Toronto FC signalled their title credentials with an exciting 3-2 win at sold-out Kansas City Wizards last night. Amado Guevara struck twice for the visitors and Toronto coach John Carver said afterwards: "I wish he wasn't going away next week with the Honduran national team. We all know what Amado's about.
"He's very technical, he's a clever player. I wanted him to play a little higher and up the field today. He needed to be more effective in the final third, and now he's got guys to play with and combine with and bring even more out of him."
The former Newcastle United assistant coach added: "You can tell by the smile on my face that I'm absolutely delighted. Our road record last season wasn't great, and it was important that we came in to the first game of the season and got something from it. I'm delighted with the three points and delighted with the performance. There were some fantastic goals in the game. Jimmy Brennan's strike for us and Kansas City's two goals were all great strikes. The goalkeeper couldn't do anything about those."
Meanwhile, Wizards coach Curt Onalfo said: "I thought we started jittery. I thought we were a little bit nervous the first ten minutes, but that can happen on opening day. Once we settled down, I thought we actually started playing pretty well, and that's when we gave up the goal. We lost the ball in a very difficult part of the field, and to their credit they capitalized on it. There were some real positives today, but at the end of the day, we dug ourselves a hole that was too deep to get out of."
On the debut of highly-rated Argentine midfielder Santiago Hirsig, Onalfo added: "I thought he came in and did a solid job. We knew we had to get him moving along. He needs to get 90-minute game fit, and at times you have to use the games to get guys the minutes they need to make sure that they progress."
Onalfo also thanked Wizards fans for selling out the stadium for the season kickoff: "I thought the crowd was excellent. I think they helped us once we scored our goals to get a little momentum. Unfortunately each time we had the momentum we made an error that put us behind the eight ball, but it was certainly nice to see the great turnout here tonight."
