Defensive woes haunt TFC in playoff quest
TORONTO — Every goal has a tale to tell and, on pace for a franchise-worst 66 goals against, Toronto FC can fill volumes this Major League Soccer season.
“It’s the difference in our season,” coach Greg Vanney said Tuesday. “The amount of goals that we have given up is an enormous problem.”
The latest goals, in Saturday’s 2-0 loss at the New York Red Bulls, are another sorry story — errors on top of errors.
The opener, in the 70th minute, was a 25-second real-time sequence that in the cool light of day takes Vanney some two minutes to verbally dissect.
The end is near for Toronto, at least in terms of the post-season, with five games remaining.
Ninth-place Toronto (8-15-6) stands 10 points behind the Montreal Impact (12-14-4), who occupy the sixth and last playoff berth in the Eastern Conference. A Toronto loss or draw against eighth-place New England (8-10-11) on Saturday at BMO Field coupled with a Montreal win at seventh-place D.C. United (9-11-8) would mathematically end TFC’s run at the playoffs.
Toronto got some encouraging news with word that striker Jozy Altidore’s ankle injury may not be too serious.
Altidore, who has had foot and ankle problems before, limped off in the 48th minute Saturday. But Vanney says the U.S. international has not been ruled out of this weekend’s game.
Fellow forward Sebastian Giovinco continues to work his way back from a calf injury that kept him out of the Red Bulls game. But veteran defender Drew Moor is listed as “very questionable” with a calf strain.
The Toronto defence has been hit hard with injuries this season with the absence of Moor and Chris Mavinga particularly painful. In the absence of Moor, Vanney has taken to playing midfielder Michael Bradley in the back once again to direct the backline.
Nothing seems to work. Only the Los Angeles Galaxy (59), San Jose Earthquakes (63) and Orlando City (66) have conceded more goals than Toronto this season.
Minnesota United is tied with Toronto at 57 goals given up.
Couple a porous defence with a TFC team that is 0-14-1 when conceding the first goal and you have trouble.