While everyone was busy celebrating one miniature dynamo’s fourth Champions League victory, The MLS’s Messi, Sebastian Giovinco, was ripping it up stateside.
Giovinco scored two goals to lead Toronto FC to a 2-1 comeback victory over the Eastern Conference’s top team, D.C United.
Giovinco’s latest brace puts his goal tally up to seven, tying him for third in the league. He shares the league lead in assists, with six. Toronto FC now have thirteen points with twelve games played on the season.
Giovinco is leading many people to believe that, if he can maintain this form and lead Toronto FC to their first playoff berth in franchise history, he will no doubt be the MLS’s MVP. Toronto currently sit third in the East.
And why wouldn’t he be? Getting Toronto FC to the playoffs is no easy feat. Toronto are experts in capitulation. In the nine years they’ve existed they have not made the playoffs once. Coaching changes, ownership unrest and even fan backlash dog the club.
Jermaine Defoe wasn’t enough to get them in the playoffs last year, and the coaches were fired shortly before last season’s end, including head coach Ryan Nelsen. Defoe, a former Premier League colleague of Nelsen, demanded out of Toronto soon after. He is currently at Sunderland.
After last year Toronto became the MLS’s hopeless club. Even their Canadian brethren, The Vancouver Whitecaps and Montreal Impact, have made the playoffs ,and both clubs haven’t even played in MLS for half a decade yet. They certainly haven’t spent as much money.
But Mamma Mia! A new day has come.
Hope has arrived and his name is Sebastian Giovinco. Giovinco’s silky displays and dominating performances have been the talk of the league. Can he be the man to finally do it? Can he save the MLS’s saddest Canadian tragedy?
There is still a lot of football to be played this season, but if Sebastian Giovinco can indeed lead his club to the playoffs. He will no doubt deserve his praise and the MVP nod.
