Toronto FC Play to Scoreless Draw Against Sporting Kansas City

Kansas City's Aurelien Collin (centre) knocks the ball away from TFC's Tony Tchani

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…

Kansas City's Aurelien Collin (centre) knocks the ball away from TFC's Tony TchaniStefan Frei Earns 4th Clean Sheet of the Season

After giving up six goals in its previous game, Toronto FC rebounded with a much better defensive effort on Saturday night by not giving up a single goal. Unfortunately, the Reds did not score one either and played to a 0-0 draw with Sporting Kansas City at BMO Field.
Last Saturday, TFC (2-5-7) were played off the pitch losing 6-2 to the Eastern Conference leading Philadelphia Union. This time a better result came against Kansas City (1-6-3), a team far from the top of the table and the worst in Major League Soccer. Although in the team’s defence, it has played ten consecutive games on the road to start the season as the team waits for its new stadium to be completed.
With a depleted lineup due to injuries and national team commitments, Toronto was very much undermanned for this match. Alan Gordon missed his sixth straight game with an adductor strain while Jacob Peterson was out as well with a strained hamstring. Adrian Cann suffered a season-ending knee injury in training on Tuesday and was replaced in the lineup by Nana Attakora. Meanwhile, Julian de Guzman and Dicoy Williams were on international duty with Canada and Jamaica, respectively, as both countries play in the CONCACAF Gold Cup starting this week.
Despite not having a full lineup, TFC put in a solid defensive effort and, on the bright side, did not lose another game at home.
“If you are watching and you compare now with last week, it was very good,” said TFC Head Coach Aron Winter. “Even also because we are missing a lot of good players and the guys who came in like Nana (Attakora) Ty (Harden) and Nathan (Sturgis), they’ve done very well. If you watch the first and second half of the game, we didn’t create a lot of opportunities but we didn’t give anything away also, and that’s very good.”
Captain Maicon Santos has ball knocked away from him in the goal areaThe game was not very entertaining in the least, as it seemed both teams were playing not to lose. Neither team created many chances to score but that is also because both had trouble stringing consecutive passes together.

The best chances came in the second half, with Toronto getting the first good opportunity in the 48th minute. Javier Martina put a cross into the penalty area and bounced to Maicon Santos but his first touch was a little hard, allowing the ball to be cleared away just in time by SKC defender Matt Besler.

In the 63rd minute, Teal Bunbury came close for Kansas City, but his low shot was stopped by Frei’s outstretched left hand. Santos had another chance a short while later, when he fired a hard shot, but Eric Kronberg made a big save of his own to keep the game scoreless.
Winter was forced to make a late substitution when Attakora was injured in injury time. Doneil Henry came on and nearly played the role of hero when he connected with a header on a long-range ball, but was stopped by Kronberg. The SKC keeper dove to his left and grabbed the ball in mid-air in what was truly a game-saving stop.
Goalkeeper Stefan Frei, who was coming off the worst professional game of his career, earned his fourth clean sheet of the season and thought his teammates played well defensively in front of him.
“I thought it was very good, you know obviously not the three points we wanted but I think the biggest disappointment from last week was just the work ethic wasn’t there, the will, the pride and I think today that was all there,” said Frei.
“We might of lacked the finishing touch at the end but as the eleven we kept a clean sheet which is a good thing I don’t think we gave them a sniff at goal, there was maybe one or two saves I had to make but other than that they didn’t create much, so very well done defensively as a team.”
TFC's Nathan Sturgis lies down on the ground in pain while the play goes on behind himAttakora, who had been in Winter’s dog house for most of this season, came into the lineup and played very well. He did suffer a knock late in the second half and was taken out of the game with what appears to be a quad injury. He was seen hobbling after the game and will be re-evaluated today, but Toronto can ill afford any more injuries at the moment.

