FT: Toronto FC 1-2 Vancouver Whitecaps FC – Game thread, preview, how to watch
Live Thread
FT – Toronto FC 1-2 Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
80′ – For Dunfield’s fifth and final substitution of the night, Victor Vázquez takes Alonso Coello’s spot.
79′ – Kerr is replaced by C.J. Sapong. Shane O’Neill enters for Jonathan Osorio.
67′ – Interim TFC head coach Terry Dunfield makes a double substitution: Kobe Franklin and Franco Ibarra make way for Jahkeele Marshall-rutty and Latif Blessing.
66′ – GOAL VANCOUVER WHITECAPS. Ryan Gauld’s cross from open play finds the head of Brian White, his attempt gets past Romero.
56′ – GOAL VANCOUVER WHITECAPS. Tristan Blackmon’s header off a corner levels the contest at one goal apiece.
50′ – GOAL TORONTO FC! Deandre Kerr’s impressive run into the opponent’s half ends up with a left-footed strike from the Canadian attacker hitting the back of the net.
HT – Toronto FC 0-0 Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
40′ – Richie Laryea comes close to scoring against his hometown club. Romero stretches to retain the ball.
33′ – On the ensuing free kick Federico Bernardeschi tests Takaoka from distance, but the Japanese keeper parries the ball away from danger.
32′ – Whitecaps midfielder Sebastian Berhalter is shown the first yellow card of the night.
32′ – Romero is called into action yet again! He saves Ryan Raposo’s effort.
30′ – Tomás Romero gets down low to save a shot from Brian White.
25′ – Lorenzo Insigne’s shot is tipped over the bar by ‘Caps goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka.
11′ – A crucial block from captain Michael Bradley thwarts a goal-bound shot from Vancouver.
9′ – A bit of shaky play from Toronto FC’s defense results in another corner for the visitors.
7′ – Vancouver earns the first corner kick of the match.
2′ – Kobe Franklin wins a free kick for TFC in a good spot.
1′ – And we are underway!
7:05 pm ET – Don’t forget to put your scoreline guesses in our prediction league!
6:35 pm ET – For the first time in about five years, Toronto FC play host to the Vancouver Whitecaps at BMO Field with fans in the stands – that contest ended in a 1-0 win for Vancouver in October 6, 2018. The last time the ‘Caps played the Reds on the shores Lake Ontario, Toronto came away with a 1-0 victory on August 21, 2020.
Starting XIs
Raoul Petretta comes back into the starting lineup after serving a one-match suspension against Philadelphia Union. No Cassius Mailula or Prince Owusu for this match, they are both sidelined with lower body injuries.
Former Toronto FC defender Richie Laryea starts at right wingback for the Whitecaps. Canadians Ryan Raposo and Ali Ahmed also start for Vanni Sartini’s squad. The attacking duo of Ryan Gauld and Brian White will always be a goalscoring threat up top.
Match Preview, by Aasim Hashim
For a brief moment two weeks ago, the troubles at Toronto FC seemed to disappear as the club finally ended an ugly losing streak. After another lengthy break, the Reds will be back in action on Saturday night, hoping to pick up a second win in as many matches, something the club has not done all season long.
Including this weekend’s matchup, the Reds have seven matches left this season. For a club that is sure to undergo major changes this winter, the home stretch will serve as something of a tryout for many of the players vying for a spot on next year’s squad.
Terry Dunfield, who will still take charge of the Reds until the end of this month, will continue to have many of his weapons available for Saturday night’s matchup. Leading scorer Federico Bernardeschi will look to add to his tally while Deandre Kerr and Kobe Franklin will be hoping to keep their places after stellar outings in the Reds’ last matchup against the Philadelphia Union. With Sean Johnson continuing to heal after surgery, Tomás Romero should continue to keep his place in the TFC net.
While the Reds faithful’s hopes of seeing a familiar face on their own team in the form of Sebastian Giovinco appear to have been dashed, they will have to settle for a familiar face on the opposition this weekend when they take on the Vancouver Whitecaps. Canadian international Richie Laryea, who started the MLS season with the Reds on loan, joined the Whitecaps during the July transfer window.
