Philadelphia Union Thoroughly Embarrass Toronto FC

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

Canada: Free $30 Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
USA: Free $30 Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…

Union’s Danny Mwanga (right) celebrates one
of his two goals while a frustrated Ty Harden
can only look down
Overall Dreadful Effort by Reds in 6-2 Loss at Home
After Mother Nature aided Toronto FC on Wednesday evening, there was no clasp of thunder, flash of lightning or rain cloud to hide behind on Saturday afternoon. There was some fog but not even that could prevent the glaring deficiencies that exist up and down Toronto’s lineup from being exposed this time.
Second-year Philadelphia Union vaulted into first place in the Eastern Conference with a thorough 6-2 thrashing of TFC at BMO Field. Not all the 20,122 fans went home disappointed as the Union saluted some 30 of its supporters in attendance after the match. However, the majority of TFC fans vociferously booed their club off the pitch at halftime and once the match had mercifully ended.
After all was said and done, aside from captain Maicon Santos scoring two goals and a brief spell of decent play to start the second half, not many positives can be taken away from this dreadful effort in front of their own supporters.
The most frustrated Red had to be goalkeeper Stefan Frei who suffered the worst defeat of his career but little blame should fall on his shoulders. The ten other players on the pitch left him alone and helpless on five of the six goals.
“For me this is the most bitter loss of my career, definitely, hands down,” said a sullen Frei. “So personally like I said it’s a defining moment in my career that it’s important now to bounce back in the next game.”

TFC goalkeeper Stefan Frei watches a missed
ball go past him and into the net 

“You can put someone in who has never played soccer and doesn’t know anything about tactics and I think they would play better than we did today. It’s not unless you show heart, fight, a little bit of pride. You can’t get scored on six times at home.”

Head coach and Technical Director Aron Winter was obviously not happy with his team’s performance either.
“We were humiliated, it was a bad, bad performance from us,” said Winter. “If you saw, from the six goals we get against, at least five we have given away.”
“If you saw how we played in the first half and the second half was a big difference. The second half we start good we are better for it with 3 -2. And then at that moment we have to stay calm because we have given the third goal also away…but it is not the goals against but the way how we get the goal against that is most important.”
TFC were without Alan Gordon (adductor strain) and Jacob Peterson (left hamstring) for the match, but both will look to return to the depleted lineup next week. Meanwhile Winter left defender Adrian Cann on the bench for a day of rest after he looked tired in the abandoned match against Vancouver on Wednesday.

Holy Union
Philadelphia did not waste time exploiting a porous Toronto defence by getting on the score sheet early. In the third minute, the Union’s Gabriel Farfan corralled a cross off his chest before easily getting around defender Dan Gargan and slotting a shot past Frei to make it 1-0.

Justin Mapp (centre) is congratulated by
teammates on the first of his two goals

In the 11th minute, Justin Mapp off a turnover was wide open and he buried a left-footed strike past Frei, just inside the left post to make it 2-0. Kyle Nakazawa made a key tackle on Julian de Guzman that led to the turnover and Mapp made no mistake for his first goal of the year.

Toronto had its first chance when Joao Plata, who was TFC’s best player in the first half, did well to set up Richard Eckersley in the middle. But the defender’s shot sailed narrowly over the crossbar.
The Union put on a nice display of passing around the TFC box in the 43rd minute including a final one-touch heel pass by Danny Mwanga to set up Nakazawa who was all alone. He finished a left-footed strike past a helpless Frei to increase the lead to 3-0.
Winter made two changes to his XI to start the second half by replacing Gargan and de Guzman with Danleigh Borman and Javier Martina.
However, the second half nearly started just as poorly for TFC but Frei made a huge stop on Mwanga on a breakaway in the 49th minute to keep the score 3-0.  Then just over a minute later, substitute Borman put a great through ball up the middle to a streaking Maicon who rushed in on a breakaway of his own. Union keeper Faryd Mondragon made a futile attempt to come out and challenge, but Maicon blew past him with ease before firing into the empty net.

