By Canadian Press

Toronto FC says Giovinco is being hard on himself during scoring drought

Jul 19, 2016 | 1:35 PM

TORONTO — Sebastian Giovinco always wears his heart on his sleeve. Scoreless in eight MLS games, the Italian star’s frustration has been plain to see lately.

Toronto FC officials say Giovinco is just being hard on himself.

“If a player hasn’t scored in a number of games, it’s going to impact their psyche, I don’t care who you are,” said GM Tim Bezbatchenko. “You’re going to be perceived as frustrated and maybe that comes across to some people as not happy.

“But I tell you what, Seba’s committed to Toronto, he’s committed to TFC. He just wants to score goals. I mean that’s why he’s here and his standard for himself is so high that when he’s not scoring a goal or game or something like that, he’s unhappy. But I wouldn’t say that’s anything more than an MVP who wants to be MVP again.”

Coach Greg Vanney was on the same page when asked about Giovinco’s dry spell.

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“I think he’s human,” he said after practice Tuesday. “Before he was doing some things that would awe us all and at some point, he’s going to become human for a bit. I think he’s having a hard time in terms of finding good looks for himself. He’s having a tough time sometimes for us helping him to find looks. Sometimes we’re forcing some things that maybe we don’t need to quite force. We need to be a little more patient with some things.

“He’s a striker and a goal-scorer who prides himself on scoring goals and it’s just not going his way right now for different reasons … I see him putting a lot of pressure on himself to try to make a difference. I can respect that. I just think he’s got to allow us to help him, and vice-versa and he’ll be able to help us. But I think he’s frustrated, obviously. He’s frustrated that he hasn’t been scoring goals. And so we’re here to support him and we’re going to work with him, he’ll work with us. We’ll get this sorted out.”

Since scoring twice against Vancouver in a 4-3 loss May 14, Giovinco has launched 54 shots in league play of which 15 were on target. In his last two games, the Atomic Ant has been accurate on just three of 23 attempts.

Without the injured Jozy Altidore to occupy defenders, opposition teams have swarmed Giovinco in recent weeks. He has resorted to long-distance shots which, as Vanney notes, can go in but not that often.

Giovinco has eight goals and seven assists this season with all but two assists coming in the first 10 games. The numbers don’t do his playmaking skills justice. 

Bezbatchenko says Giovinco is happy at the MLS club and has no plans to leave.

As for interest in the Italian, Bezbatchenko says: “There hasn’t been any hard offers for Seba but there’s always interest in the background.”

Giovinco isn’t the only TFC player out of sorts. Goalkeeper Alex Bono’s gaffe gave nine-man San Jose an unlikely 2-1 win Saturday night.

“Just a lapse of focus,” said Bono, who took full ownership of the error.

Bono, filling in for injured No 1 ‘keeper Clint Irwin, was rooted to the spot on the 70th-minute winning goal from distance by Simon Dawkins. And Toronto was unable to break down a determined San Jose team which had men sent off in the 42nd and 53rd minutes.

Toronto, without four key starters in the injured Michael Bradley, Will Johnson, Altidore and Irwin, has just one win in the last six games (1-3-2).

On the plus side, Toronto (6-7-6) stands fifth in the Eastern Conference and is still in the thick of the playoff picture. Altidore, sidelined since mid-May with a hamstring injury, is expected back this Saturday against D.C. United (5-7-7) in the first of four straight games at home. In all, 10 of Toronto’s remaining 15 matches are at BMO Field.

To climb the table Toronto will have to do better at home, where its 3-1-3 record currently ranks 11th in the league. 

Toronto, tied for 16th in the 20-team league in goal-scoring at 1.11 per game, could use some goals. Thanks in large part to a solid defence, TFC has proved to be an effective front-runner this season with a 6-0-1 record when scoring first. But it is 0-7-4 when it concedes the first goal.

Follow @NeilMDavidson on Twitter

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press