Reds enter unfriendly territory
Defending champs wary of opposition and turf in house of horrors
There’s nothing Toronto FC likes better than a quick turnaround after a loss, but a trip to New England to take on the Revolution on Saturday, the Reds’ third game in eight days, poses a tough task for an ailing squad.
Toronto is 0-4-2 in its last six trips to Foxborough, with the most recent win in Boston dating back to August 2013. This is the fourth time in the last seven trips to New England that the team played a Wednesday game leading up to the visit, compared to just one midweek game for the Revolution in that time frame. And Toronto is expected to line up at Gillette Stadium without seven players recovering from injuries, with the turf considered a risk. With a 2-5-1record and big goals still in their sights, the Reds can hardly afford another disappointment.
“We don’t have games to give away in terms of trying to get ourselves back into a bigger race for the Supporters’ Shield,” said coach Greg Vanney. “We’re not giving up on any of that, so in that aspect we don’t have games to take lightly.”
In Toronto’s most recent defeat, the opposing Seattle Sounders spent much of the game defending, with their two goals coming off the counterattack. From what Vanney has seen of New England this year, he is expecting something different. The Revolution like to be aggressive, he said, with the backline not afraid to push the rest of the team up the field and into the attack.
“I think they have an interesting set of athletes, guys who are good runners and guys who are decent passers,” Vanney said. “I think since (Revolution coach Brad Friedel’s) been there he has pushed them to be a little bit more aggressive in their setup, in their approach defensively. Similar to us, he likes his line being active and dynamic and squeezing space and closing things up, therefore they can make the game difficult against you if it becomes clear for them.
“If we can make some of these moments uncertain, then they’ll have a hard time figuring out how to press us and we can start to make them defend, but if they have a lot of the ball they have some dynamic guys that force you to make some tough decisions defensively.” One way to make “moments uncertain” is to score first. In 2017, Toronto scored first in 22 of 34 regular-season matches and went on to win 19 of those. Of the 12 matches where they didn’t score first, the Reds came away with just one victory.
That trend has continued this season. The Reds have scored first in two of their three wins this year, going 0-5 when they didn’t bag the first goal.
“When you get the first goal a lot, it changes,” Vanney said. “Any team that wants to sit back and play with lots of numbers on top of their box, it changes their approach. That’s where we, I think, really started to dominate games (in 2017), is when teams adjust their approach and start to open themselves up a little bit, then obviously we did a good job of continuing to create chances and get the second goal and third goal.”
To get that first goal, TFC midfielder Jonathan Osorio said, means coming out with intensity from the get-go.
“We have to be more aggressive at the start and look for that first goal so other teams can open up.”