Maicon watches the ball go in on
one of his two goals

A rare turnover by the Union in the 59th minute allowed the ball to roll ahead to Borman. He picked up the ball at the left side of the box and made a perfect pass through the crease to Maicon for an easy tap in. All of a sudden, two great combined efforts from Borman and Maicon closed the gap to 3-2 giving TFC and its fans some hope.

However, the momentum shifted once again a short while later in the 61st minute. Mapp picked off a pass in the midfield and went directly at Ty Harden turning the defender outside in before unleashing a sweet strike into the top corner of the net. Just like that it was 4-2 and the two goal lead was restored.
Then in the 72nd minute directly off a corner kick, Mwanga loosely covered by Harden in the goal area, easily redirected the ball into the net. Then in the 89th minute, Mwanga scored a brace of his own when Mapp found him at the edge of the box. The forward was able to get past a sliding Tony Tchani before walking in all alone and putting the ball over top of Frei to complete the scoring. The six goals is the most ever given up by Toronto at BMO Field.
Winter expressed the need to stay calm and not panic after such a sound defeat. He also used the word ‘rebuild’ yet again, after another disappointing effort from his club.
“Well, most important thing is what I said always is that when you are rebuilding there are ups and downs and also after a defeat like today you have to stay calm. I could be upset with the guys but you have to still have faith and train on those things.”

Union supporters raise their scarves to
celebrate their team’s win

“For me also I don’t understand how it is possible because if you are watching the team the balance is not still there. Because it is impossible that one week you are playing well and after a week later you don’t get a performance where you had previous week.”

TFC and its fans will all be wondering exactly what team will show up next Saturday as club hosts Sporting Kansas City with an evening kickoff of 7pm ET.
 
Game Notes:

Scoring Summary:
PHI — Gabriel Farfan 1 (Jordan Harvey 1) 3
PHI — Justin Mapp 1 (Kyle Nakazawa 2) 11
PHI — Kyle Nakazawa 1 (Danny Mwanga 2, Sebastien Le Toux 2) 45
TOR — Maicon Santos 4 (Danleigh Borman 1) 51
TOR — Maicon Santos 5 (Danleigh Borman 2) 59
PHI — Justin Mapp 2 (unassisted) 61
PHI — Danny Mwanga 2 (Sebastien Le Toux 3) 71
PHI — Danny Mwanga 3 (unassisted) 89

Toronto FC
— Stefan Frei, Richard Eckersley, Dicoy Williams, Ty Harden (Alen Stevanovic 74), Dan Gargan (Danleigh Borman 46), Tony Tchani, Julian de Guzman (Javier Martina 46), Mikael Yourassowsky, Nick Soolsma, Maicon Santos, Joao Plata.
Substitutes Not Used: Nana Attakora, Adrian Cann, Nathan Sturgis, Milos Kocic.

Philadelphia Union
— Faryd Mondragon, Sheanon Williams, Danny Califf, Carlos Valdes, Jordan Harvey, Gabriel Farfan, Kyle Nakazawa (Keon Daniel 63), Brian Carroll, Justin Mapp, Sebastien Le Toux, Danny Mwanga.
Substitutes Not Used: Chris Agorsor, Juan Diego Gonzalez, Jack McInerney, Carlos Ruiz, Roger Torres, Zac MacMath.

Misconduct Summary:
PHI — Jordan Harvey (caution; Reckless Tackle) 39
Referee: Niko Bratsis
Referee’s Assistants: -Claudio Badea; Jason Cullum
4th Official: Ricardo Salazar
Attendance: 20,122

Frei is beaten on another shot and despite his best efforts,
Richard Eckersley can only watch the ball go in
To follow me on twitter click HERE 
Download or stream the 500 Level podcast with co-hosts Aman Dhanoa and Ben Trattner as they discuss news, opinions, and views on Toronto sports from the Upper Deck. Leafs, Raptors, Jays, Argos, TFC – nothing is off limits. It’s good to be a fan!

Also available on iTunes 

Photos courtesy of JP Dhanoa (First five photos) and John Lucero (last photo)

Contact Aman Dhanoa at aman@oyetimes.com 

Share with friends
You can publish this article on your website as long as you provide a link back to this page.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*