{"id":13784,"date":"2012-07-15T14:45:39","date_gmt":"2012-07-15T18:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=13784"},"modified":"2012-07-15T20:24:58","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T00:24:58","slug":"mariner-makes-triumphant-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=13784","title":{"rendered":"Mariner Makes Triumphant Return"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Toronto FC head coach Paul Mariner was an assistant coach in New England from 2004-09. (Photo by CHRIS ADUAMA\/aduama.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2013 Toronto FC head coach Paul Mariner needed just one game to put an end to the Reds five year history of ineptitude at Gillette Stadium.<\/p>\n

Mariner, who got his first taste of coaching in MLS as an assistant with the New England Revolution from 2004-09, led Toronto to a 1-0 road win over the Revs in Foxboro on Saturday night, putting an end to TFC\u2019s six game winless run (0-4-2) in New England, dating back to the club joining MLS in 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing to New England is always difficult,\u201d said Mariner. \u201cSometimes the turf field can get into your head, but I thought the boys matched up incredibly well tonight. It was a bit of an onslaught second half but if you look at the chances we had first half and you look at the chances on the break second half, I\u2019m going to take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mariner, just 37 days into his tenure as Toronto\u2019s head coach, found the winning strategy to beat the Revs. Relying mostly on sitting back and hitting on the counterattack, Toronto took advantage of an early injury that \u00a0forced the Revs to shake up their defense with Shalrie Joseph replacing Stephen McCarthy and grabbed an eighth minute goal through rookie Luis Silva in the confusion.<\/p>\n

And while Toronto\u2019s defense managed to keep the Revs mostly quiet, had Ryan Johnson done better with his two gilt-edged chances created by precision TFC counterattacks, the Reds could\u2019ve been much more comfortable in their win.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s more than one way to skin a cat … We started off 4-4-2, and then we went to 4-5-1 then later on we just had to try and stem the tide a little bit so we went back to 4-4-2,\u201d said Mariner. \u201cNew England were pressing and pressing, and had some chances. (Milos Kocic) made a couple of great saves for us, but having said that, we could have had more goals on the break.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see it in world football all over. (Jose) Mourinho did it with Inter (Milan) and you know how that went so why can\u2019t we do it,\u201d continued Mariner, referencing Italian club Inter Milan\u2019s run in winning the 2009\u201310 UEFA Champions League. Inter used a counterattacking strategy superbly to beat heavily favored FC Barcelona in the semifinals under the guidance of legendary head coach Jose Mourinho.<\/p>\n

While the Revs are certainly no Barcelona \u2013 and Toronto\u2019s no Inter Milan \u2013 the\u00a0sizable\u00a0advantages in possession (65.5%) and passing accuracy (78.6% compared to 60.8% for TFC) held by the Revs weren\u2019t too dissimilar \u2013 though not quite as pronounced \u2013 from the edge Barcelona generally holds over opponents and held in their two-leg loss to Inter.<\/p>\n

That Toronto was able to succeed with their counterattacking game plan by silencing New England \u2013 a team that had scored at least two goals in seven of their last eight games \u2013 with a starting defense whose ages ranged from 19 to 24, made the win even more impressive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the back four, the average age of the back four is what 21, 22 – quite remarkable,\u201d said Mariner. \u201cThey\u2019re learning on the job and they\u2019re learning very quick. I thought the screen in front was fantastic. A couple of boys thrown right into the deep end tonight, Aaron Maund and Andrew Wiedeman came in and did great shifts, so it bodes well for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The win continued Toronto\u2019s remarkable turnaround under Mariner. Despite a hectic schedule the past month with nine games in just 28 days, the club is 3-2-4 \u2013 a record that also includes a 2-2 draw with the Revs in Toronto \u2013 since the former English International took over as head coach. The Canadian club had started the season a dismal 1-9-0 under former head coach Aron Winter. Toronto has also scored 14 goals in Mariner\u2019s nine games in charge after scoring just eight in their first ten.<\/p>\n

The transformation \u2013 at least on the offensive end \u2013 might not come as much of a surprise to followers of the Revolution. Mariner, whose playing career as a striker included successful stints at Arsenal, Ipswich and Plymouth, was a big part of the Revs coaching staff when the team had one of the better offenses in MLS in the mid-2000s.<\/p>\n

But while Mariner may have advanced his trade in his over five years with New England \u2013 and says he still follows the club\u2019s progress \u2013 on Saturday, he was excited for his Toronto side to emerge victories at the Revs expense.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me to come back and get a win is a wonderful thing,\u201d said Mariner. \u201cObviously I feel sorry for (Revs head coach) Jay (Heaps) because his team was going in the right direction, and still will go in the right direction. But the memories I\u2019ve got of this football club and the people around this football club are well documented. I had a wonderful time with Mr. (Robert) Kraft, and Jonathan (Kraft), and Sunil (Gulati). I always look for the (Revs) results, but when we play Toronto I obviously want Toronto to win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Revs assistant coach leads Toronto to first-ever win in Foxboro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[24,9,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/marinerfeature2.jpg?fit=490%2C240","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13784"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13784"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13792,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13784\/revisions\/13792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}