‘Competitive rebound’ goal with hot Red Bulls in town

Toronto FC’s up-and-down MLS season hit a low in last week’s 2-1 loss at New York City FC. The 68th-minute winning goal by Norwegian striker Jo Inge Berget was an ugly snapshot of what has gone wrong this season. After an eight-pass buildup, Toronto midfielder Marky Delgado’s attempt to get the ball to Victor Vazquez instead went to a NYCFC defender at the edge of the penalty box. Four passes later, New York had scored at the other end.

It was another example of giving the ball away in a bad place, something coach Greg Vanney has harped on of late. The giveaway stranded five Toronto attackers looking to continue the attack.

But more worrying is the body language after the errant Delgado pass. Forward Sebastian Giovinco throws his arms up in frustration. Vazquez and Nico Hasler hunched over.

As the NYCFC counter-attack builds speed, the Toronto midfield moves back at a leisurely pace. One pass cuts four of them out, leaving a back-peddling Nick Hagglund unable to deal with an onrushing Berget. Fellow defender Eriq Zavaleta can’t cut in to help because he has another attacker on his shoulder in the absence of the Toronto wingback caught up field.

Toronto’s 29th goal conceded this season is hard to watch.

“It was hot. Guys were obviously frustrated because it was a pass maybe we weren’t expecting to lose,” Vanney said after training Friday. “And we’ve been talking about not losing balls where we’re 100 per cent in possession and then all of a sudden we’re100 per cent out of possession.

“Regardless of all that, our reactions just need to be better in that moment. We need to push through it, try to recover and put out the fire.”

Toronto looks to try to regain its footing as the other New York team, the Red Bulls, comes to visit Sunday on what promises to be a torrid Canada Day afternoon with 35 C temperatures in the forecast.

The Red Bulls (9-4-2) enter the weekend in third place in the East, 14 points ahead of 10th-place Toronto (4-8-3).

The visitors have been in good form in league play of late, unbeaten in three games (2-0-1) and having lost just once in their last nine outings (6-1-2).

“A good competitive rebound game for us,” said Vanney.

Six points out of a playoff spot with at least a game in hand on most of those above it in the Eastern Conference, the season is far from over for the MLS champions.

Vanney believes his team is overthinking things, trying to do too much.

“We feel like ‘We have to get a win, we have to get a win, we have to get a win’ ” said Vanney, whose team has only four league victories in 15 tries. “And so sometimes I think we get a little extended trying to win the game early when over 90 minutes if we just stick to what we do then we give ourselves the best chance to win the game.

“And that was something we were so good at last year. And a lot of is we were able to get the first goal and be able to control the game thereafter.”

This season, Toronto has scored just one goal in the first 15 minutes of a game while conceding seven over the same time period.