Toronto FC did what many thought impossible tonight and won the Canadian Championship. They will now represent Canada in the CONCACAF Champions League with a chance to qualify for the Club World Cup.

After beating both Vancouver and Montreal 1-0 in Toronto, TFC lost to Vancouver 2-0 in Vancouver. With Vancouver rounding off their games by beating Montreal 2-0 in Montreal it looked an impossible task ...

Vancouver were top after their 4 games with 9 points and a 4-1 F/A total. TFC had played 3 games, won 2 and lost 1, and had F/A of 2-2. The simple math was TFC were 3 goals behind Vancouver but had to win by four clear goals as anything else would mean Vancouver would go through (better goal difference V Toronto).

The first 20 minutes were painful as it sat at 0-0, then it got even worse .... penalty for Montreal and it was scored. TFC now had to score 5 !!! TFC have NEVER scored 5 in their short history. The best was 4 in one game .......

Enter Dwayne DeRosario, Canadian International, star of MLS for a few teams, but now TFC's local boy done good. DeRo was on a mission .... in 29 it was an overhead kick in the box 1-1, in 39 a drive from the edge of the box and it was 1-2. 4 minutes into the second half and he springs the offside trap to make it 1-3. His play inspiring others around him, Guevara made it 1-4 with an excellent free kick in 68 minutes ..... 22 minutes left and only one goal needed .... getting tense now ... into the 82nd minute and a TFC corner. Guevara swings it in and Chad Barrett who has a reputation of not being able to hit a coo's ar$e with a banjo (despite working hard) heads it in for what is technically the championship winning goal if TFC can hold on for 8 minutes plus stoppage time.

TFC are pretty ropey defensively at this stage having sacrificed defenders for more attack minded players with their substitutions earlier in the game. Not to worry though ... into stoppage time and Chad Barrett has a chance, he squares it to Guevara who takes a step and bangs it into the net ... 6 feckin 1 and TFC are definitely the champions of Canada, man tonight felt GOOD !!!!!!!!

not sure if this link is viewable in the UK but here is the link to TFC TV and the goals/highlights

http://torontofc.neulion.com/tfc/console.j...id=3&id=805

oh my!

Grrrr--

I saw Toronto against Vancouver and they were really sharp in the first half but faded as Vancouver came on to a real pacey game and plonked them in.

At that stage I thought that Vancouver had the best chance of winning the whole thing but this is terrific for Taranna.

Dwayne de Rosario is the player I have twice urged ICT to look at . Without success!!

Tireless worker, skilful and a great shot on him. Usually stamps his restless energetic approach on the game and is definitely an inspiration to his mates.

Well done Toronto Scotty--I recorded on here in a previous thread that I was surprised at how skilful the players have become in the North American soccer and the the pace of the game has noticeably improved. I thoroughly enjoyed the match that I saw at Swangard Stadium in Vancouver and the over 5000 crowd also had a great time on a very sunny and beautiful evening here about 2-3 weeks ago.

Scarlet

No , not footballers wife , just surprized by the score . I had watched Toronto beat New York on the weekend

2-1 and didn't think they would win by 4 goals last night.

By the way where is footballers wife ? Maybe on holidays ,awaiting the new season?

Who else now plays in this Champions League of sorts?

Well done

All the best in CONCACAF Champions League

Who else now plays in this Champions League of sorts?

It features 24 teams from North and Central America and the Carribean.

Format: http://www.concacaf.com/competitions/champ...010/format.aspx

Qualifiers: http://www.concacaf.com/competitions/champ...0/qteams09.aspx

The Canadian Champions have to play in the preliminary round, this will be against Puerto Rico Islanders and if we win, we go in a group containing MLS champions Columbus Crew. The Crew are TFC's nearest rivals geographically and in the eyes of many fans, they are to Toronto what County is to ICT.... Incidentally, Columbus were put out by PRI last year so winning the preliminary game is no walkover.

