Strong second half powers Toronto FC

TORONTO FC 3 COLUMBUS 1

EAST HARTFORD — Perhaps it was playing its first home match in nearly a month about 500 miles away from Toronto and in an empty 40,000 stadium but after a sluggish opening half, Toronto FC used a blistering second-half push to pull away from Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference leading Columbus Crew SC for a 3-1 win in its Rentschler Field debut on Sunday night.

Toronto (8-2-4) struggled to create much in the first half, but it was a different story after halftime. Jozy Altidore tied the match with a blast from just outside the box in the 48th minute after barely touching the ball in prime scoring areas leading up to his second goal of the season.

Toronto’s leading scorer Alejandro Pozuelo rang a shot off the post not long after Altidore’s tally. In the 59th minute, Pozuelo made no mistake as Richie Laryea left the ball for Toronto’s leading scorer and his shot froze Columbus keeper Eloy

Room to was tucked just inside the right post to make it a 2-1 game.

Laryea possessed the ball despite being hounded by a pair of Columbus defenders, he split between the two of them and deposited his second goal of the season in the 76th minute as Toronto pulled within two points of Columbus in the Eastern Conference.

Starters from both teams took a knee for several seconds before the start of the match as MLS continues to push for social reform.

Toronto had a promising opportunity in the 11th minutes but Marco Delgado and Ayo Akinola could not connect.

Toronto goalkeeper Quentin Westberg kept it scoreless as he came off his line and made a sliding save afterGyasi Zardes had a glorious point-blank scoring opportunity in the 22nd minute.

There was nothing Westberg could do when teammate Chris Mavinga’s attempt to clear away a pass into the box by Pedro Santos but instead deflected it into his own net in the 40th minute.

Toronto struggled to create scoring opportunities

in the first half. Jozy Altidore had more yellow cards than first-class scoring chances in the opening 45 minutes. After a foul on the far sideline in first half extra time, Altidore received a talking to by referee Timothy Ford instead of a second yellow card which would have resulted in Toronto playing down a man the rest of the way.

It was first MLS game at Rentschler Field since the New York City FC tied Houston 1-1 on Sept. 23,

2017. The game was originally scheduled for Yankee Stadium but was moved due to a scheduling conflict with the New York Yankees.

The U.S. men’s national

team had posted a 4-1-2 record at Rentschler beginning with the Aug. 17, 2005 win over Trinidad and Tobago in a FIFA World Cup qualification match. The U.S. women’s national squad is 4-0-3 in games in East Hartford.

While there were no fans for the match, Toronto FC President Bill Manning said there is a possibility of a limited number of fans being allowed at the Oct. 18 home game against Atlanta United FC and the Nov. 1 match against Inter Miami CF.