Toronto FC fall to Chicago Fire

Toronto FC’s preseason continued with a 1-0 defeat to Chicago Fire in Charleston on Saturday night. Marco Pappa scored the only goal of the game in the sixth minute to give Chicago a victory in the opening game of the Carolina Challenge Cup.

Chicago broke quickly into the box and Davis Paul pulled the ball back into the path of Marco Pappa who scored from close range to give the Fire a 1-0 lead. In the 35th minute, Chicago were reduced to 10 men when captain Logan Pause was sent off for a foul on Toronto FC Academy midfielder Oscar Cordon. With the man advantage, Toronto kept most of the possession for the final 10 minutes of the half. At the half Toronto switched to a 3-4-3 formation in an attempt to find the tying goal. "The important thing was to keep the pressure in the front, and that’s why we played different in the second half. We wanted to get more pressure from the midfield up to the front ," said Toronto FC Head Coach and Technical Director Aron Winter. "We are playing our own game and we have done it quite well. We are still in preseason but the five weeks have gone much better than I expected, but we still have to work hard."

Despite dominating play for most of the second half Toronto could not find the tying goal. The best opportunity for the Reds came with 14 minutes remaining when Maicon Santos fed Oscar Cordon and the Academy midfielder fired narrowly wide. Santos then had an opportunity on goal himself two minutes later but was denied by an excellent save from Chicago goalkeeper Sean Johnson.

Toronto FC will return to action on Wednesday against hosts Charleston Battery at 7:15 p.m. Fans can watch the match on the club’s official website TorontoFC.ca.

Scoring summary:

Toronto FC: – 
Chicago Fire: Marco Pappa 6′

Toronto FC (4-3-3) Stefan Frei, Dan Gargan, Nana Attakora, Mikael Yourassowsky (Matt Stinson 87′), Ashtone Morgan (Andrew Ornoch 46′), Nick LaBrocca (Keith Makubuya 69′), Oscar Cordon, Jacob Peterson (Nathan Sturgis 79′), Javier Martina (Gianluca Zavarise 84′), Maicon Santos, Joao Plata (Nick Soolsma 46′) 

Chicago Fire: (3-5-2) Sean Johnson, Jalil Anibaba (Gonzalo Segares 46′), Josip Mikulic, Cory Gibbs, Bratislav Ristic, Baggio Husidic, Logan Pause, Marco Pappa (Corben Bone 84′), Davis Paul (Patrick Nyarko 63′), Gaston Puerari (Marko Maric 39′, Mike Videira 50′), Diego Chaves (Gabriel Ferrari 79′)

Toronto FC 2011 Preseason Results (1-3-1):

February 2 – Tied 1-1 vs. Partizan Belgrade, Nana Attakora 6′
February 6 – Won 1-0 vs. Red Star Belgrade, Matt Stinson 41′
February 10 – Lost 3-1 vs. Dinamo Zagreb, Gianluca Zavarise 46′
February 24 – Lost 3-2 vs. Houston Dynamo, Jacob Peterson 7′, Dwayne De Rosario (pen) 30′
February 26- Lost 1-0 .vs. Orlando City
March 3- Won 1-0 .vs. Charleston College, Joao Plata 40′
March 5- Lost 1-0 .vs. Chicago Fire