TFC will be very familiar with the danger that Laryea provides. During his time with Toronto, Laryea was one of the few bright spots in every match. On a low-scoring TFC squad, Laryea tallied two goals and three assists in 18 matches with the Reds. His two goals still rank third highest on the Reds (tied with Jonathan Osorio and Mark-Anthony Kaye) and still only sit behind three Reds: Bernardeschi (five goals) and Lorenzo Insigne and Kerr (four goals each).
The ‘Caps currently sit in sixth in the Western Conference, four points ahead of FC Dallas who occupy the ninth and final playoff spot. In anticipation of a playoff run, the ‘Caps have loaded up ahead of the MLS roster freeze that goes into effect tonight at 8 pm ET.
In addition to Laryea, Vancouver acquired Canadian defender Sam Adekugbe on a transfer from Turkish club Hatayspor and most recently announced the signing of Canadian forward Junior Hoilett, as a free agent, until the end of the season. Hoilett will not play in this weekend’s matchup, but Adekugbe is listed as questionable for the Caps’ visit to BMO Field.
Vancouver has found themselves in good form over the last two months. The Western Conference squad has out-and-out lost just two of their previous 10 matches in all competitions. In MLS play, the club is unbeaten in their last three matches with two wins against the Portland Timbers and the Chicago Fire and a 1-1 draw last week against New York City FC.
In Leagues Cup action, the Whitecaps ended group stage play with a shootout loss and a win, before ultimately falling in the Round of 32 through a shootout loss as well.
Head coach Vanni Sartini has not had a problem getting his offence going in the MLS this season. Through 26 regular season matches this season, the ‘Caps have scored 43 goals, second most amongst Western Conference teams, and have failed to score a goal in just three matches. The Whitecaps’ attack is led in tandem by Brian White and Ryan Gauld, each of whom have scored 10 goals a piece.
Gauld, in particular, will be the biggest threat to the Reds’ defence. The Scotland native has scored three goals and contributed two assists over his last three MLS games, including scoring the Whitecaps lone goal in last week’s matchup, and has now extended his run of goals to 11 goals over his last 15 appearances.
Saturday’s match against the Whitecaps will be the beginning of a busy period for the Reds. Following Saturday’s matchup, the Reds will travel to Miami to face Lionel Messi and Inter Miami, followed by a trip to New York to face off against NYCFC next weekend.
Match Details
Opponent: Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Kick-off: 7:30 p.m. ET
Stadium: BMO Field, Toronto, ON
Watch: MLS Season Pass
Anyone know why Mailula isn’t in the roster? Is he injured?
Hey! How’d you manage to get a picture? I can’t figure out how to ‘sign in’ or ‘create an account’ here for the life of me!
He signed a contract to play with TFC therefore he’s obligated to sit out with a lower body injury.
Great start. Insigne trying to beat a triple team and finishing by fouling.
I hope this stupid jersey doesn’t come back next year. It’s got zero to do with TFC, and it’s about as clownish as this club has been recently. Please just go back to red home kits with black, white, or grey away kits.
Oso is lucky to get a free kick on that play. He’s still looking like he has lost half a step and keeps getting caught in possession.
Do the trainers put lead in the boots of all our strikers? What were those touches from Kerr? He was fortunate it fell through one defender but still managed to screw it up.
Even Fede is guilty. Is it nervousness?
His hair looks good, though.
Petretta is so garbage on both sides of the ball. What did Bob ever see in him?
Bernardeschi should take every dangerous free kick. That was a killer strike.
Insigne just lofts it over the goal every time.
They need Herdman to come in asap, this is slightly better than average for TFC and it’s still abysmal.
What is Herdman going to do? His ‘brother(sister)hood’ concept works on national teams because players are stuck together (like family). Players on club teams aren’t tied together in the same way.
