Koffie’s Performance Key in Draw to TFC
- Updated: April 9, 2016
Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Sebastian Giovinco may have victimized the Revolution for the first time during his brief MLS career to date, but the fact that it didn’t come easily was due in large part from a stout performance from midfielder Gershon Koffie.
The sixth-year center half, who missed last week’s match while serving a red card suspension, was tasked with containing the elusive striker, which he did for the most part during the course of Saturday’s draw.
“He’s their danger man,” Koffie said, “and if you can keep that danger man out of the game, you can win the game, which coach asked us to do, I thought we did that.”
Koffie connected on a team-high 92 percent of his passes, intercepted six balls in the middle third where opposing central midfielders Michael Bradley and Will Johnson were unable to get the Reds’ attack started during the first half.
“Gershon had an excellent night,” Heaps said. “There was one — I think one time at the end of the night when he got picked, but other than that, he had a near perfect night with the ball and defensively, especially when he took an early card.”
The card came from a foul on Giovinco a few yards in front of the box during the 20th minute. But according to Heaps, the booking wasn’t justified.
“I don’t think that was,” Heaps said. “I think that was a Giovinco call, as they say. It’s what happens when a really good player sells it, and so Gershon gets a yellow on that.”
Despite the early booking, the 24-year-old midfielder was forced to pick his spots without losing any effectiveness. In fact, the only time Giovinco was able to burn the Revolution came immediately after Justin Morrow took out Koffie on a crushing tackle that’ll likely prompt a suspension from the MLS Disciplinary Committee,
“The rest of the play he had to play really smart because you know that referees are going to give other yellows,” Heaps said. “I talked to him at halftime about being smart, and that’s what he was all game.”
The booking was the third time Koffie had his number scribbled down by the referee this season. Even so, he wasn’t about to shy away from a challenge when the occasion called for it.
“If the yellow card comes out, it shouldn’t affect your game or my game,” Koffie said. “You should just keep playing.”
Granted, Koffie would’ve liked to have kept Giovinco off the board completely to get maximum points from Toronto. But the veteran midfielder wasn’t entirely disappointed with the way he and his teammates were able to get something from Saturday’s match.
“It’s tough man, it’s tough but we take the good part of the game and we got one point,” Koffie said. “We are just going to go back to work on Tuesday and we’ll see the next game up.”
Related Posts
About Brian O'Connell
