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TFC not happy with Giovinco left off Team Italy

Toronto FC's coach and players have expressed surprise and more than a little irritation at teammate Sebastian Giovinco being left off the Italian team for the European Championship.

Some of their ire was directed at Italy coach Antonio Conte, who said there were "consequences" to playing in Major League Soccer.

Veteran defender Drew Moor took to Twitter to rubbish that claim

"This is my 12th year in @MLS, haven't paid one 'consequence'... #Giovinco #EURO2016," he wrote.

Moor elaborated in an interview after training Tuesday.

"I personally 100 per cent believe (Giovinco) deserves to be there," he said. "I watch a lot of football around the world and if there's 30 Italian players better than him, then I haven't seen them all obviously. I feel bad for Seba. Selfishly we're happy he's going to be a little bit longer."

Giovinco, who continues to rewrite both the MLS and Toronto record book in just his second season in North America, trained Tuesday but did not speak to the media. The Atomic Ant, who played for Conte at Juventus, has one goal in 23 national team appearances.

To a man, Toronto players expressed their disappointment at their teammate being passed over.

"I don't think playing in MLS in any way takes away from the player that he is," said midfielder Will Johnson, who has played in Europe. "In many ways, I think it showcases what a good player he is — his adaptability to come over to a different league and step outside his comfort zone, that many of the other guys on that (Italy) team never do."

Toronto coach Greg Vanney, while acknowledging Conte's right to pick his own squad, said Giovinco's talents speak for themselves.

"Many of our guys have never played with anybody close to the level of Sebastian, so to see a guy of his calibre and the things he's capable of doing, and somebody's saying he's not quite good enough to make a team is kind of an awe-ing moment for guys. Myself included and I've been around some decent players in my time," said Vanney.

"Sebastian can do what he can do at any level. So I think a lot of guys see it as, yeah, it could be a slap in the face. Obviously (we're) disappointed for him, obviously elated that we still have him."

Vanney says Giovinco has been the best player in the North American league since he got there and had more than proved his worth on the international scene in his two Italy call-ups since coming to Toronto.

Vanney, who noted that Conte had originally supported Giovinco's move to MLS, also suggested his star forward will use the snub as motivation.

"Now he's not been selected, my anticipation is he will prove he should have been selected," said Vanney."So again all good things for us. We'll make sure that we'll give him plenty to do while he's here with us."

Said Johnson: "I don't know how you can boost where he's currently at, quite honestly. But if it's possible, Seba will find a way to do it."

The 29-year-old Giovinco has eight goals and five assists this season after winning the Golden Boot as the top scorer in MLS last year with 22 goals and 16 assists.

How important is Giovinco to TFC?

The elusive Italian has been directly involved in 13 of the team's 14 goals this season (92.9 per cent) and 51 of the team's 72 (70.8 per cent) including the 2015 campaign. Excluding Michael Bradley (away with the U.S. team) and injured striker Jozy Altidore, the other 20 outfield players on the team have combined for 82 goals in 1,398 career MLS games. And 50 of those come from Johnson and Moor.

Conte also ignored New York City FC star Andrea Pirlo, whose national team career appears over at 37.

"I spoke to Andrea," Conte said on Tuesday. "I sent people to America for seven days to evaluate him and Sebastian. It's clear that if you make such choices in football then at the end you might pay the consequences.

"We had people in Europe and abroad in order to get very clear ideas."

Not all coaches dismiss MLS.

Belgium, ranked second in the world behind Argentina in the FIFA rankings, has summoned Montreal Impact defender Laurent Ciman.

"Giovinco exclusion defies logic," tweeted Twaylor Twellman, a former U.S. international turned TV analyst.

National-team duty, injuries handicap Impact

The Montreal Impact’s depth will be put to the best Saturday night when the Los Angeles Galaxy visits Saputo Stadium.

Injuries and national team call-ups have left the Impact short-handed, particularly in the back four.

Belgium called up Laurent Ciman for the coming Euro 2016 tournament, while Ambroise Oyongo will join Cameroon for a pair of African Cup qualifying games.

“It’s a great opportunity for Laurent to play in the Euro, but it does leave us short and we have to ask some other players to step up,” said coach Mauro Biello.

The Impact was a bit surprised by the Ciman call-up, which came while the team was digesting a disappointing 2-1 loss in Orlando Saturday. The MLS defender of the year in 2015 was left off the original Belgian selection list, but was added at the last minute. He could be gone until July 10 if Belgium plays up to its No. 2 ranking in the FIFA world list.

In addition to the call-ups, the Impact is dealing with injuries in the back line. The team isn’t rushing Donny Toia back from a hamstring injury and he is about two weeks away from playing.

Victor Cabrera missed the Orlando game with a calf injury and is questionable for the weekend.

