney. “Again, he’s scored 120 to 150 goals like that. To me it’s frustrating because our performances aren’t so bad ... if you want to take points, it’s got to better. Protect our goal better and put away chances that the have in front of their goal."
Toronto have now lost four of their last five games, are winless since May 4 and have won just twice in 10 games since the end of March. They visit cross-Canadian rivals Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Friday (10 pm ET | TSN in Canada, MLS LIVE on ESPN+ in US).
“Ultimately the game comes down to the execution of key moments,” Vanney said. “Those are where the wins and losses and draws come down to, those moments.”
