By the time Issey Nakajima-Farran, in his last action as a Red, scored the clinching goal in the penalty shootout that saw Toronto FC into the 2014 Voyageur’s Cup final it was, technically, Thursday morning back in the Eastern Time Zone. Now, after flying back across a continent, TFC face an important home match versus the New York Red Bulls a mere 63 hours later in the earliest game of the MLS weekend.
Fortunately, this year’s edition of the Red Bulls are nothing like consistent and look unlikely to repeat their Supporter’s Shield title of 2014. What the Red Bulls do look capable of doing, however, is scoring goals. While they have played four more games than Toronto their tally of 18 goals for more than doubles the Reds’ pitiful seven goals from seven games.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
New York lost a wild shootout last weekend that handed the Chicago Fire their first win of the season even though they managed to score four goals themselves (with Bradley Wright-Phillips suffering through the rare instance of scoring a hat trick in a losing cause). It was the second time this season that the Red Bulls conceded four or more goals in a game. So, while they have kept more clean sheets than TFC, it’s also understandable why New York have conceded 17 times already in 2014 with more than half of those goals coming in only two games.
Certainly, with the first opportunity to market the meeting of Jermaine Defoe and Thierry Henry in MLS, the league would be more than happy with the game exploding into a goalfest. The two former Premier League stars were on opposite sides of the North London divide for years and there will be a certain surrealism to seeing them line-up representing two North American teams. While this is hardly Henry’s first visit to BMO Field it’s still a strange feeling to realize that a player like Nick Hagglund, who was playing college soccer last year, could find himself marking a World Cup and European Championship winner.
If TFC are to be successful, however, they’ll have to start winning without the services of World Cup bound Michael Bradley. While foreseen well in advance, his call-up to the United States national team, and at least month-long absence, is a massive loss for the Reds. With Jeremy Hall still out with an injury and the just added Collen Warner suspended head coach Ryan Nelsen has virtually no option other than to name Kyle Bekker and Jonothan Osorio in central midfield.
It will be the job of the young Canadians to match the irrepressible energy of the Dax McCarty in New York’s midfield. Widely regarded as the engine of New York’s team McCarty contributes the determination, ball-winning, and, often enough, timely goal scoring that has made the difference for the Red Bulls. That said, New York will have their own selection dilemma as their other marquee Designated Player Tim Cahill as been called up to the provisional roster of Australia’s World Cup team and unavailable to partner McCarty in midfield.
Ultimately though, regardless of who’s available or who they’re playing, Toronto FC need to start getting results. The World Cup break is looming and the hot start to the season has cooled off leaving the Reds in the dangerous position of starting to see the Eastern Conference’s playoff positions disappearing into the distance. Yes, they have games in hand, but until you actually win some of those games the standings aren’t going to look very encouraging and the pressure will simply keep mounting.
It’s always absurd to us the phrase “must win” for anything other than an actual must win game but getting back on-track versus a dangerous but vulnerable New York team looks essential. Three losses in a row is a slump, four might be a crisis.