PRELIMINARY ROUND

San Francisco (PAN) vs. San Juan Jabloteh (TRI)

Pachuca (MEX) vs. Jalapa (GUA)

New York Red Bulls (USA) vs. W Connection (TRI)

Olimpia (HON) vs. Arabe Unido (PAN)

Cruz Azul (MEX) vs. Herediano (CRC)

D.C. United (USA) vs. Chalatenango (SLV)

Liberia (CRC) vs. Real Espana (HON)

Toronto FC (CAN) vs. Puerto Rico Islanders (PUR)

GROUP STAGE

Group A

Houston Dynamo (USA)

Metapan (SLV)

Pachuca (MEX) or Jalapa (GUA)

Olimpia (HON) or Arabe Unido (PAN)

Group B

Toluca (MEX)

Marathon (HON)

D.C. United (USA) or Chalatenango (SLV)

San Juan Jabloteh (TRI) or San Francisco FC (PAN)

Group C

Columbus Crew (USA)

Saprissa (CRC)

Cruz Azul (MEX) or Herediano (CRC)

Toronto FC (CAN) or Puerto Rico Islanders (PUR)

Group D

Pumas UNAM (MEX)

Comunicaciones (GUA)

New York Red Bulls (USA) or W Connection (TRI)

Liberia (CRC) or Real Espana (HON)

Must have brought back some great memories of the days when we believed ICT were capable of going out there and scoring a good few goals, Scotty.

Although admittedly we tended to concede a few in the process

Who else now plays in this Champions League of sorts?

It features 24 teams from North and Central America and the Carribean.

Format: http://www.concacaf.com/competitions/champ...010/format.aspx

Qualifiers: http://www.concacaf.com/competitions/champ...0/qteams09.aspx

The Canadian Champions have to play in the preliminary round, this will be against Puerto Rico Islanders and if we win, we go in a group containing MLS champions Columbus Crew. The Crew are TFC's nearest rivals geographically and in the eyes of many fans, they are to Toronto what County is to ICT.... Incidentally, Columbus were put out by PRI last year so winning the preliminary game is no walkover.

PRELIMINARY ROUND

San Francisco (PAN) vs. San Juan Jabloteh (TRI)

Pachuca (MEX) vs. Jalapa (GUA)

New York Red Bulls (USA) vs. W Connection (TRI)

Olimpia (HON) vs. Arabe Unido (PAN)

Cruz Azul (MEX) vs. Herediano (CRC)

D.C. United (USA) vs. Chalatenango (SLV)

Liberia (CRC) vs. Real Espana (HON)

Toronto FC (CAN) vs. Puerto Rico Islanders (PUR)

GROUP STAGE

Group A

Houston Dynamo (USA)

Metapan (SLV)

Pachuca (MEX) or Jalapa (GUA)

Olimpia (HON) or Arabe Unido (PAN)

Group B

Toluca (MEX)

Marathon (HON)

D.C. United (USA) or Chalatenango (SLV)

San Juan Jabloteh (TRI) or San Francisco FC (PAN)

Group C

Columbus Crew (USA)

Saprissa (CRC)

Cruz Azul (MEX) or Herediano (CRC)

Toronto FC (CAN) or Puerto Rico Islanders (PUR)

Group D

Pumas UNAM (MEX)

Comunicaciones (GUA)

New York Red Bulls (USA) or W Connection (TRI)

Liberia (CRC) or Real Espana (HON)

If you get through (hopefully) some amount of travelling involved for the away games Scotty

Given the choice, I think it would have to be Costa Rica !!!

The game against the Puerto Ricans will come too soon to even contemplate a trip (unless its really cheap) and if we do get through, then Mexico would not be an option for me if they made it through. I call it Mexi-NO as too many bad things have happened to Canadians or other "gringos" down there in the last couple of years. That leaves Costa Rica or Columbus !!!

Back to reality .... I might manage Ohio for the Columbus game ... its only about 350 miles

Costa Rica has to be nicer than Puerto Rico. Not sure about Ohio