What’s he going to do? Hopefully get something out of this team lol. It’s not like he’s my favourite pick but the sooner Dunfield isn’t making the choices the better.
Terrific save from Romero. That ball was labelled for far post-and-in.
That pass from Insigne was pure class! Terrific finish by Kerr, too! I definitely thought he’d mess up that chance.
Great finish
Vancouver’s coach must have told them to push up higher and press the issue. They’re getting killed on the counter almost every time we get the ball back.
Bruh
Just play the kids from the B team in central defence. Nearly every game “experienced” players make the stupidest mistakes. Absolutely nothing to play for and the same bums get game after game after game.
#4 Bradley.. WAKE UP!.. why wasn’t he “retired”..he was Dead head on BOTH Van goals.
Bradley is a bad CB. He keeps losing his man.
He’s there to compensate for the fact that Rosted can’t play the ball.
The pickings are slim (thanks Bob), but that 16-year old (I forgot his name, I’m getting old) and Mabika might be our best two.
This Rosted, Bradley, JMR, Petretta back four is the worst I’ve seen in many years for TFC.
Literally every combination doesn’t work either, that’s the crazy part.
Stefanovic (I remember!) and Mabika. I’d go with those two in the middle with Bradley and O’Neill as the options on the bench.
Rosted and Petretta should never play.
Stefanovic not playing is just another example of bad this organization is. U have an up and coming cb when your over paid center backs are garbage so what u do u put a guy who who has no pace at 36 into that position, it’s crazy.
Vazquez sighting!
Giovinco is apparently not ready but all these guys are primed and ready to go……….imagine that, insane.
I hope Insigne is gone this off season. Such bad body language. No heart.
Fede is the same. They have a class strike or pass in them, but they are both far more likely to try to dribble three defenders simultaneously, lose the ball, and then throw up their hands or put their head down.
I can’t take their level of work rate when wasting possession and just throwing up their hands. The problem is that nobody would want these washed up players for the price we’ve inflated it by.
U are not wrong having said that when they do that no one is making a run to give them an option the goal we scored kerr made a great run but there far too many times overlapping runs or runs into space are not made.i agree I don’t like the effort once they lose the ball that’s unprofessional. But it’s not just them giving it away badly, it’s now also Coelho and Ibarra too. What I think is happening is some of these guys hate each other so much they aren’t gonna work for the other guy and can give zero f*cks about the team’s not just the Italians when Coelho lost it in his own end to book his turn and chase was delayed and slow too. Herdman has his work cut out for him, there is no simple solution here. I’ve never in my life seen a team that absolutely hates each other more than this one. You watch at the end Osorio is covering his mouth to laryea u can just imagine what he is saying. These guys are talking trash about each other hate each other u can see it in their body language.
After the game that Michael Bradley just played is there anyone out there that can honestly say they want him back next year?
I’d take him as a backup for <250k-ish. But he'd probably rather retire and go coach with his dad.
backup ball polisher.
Let see the positive um…well romero had his best game as keeper (still can’t hit a goal kick to half but baby steps). Kerr nice finish from a quality pass from insigne, but insigne has to have a better work rate when he loses the ball. Osorio Michael bradley are done, neither can mark both slower than slow. Franklin has to close down quicker too I do like his effort most of the time but much like JMR he doesn’t close quicker this is coaching most likely not the kids. The body language of this team not just the Italians when we go down is terrible, it’s like collectively they just want the game to end as soon as we go down. Even coello and Ibarra losing the ball way too much too, its like they become worse now too. The other thing is what good does putting in oneill when we are down a goal. For these many players to decline and look so bad this is an organizational and coaching issue number 1.
Agree with what you are seeing. The issue here is not players without skill, it’s a club without desire and belief. Watching Ibarra and Coello come down to the team mediocre level is sad. Small little corrections on defence and a professional sense of urgency would earn them the 6 and 7 figure salaries.
No desire, belief, and no trust in each other or the gameplan.
Ibarra was very good in his first game or two. Then, like the rest of them, he learned not to trust his teammates and looks just as bad now.