Toronto FC lays the boot to L.A.
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Jeff Cunningham scored the winner in the 88th minute to give Toronto FC a 3-2 road victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy on Sunday afternoon.
Cunningham and Greg Vanney were fighting for the ball just outside the penalty box, when the Galaxy defender fell to the ground. Cunningham kept his composure as he collected the loose ball before slotting it past Los Angeles goalie Steve Cronin, stunning the California crowd at the Home Depot Center into silence.
Danny Dichio and Jarrod Smith also scored for Toronto (1-2), which recorded its first victory of the 2008 Major League Soccer regular season. The victory was also Toronto's second away from home — its only previous road victory came last season against Real Salt Lake.
Canadian goalkeeper Greg Sutton was outstanding for Toronto, making several brilliant saves to keep his team in a game that Los Angeles, also 1-2 this season, dominated for long periods of times
David Beckham, fresh off scoring his first regular season goal in MLS last week, had an uneven game for the Galaxy. The English star made some nice passes, but he was also largely ineffective from free kicks, his specialty.
Los Angeles was all over Toronto in the opening half, forcing Sutton to make several big saves.
It was Toronto who scored first, though, as Honduran midfielder Amado Guevara, who the club signed last week, played a ball into the box that eluded an L.A. defender, and Dichio drove a one-timer into the back of the net in the 42nd minute.
L.A. hit right back and tied the score the following minute when Landon Donovan took a pass from Chris Klein and then drilled a shot from 25 yards out into lower corner of the net past a diving Sutton.
Jarrod Smith, playing in his first MLS game, re-stored Toronto's lead in the 53rd minute when he connected on a header off a rebound from a Laurent Robert free kick.
Donovan tied it with a penalty kick in the 57th minute after Toronto defender Marco Velez was called for a hand ball in the box.
Toronto hosts Real Salt Lake on April 19 (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 12:30 p.m. ET) in the Canadian club's home opener of the season.
CBC
