Reds thump Simcoe County
Five different scorers in Canadian Championship preliminary round play
Toronto FC put semi-pro Simcoe County Rovers FC to the sword Wednesday, thumping the League1 Ontario champions 5-0 in Canadian Championship preliminary round play.
Prince Owusu, Cassius Mailula, Kevin Long, Jonathan Osorio and Tyrese Spicer scored for Toronto, which led 4-0 at the break with three of the goals coming in nine minutes. Owusu could have had a hat trick or more in the first half.
TFC coach John Herdman emptied his bench in the second half.
Simcoe County showed flashes of its skill but Toronto, despite having dug deep into its roster on the night, had too much. The MLS club’s flank attacks overwhelmed Simcoe, which kicks off its regular season on Sunday.
Toronto will face either the CPL’s Halifax Wanderers FC or Quebec champion CS Saint-Laurent in the quarterfinal. TFC has won the Canadian Championship eight times, most recently in 2020. It has finished runner-up five times.
It was all Toronto in the opening minutes with Simcoe unable to retain possession. But the visitors threatened in the 13th minute when goalkeeper Luka Gavran pushed Alexander Zis’s low free kick from distance off the goalpost to safety.
Zis, taken in the second round of the 2019 CPL-U Sports draft by Forge FC out of the University of Guelph, had a stint in the Saudi third division.
Orlendis Benítez’s looping halfvolley forced another save from Gavran in the 22nd minute. Then normal service resumed. Owusu opened the scoring in the 18th minute, heading home a Kobe Franklin cross after Simcoe was unable to clear the ball, allowing TFC to relaunch its attack. It was the six-foot-three German’s fourth goal in three games and fifth in his past six.
Simcoe began to settle after going down a goal, however, and pieced together several good-looking forays into the Toronto end.
But Osorio, in his 350th appearance in all competitions for TFC, found Owusu in the penalty box and the German fed an unmarked Mailula for a tap-in in the 30th minute for a 2-0 lead. It was the first goal for the South African in his first start for the club.
Three minutes later, the six-foottwo Long headed home an Osorio corner.
Mailula and Owusu set up Osorio in the 39th minute with Owusu heading Mailula’s well-flighted cross back to Osorio who, twisting his body to get off the shot, beat goalkeeper Rimi Olatunji.
Spicer, the first overall pick in the 2024 MLS SuperDraft, made it 5-0 in the 76th minute, heading home Franklin’s cross after taking over Owusu’s forward position.
Simcoe almost scored in the 78th minute but Gavran got a hand to Benitez’s hard shot from close range.
Herdman had sent on Spicer, Sigurd Rosted and 17-year-old midfielder Andrei Dumitru to open the second half. It was a TFC debut for Dumitru, who like 24-year-old Honduran forward Jesús Batiz signed an MLS short-term agreement from Toronto FC II earlier in the day.
Simcoe qualified by winning the League1 Ontario title last year. The club finished runner-up in the 2023 regular season at 15-4-1 before defeating league-leading Scrosoppi FC 4-2 in the championship game last September.