The Endline

The Canadian champions welcomed back Amado Guevara and his CD Motagua side of Honduras in a CONCACAF Champions League play in match.

From CONCACAF:
By Vijay Setlur

TORONTO – Chad Barrett’s first half goal stood up to lead Toronto FC over CD Motagua, 1-0, Tuesday, moving the Canadian side closer to its first appearance in the CONCACAF Champions League Group Stage.
The win makes up for Toronto’s first-leg loss at home last year to USL Division 2′s Puerto Rico Islanders in the Preliminary Round, a series the Islanders would go on to win.

More importantly, Toronto now takes with it a 1-0 advantage in the two-leg Preliminary Round aggregate goal series down to the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa for the Aug. 3 game.

The winner will advance to the group stage and join MLS champion Real Salt Lake, Arabe Unido of Panama and the winner of the series between Mexico’s Cruz Azul and San Francisco FC of Panama.

Motagua qualified as the third team out of Honduras after Honduras received Belize’s berth by virtue of its runner-up finish in the 2010 Clausura.

That was back in early May.

The nearly three-month layoff between competitive matches seemed to impact Honduras’ second-most storied club.

Toronto was sharper from the start and it paid off with Barrett’s goal in the 20th minute that delighted the unusually less-than-capacity crowd of 18,891 at BMO Field, which doubles as the national soccer stadium.

Captain and Canadian international Dwayne De Rosario took a quick flick from O’Brian White in the midfield and drove down the right flank before centring a pass to Barrett. Barrett waited on the ball before sending a left-footer past Motagua goalkeeper Donaldo Morales.

Despite a halftime huddle by captain Amado Guevara, Motagua failed to find the equalizer.

Not even the presence of four starters that represented Honduras at the World Cup made much difference. Defender Sergio Mendoza and Emilio Izaguirre, midfielder Guevara and forward Georgie Welcome were non-factors — until the last 10 minutes of the game.

Mendoza had a good chance in the 83rd minute, but his header off a corner was stopped by goalkeeper Stefan Frei. Then, Javier Portillo shanked a great centering pass from Welcome two minutes later to keep the score intact.

Toronto’s defense, which has been shaky committing late-game gaffes in its past two MLS matches, was well organized and focused for the entire 90 minutes.

The return of Guevara, who was released by TFC upon the arrival of coach Preki, was a subplot but Motagua’s fourth all-time leading scorer wasn’t a factor and was subsitituted by coach Ramon Maradiaga at halftime.