TORONTO – Toronto FC dropped a third game in a row in a 3-2 loss to the Chicago Fire, in a match that featured a few familiar, albeit unfortunate trends for these new-look Reds.
After conceding three more times, Toronto FC's eight goals allowed are more than any team in MLS. More importantly they failed to defend after scoring a crucial goal, this time conceding after Benoit Cheyrou put TFC up 2-1 in the second half. And, once again, Toronto FC found themselves down a man after Warren Creavalle picked up a second yellow card in the 67th minute.
The game was, for TFC head coach Greg Vanney, a game of high highs and low lows.
“We defended poorly,” Vanney said, bluntly, after the match via conference call. “Individually, at moments, we made some poor defending decisions and even collectively, we didn’t defend very well. I thought our good moments were very, very good but our bad moments were much too bad, if you will. We got ourselves up 2-1, a position to regain control of the game and it happened again. We had a lapse, or a lack of intensity and urgency, and gave up a goal within two minutes.”
Last week at Real Salt Lake, Toronto conceded just one minute after scoring an equalizer. This week TFC tried, unsuccessfully, to stave off a Chicago Fire team that had plenty of chances at goal. But TFC's makeshift back line sorely missed experience in the back four, with Mark Bloom, Steven Caldwell and Damien Perquis all missing this match with injury.
“When you have veteran guys back there, you know that moment after you score is a very urgent moment for the team that just got scored upon,” Vanney explained. “You get a lot more communication, demanding, barking, moving guys around and getting guys engaged, to recognize that this is a moment where we all just need to defend.”
It didn't help that the club had two of their stars -- Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore -- coming off a busy 10 days of international duty with the USMNT. Altidore, who seemed to struggle with a knock after getting clipped in the back of the leg, was “fine, in the grand scheme of things,” but definitely not at his best according to Vanney.
“I didn’t feel like he was probably physically 100 percent,” Vanney said. “That’s to be expected with the amount of travel and play he had in the last week or so.”
And, while Bradley and Altidore will now take the bye week to recover, Creavalle’s suspension will force TFC to shuffle its backline around once again.
Toronto FC has had one player suspended after each of their last three games: before Creavalle, it was a red card to Justin Morrow against Columbus, followed by a Luke Moore suspension dished out by the MLS Disciplinary Committee after the match against Real Salt Lake.
Although he's seen his team receive six red cards in his 14 matches in charge, Vanney doesn't feel it's necessarily a pattern of poor discipline.
“Is it discipline? I don’t think it s discipline at all,” Vanney said. “It’s guys, for the team, trying to make a play and it turns out the way it did. Having said that, we need to be better at starting and finishing games with 11 players. We have to make better decisions defensively and that goes into our choice of tackles.”
Armen Bedakian covers Toronto FC for MLSsoccer.com.