“There’s some swelling in the calf,” Biello said after the Impact practised Tuesday. “We gave him another day off today and we’ll see how he feels tomorrow.”

The Impact also awaiting word on Didier Drogba’s health. He missed the Orlando game with a hip flexor injury and returned to Montreal Tuesday after tests and treatment in London.

Hassoun Camara might be the most experienced defender in the lineup Saturday and he has also had injury problems.

“I’ve worked very hard to get to 100 per cent,” said Camara who indicated that he would be agreeable to switching positions.

“We have a difficult situation,” he said. “We’ll see how the coach wants us to play and I’m willing to play centre-back if they need me.”

Wandrille Lefèvre and Maxime Tissot have both seen action in the back four this season although Tissot is more comfortable in the midfield. If Cabrera can’t play, that could open a spot for Kyle Fisher to make his MLS debut. He was the Impact’s first-round selection in the MLS Superdraft in January after earning all-American honours at Clemson. He has been playing with FC Montreal.

The loss in Orlando extended the Impact’s winless streak to six games (four ties and two losses) and the team dissected the latest loss in a video session Tuesday. The consensus was that the Impact strayed from its game plan after a solid first half.

“The game was an open game and both teams wanted to win,” said Camara. “We didn’t win our last game and they were at home and there was a sense of urgency for them. It was a good game for the spectators, but we had to be more organized in the second half. We gave a lot of space to the other team. It was very tough for the back four.”

But the seeds for the loss were sown at the end of the first half when Kaka found Cyle Larin in the box with a free kick to tie the score at 1-1.

“We repeat the same mistakes every week,” Camara said when asked about the Impact’s weakness in defending on set pieces. “We had a great game and we gave them a chance to come back.”

“Our first-half shape was excellent,” said Biello. “In the second half, we didn’t do a good job playing a preventive game. (Carlos) Rivas and Kaka didn’t cone back on defence, which allowed us to push the attack. But when we gave them the ball, they had too much room.”

Notes: Former Impact star Marco Di Vaio is among the Bologna FC front-office personnel meeting with their Impact counterparts this month. … Former major-league pitcher Éric Gagné will attend Saturday’s game and will ring the bell when the Impact scores.

Portland Timbers player evaluations vs. Vancouver Whitecaps second match

For a look back at match highlights and more thoughts about the Portland Timbers 4 to 2 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps for the second of their three scheduled meetings in the 2016 MLS regular season, you can view the first part of our match analysis. There are also links noted here for the MLS official recap, official match stats,quotes and notes, video highlights, complete match commentary and timeline,other assorted statistics,post-match video commentsfrom Timbers Coach Caleb Porter and several players plus the box score and MLS chalkboard that measures statistics like passing rate, tackles, and headers. Here are the ratings for each Timbers player that appeared in the match, plus overall ratings for the coaching staff and team on a scale from 1 (poor) to 10 (epic).

GK Jake Gleeson (90 minutes): 6. It's not like I can fault Jake for either goal conceded on the afternoon – the first goal was off an odd deflection with Jake moving off his line to try and cover ground, but the ball bounced over his head, while number two was a penalty where he guessed the wrong direction. When forced to make saves or deflections, Jake was solid as they come in traffic with several Whitecaps circling about. One thing I did notice was that for the second match in a row, Gleeson and the Timbers employed the short goal kick to outlet to Taylor or Valentin instead of launching long goal kicks, but the strategy seemed to work just fine.

D Zarek Valentin (90 minutes): 6. If there was an award for defending on the ragged edge, Zarek would be the poster child of that as he had several moments of being right on the cusp of disaster. A bad misplay in the first half threatened to derail the afternoon, but instead of wallowing in the problem, Valentin made a wonderful run to recover and block the ball out for a corner kick. Statistically, Valentin was very good with passing the ball and made several solid tackles to stop threats, but there were still a few moments of impending doom. Thankfully, none of them really contributed to problems in the match, and it does appear that Valentin is starting to get more comfortable with his work along the backline.

Despite Chris Klute being available, Timbers Coach Caleb Porter made the decision to use Jermaine Taylor at left back. Of the defensive line, Taylor was the most effective moving forward with several good crosses and movement within traffic.Portland Timbers 

D Nat Borchers (90 minutes): 6. Nat seemed a bit more comfortable along the backline for this match, and I thought his work for much of the first half was outstanding in terms of heading the ball clear and making solid tackles. When the second half came along, an unfortunate deflection led to Vancouver getting some momentum, but Nat remained strong and fought through reasonably well. At least for me, I love the warrior mentality and it came in handy at points, but I do wonder if Nat might need a break for some matches, so I suppose the Copa America break comes at a really good time.