On the Road Again
Playing on the road is never easy and perhaps the poor record by Kansas City is not really indicative of how well the team can be if it had played a few games in front of its home crowd. Starting next week, SKC will play nine straight games at home in the$200 million Livestrong Sporting Park to help even out its lopsided schedule and perhaps allow the club to move up in the standings.
Said SKC Head Coach Peter Vermes, “I think it’s easy to understand the travel and all of that stuff but one thing that most people don’t take into consideration about this ten games is that when you’re always the enemy, week in and week out, and you are never home, you lose the connection back to your fans, back to your organization and you almost as a player, think ‘what are we playing for?”
“Because when you come home and you do a good play everybody cheers and they are on your side, that’s the twelfth man. We haven’t had that. I think that disconnect wound up being a little bit of a problem for some time there. I think the guys really honed in on themselves and got really tough and I think here at the end they finished well. We could be a lot better obviously – we could have won all ten games. That would be the best thing but that is unrealistic especially in a league where we have four teams that only have two wins right now on the road, the only difference is that they have played a lot of games at home as well. For us right now with a chance to come back home is going to be a good step in the right direction.”
Goalkeeper Eric Kronberg added,”We are really excited. Obviously it was a long, long trip and I think everybody is excited for the new stadium. All the pictures and stuff, we’ve trained in it a couple of times, it’s amazing the pitch is perfect and we are all just very excited to play in front of our home fans.”
Toronto, on the other hand, has played nine of its 14 games at home with an unimpressive 2-2-5 record. The Reds will have to find ways to produce results away from BMO Field as the team embarks on a two game road trip, starting in Los Angeles next Saturday. It will be difficult matchup as the Galaxy sit at the top of the league with an 8-2-6 record in 16 games for 30 points.  Kickoff is at 10:30pm ET at The Home Depot Center.

Tchani makes contact with a header while in the air


Game Notes:

Scoring Summary:
None

Toronto FC
— Stefan Frei, Richard Eckersley (Dan Gargan 76), Ty Harden, Nana Attakora (Doneil Henry 89), Danleigh Borman, Tony Tchani, Nathan Sturgis, Mikael Yourassowsky, Javier Martina, Maicon Santos, Joao Plata (Nick Soolsma 67).
Substitutes Not Used: Oscar Cordon, Matt Gold, Keith Makubuya, Milos Kocic.
TOTAL SHOTS: 7 (Maicon Santos 2); SHOTS ON GOAL: 3 (3 tied with 1); FOULS: 16 (Mikael Yourassowsky 4); OFFSIDES: 1 (Maicon Santos 1); CORNER KICKS: 5 (Nathan Sturgis 4); SAVES: 2 (Stefan Frei 2

Sporting KC
— Eric Kronberg, Michael Harrington, Aurelien Collin, Matt Besler, Chance Myers, Ryan Smith, Davy Arnaud, Graham Zusi (Birahim Diop 85), Craig Rocastle (Luke Sassano 60), Omar Bravo, Teal Bunbury (C.J. Sapong 88).
Substitutes Not Used: Korede Aiyegbusi, Julio Cesar, Milos Stojcev, Jon Kempin.
TOTAL SHOTS: 6 (Teal Bunbury 2); SHOTS ON GOAL: 2 (Teal Bunbury 2); FOULS: 16 (Graham Zusi 4); OFFSIDES: 5 (Omar Bravo 3); CORNER KICKS: 5 (Graham Zusi 5); SAVES: 3 (Eric Kronberg 3)

Misconduct Summary:
KC — Omar Bravo (caution; Reckless Foul) 39
KC — Graham Zusi (caution; Reckless Foul) 47+
KC — Aurelien Collin (caution; Unsporting Behavior) 68
TOR — Tony Tchani (caution; Unsporting Behavior) 68
TOR — Richard Eckersley (caution; Reckless Tackle) 69
Referee: Yader Reyes
Referee’s Assistants: Chris Strickland; Peter Balciunas
4th Official: Abiodun Okulaja
Attendance: 19,962

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 below courtesy of Kanishka Sonnadara

Contact Aman Dhanoa at aman@oyetimes.com               
 
Article viewed at: Oye! Times at www.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.


*