Crew looks to hand second loss to Toronto Next game

Crew SC allowed the opening goal to Toronto FC on April 15 and trailed for 16 minutes. It scored the opening goal against Toronto on May 10 and led for 53 minutes.

Somehow, the Crew won the first game 2-1 and lost the second 2-1.

“That’s soccer,” Crew coach Gregg Berhalter said Wednesday.

Crew SC (6-6-1) visits Toronto’s BMO Field on Friday for the third and final matchup of their regular-season 7 p.m. Friday Ch. 53, Spectrum Sports WWCD-FM (102.5), WVKO-FM (103.1, in Spanish)

series. The Crew split a pair of winnable games against Toronto FC (7-1-5), which leads Major League Soccer with 26 points.

“They were very different games,” Berhalter said. “The first game we went down 1-0 and had to claw our way back into it, but then I think we controlled it pretty well. The second game was an excellent game overall. Watching the tape again, it’s hard to believe the outcome was a 2-1 loss.”

In April, Ola Kamara tied the score in the 37th minute and Justin Meram had the go-ahead goal after a Federico Higuain corner kick in the 43rd. On May 10, an Higuain penalty kick in the 28th minute was the game’s only goal until the 81st minute, when substitute Tosaint Ricketts scored. He struck again in the 90th to give Toronto the win.

“I think there we need to be either more cutthroat in (scoring a second goal) or keep possession long enough that they get impatient and we open them up, and we didn’t do either of those (May 10),” Berhalter said.

Friday is an opportunity for the Crew to wipe away the final 10 minutes of a stunning home loss and to take advantage of the absences of two of Toronto’s top players. Jozy Altidore will miss the game after accumulating a fifth yellow card last week against the New York Red Bulls and Sebastian Giovinco remains out because of a quad strain.

The Crew also has the advantage of knowing it is the only team in MLS to have defeated Toronto FC. Not that it helped May 10.

“It’s not like we’re walking around talking about it all the time, but they only have one loss and it happens to be to us, so it is something that stands out as one of their blemishes on their record so far,” Berhalter said.