D Liam Ridgewell (90 minutes): 6. Liam has looked more comfortable along the back as well, and I thought much like Nat, he was solid with headers and distributions in the back when needed. The one cardinal sin he did commit was the second half penalty where he grabbed Caps substitute Octavio Rivero and spun him about during a scrum in the box. While Rivero did sell the penalty with a quality dive, Ridgewell grabbed the opposite shoulder to spin him around in the box within the viewing line of Center Official Ted Unkel, and the contact was enough to compel Unkel to make the call. I'm all for physical plays on the pitch, but you have to be smart about it.

D Jermaine Taylor (90 minutes): 7. Jermaine continues to impress me with his versatility by switching between center back and left back, and we saw Taylor get the call to play wide. While he did well physically to hold up challenges and mark where needed, we saw Taylor be able to move forward and execute several quality crosses to his teammates to aid the offense. With a solid passing rate and good movement about the pitch, I was really pleased with Taylor's work on the afternoon and hope that he returns from Copa America (where he's playing for Jamaica) energized and without injury.

With Porter going to 2 defensive midfielders recently, we've seen Ben Zemanski start the last two matches. While his touch sometimes can betray him, I've been generally impressed with his positioning and defense - especially in the second half of the Vancouver match.Portland Timbers 

M Ben Zemanski (90 minutes): 6. I'm usually a fan of Ben's work, but I did notice he was slow to react to certain players and situations in the first half. Whether that was part of adjusting to Diego Chara being there or the Caps flooding certain areas, we saw a much more determined Zemanski in the second half in terms of defending and tracking about. He did get a second assist in the first half when he led Melano into the right corner of the south end, and Melano's cross found McInerney with some help from Whitecaps defender Kendall Waston's stumble. Overall, I liked Ben's work in the second half, but overall it wasn't too bad.

M Diego Chara (90 minutes): 7.5. It was amazing to see Chara return to the lineup after missing the NYCFC match due to injury, and you could tell the midfield was much more at ease with his presence in the center of the pitch. Not only did Diego make several outstanding tackles and create turnovers, but he was able to create plays from distribution and even get forward on a few occasions. Perhaps the best icing on the cake was the fiery Chara avoided being called for a foul on the afternoon nor did he draw any attention from the officiating that required a card. Pretty impressive work for Mr. Chara indeed.

M Darlington Nagbe (90 minutes): 8. I had been wondering when we might see the first goal for Mr. Nagbe on the 2016 season, and we finally saw it in the 82^ndminute with a gorgeous curling free kick that moved past the wall and spun past the post and Caps goalkeeper David Ousted. What we also saw from Darlington was leadership on the attack in being the leader in shot attempts, chances created and a solid effort for passing accuracy while dazzling the crowd with box to box runs in traffic with defenders flying about. It's simply a wonder to watch him work, and the Timbers are fortunate to have one of the great playmakers in the game right now playing on their side.

Before he left for Copa America for the next few weeks to play for the United States Men's National Team, we saw vintage Nagbe versus the Caps - determined in movement, solid runs in traffic, and one of the loveliest free kick goals I've seen in quite a while.Portland Timbers 

M Lucas Melano (62 minutes, substituted by M Dairon Asprilla in 62^nd minute for tactics): 6. I really felt bad for Melano when he pulled his 35^th minute shot off target to the left off a gorgeous sequence where the Caps defense and Ousted were completely flustered, because the goal really could have given a player that needs some breaks much needed confidence. Nobody can dispute Melano's speed has been a huge asset for the Timbers, and his passing has been an underrated component of the offense, but Melano's first touch does still betray him from time to time.

M Dairon Asprilla (28 minutes, brought on for M Lucas Melano in 62^nd minute): 7. Very similar to Melano, Asprilla was the next Timber that really needed some good fortune – especially since he's gone from key contributor along the wing to pure afterthought with rumors speculating about his departure. Asprilla brought an energy and hunger when he joined the match, and not only did he help earn the free kick that Darlington converted, but he showed confidence to take the 78^thminute penalty off a second Kah handball and he scored it with power, finesse and a big back flip.

M Diego Valeri (86 minutes, substituted by M Jack Jewsbury in 86^th minute for injury): 7.5. While Valeri still shows very good creativity and fearlessness in passing, his service from the corner has been suspect this season at best. While the restarts still didn't generate a goal for the Timbers, Valeri did give leadership in scoring the team's first penalty with a wonderful conversion, plus he gave Asprilla a boost by deferring to the young winger to try and convert the second award. It was nervous to see him leave with a slight limp, but according to the team, it was a slight hamstring twinge and it won't keep Diego out for any extended time.

Timbers midfielder Diego Valeri scored the team's first goal off a penalty, but spent the rest of the match being one of the team's best offensive conduits. When engaged, there are few better that Valeri at creating space and time to find teammates, and the Timbers certainly benefited from his work on the afternoon.Portland Timbers 

M Jack Jewsbury (4 minutes, brought on for Diego Valeri in 86^th minute): 5. Jack has played in enough of these battles over the years, it was good to see him get some late time to provide some defense and organization. Imagine the surprise when Jack was played forward late with a wonderful diagonal ball that gave him a chance to attack the goal, but in great fashion, Jack fed McInerney with a great drop pass that was broken up by some harried defense and a slight hesitation from J-Mac. Jack's been a valuable asset for the team all year, and it was great to see him help finish this one out.

F Jack McInerney (89 minutes, substituted by F Neco Brett in 2^nd half stoppage for tactics): 8.5. There were a lot of players to throw about for Man of the Match, but my nominee is number 99 for what I thought was his most impressive effort since joining the Timbers earlier this season. Scouting reports indicate that Jack is best when he can run off other players to create chances, and his goal in the 29^th minute was brought on by running and moving with Zemanski. But McInerney also helped feed teammates with great passes all afternoon while contributing to the defense when needed.

F Neco Brett (1 minute, brought on for F Jack McInerney in 2^nd half stoppage time): 5. With a very thin bench, Porter called up the young forward who been mostly with Timbers 2 over the year, and he was able to get a few minutes of action in relief. Brett leads T2 with 3 goals so far in 10 appearances (tied for first on the team), and so far, he's really been as advertised – fast and decisive with the ball, but really needing more coaching and experience to break down better defenders. Hopefully this won't be the last time we see Neco with the first team this year.

Jack McInerney said he wanted to score a lot of goals for his new side, and he's certainly been one of the better attacking options with 4 goals so far in 2016. What set this performance apart, however, was Jack's ability to hold the ball and find teammates in good spots. He's a underrated distributor of the ball and we saw lots of it against Vancouver.Portland Timbers 

Timbers Coaching Staff: 7. Admittedly, I disagreed with Porter's comments after the NYCFC loss that Portland had played one of their best matches in 2016 but lost due to circumstances; for me, the result came down to the Timbers not taking advantage of the chances created against a team that was playing very conservatively. Porter took the wheels off a bit versus the Caps despite the thin bench, and what we saw was a determined, organized side that took advantage of breaks. It was great to see, and I give Porter credit for sticking to his guns.

Vancouver Whitecaps: 5. Vancouver simply slept walked through the first half of this match, and it took them a long time to recover from the big hole created with two goals conceded early. I give them credit for not backing down, and they got a lifeline with a tally just after the start of the second half, but they just couldn't overcome the individual errors on both sides of the ball to hold the Timbers back. Vancouver is a very good team with plenty of weapons, but it seemed like they were very out of sync for much of the match.

Officiating: 6. The last two weeks have been brutal in terms of officiating, but it was good to see a more measured effort from Ted Unkel and his crew. While I might not have agreed with some of his calls – the second Kah penalty was borderline at best while I've seen others execute what Ridgewell did without getting a call – but the criticisms are minor at best. What was nice to see was that Unkel and his crew were consistent in their calls, and communicated when there was question about making the correct decision.

The last time these teams met in B.C. Place, the Timbers' defense faltered in the second half behind two glaring mistakes. While there were scattered moments for the defenders, they also recovered very well and provided resistance and organization when it was needed. They didn't get the shutout, but this was one of the better scrambling defensive efforts that I've seen in a while.Ben Nelms/Canadia Press via AP 

Overall defensive rating: 6. The Timbers' defense still had too many scattered moments where players were scrambling about to try and cover space, but in previous weeks where the chaos left opposing players available, there was more organization in the scrambling as players fanned out better. Vancouver did have good chances at points to add goals, but overall, the tenacity of the defense really helped rule the day and I give credit to the backline, Gleeson and the defensive midfielders for putting forth a solid collective effort.

Overall offensive rating: 8. Many had been wanting and waiting for the Timbers' offense to really explode for goals, and it couldn't have come at a better time. Granted, some of the output was created by penalties which you can't count upon for chances, but the Timbers did get a very good goal off the run of play from McInerney in the first half and a stunner of a free kick goal from Nagbe in the second. There were plenty of other opportunities to add to the score, but the Timbers did what they had been hoping for – taking advantage of chances.

Overall grade for the Timbers: 7. It was the feel good victory that this team really needed, especially with their leading scorer unavailable due to injury. They scrapped, fought and held together under duress from a very good Vancouver side and did enough to win and resoundingly so. Yes, there were issues on the defensive side and the offense had a few struggles, but the Timbers did something they haven't done much of this season – finish the chances that were created. I hope this result is the jump start this team sorely needs.