Toronto FC coach Bob Bradley hoping his squad can get hot in the D.C. heat
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The heat will be on Toronto FC on Saturday night, in more ways than one.
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The Reds are riding a miserable five-game losing streak heading into Saturday’s match against DC United at Audi Field (equaling the fourth-longest losing streak in the club’s MLS history) and desperately need a result to stay close to the playoff line before some highly-touted reinforcements (led by Lorenzo Insigne) arrive this summer.
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And then there’s the literal heat. The match at the U.S. capital has been moved from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. as temperatures in the D.C. area are expected to reach the 35ºC range.
TFC (3W 7L 2D) has yet to win on the road this season. However, on the surface, Saturday’s match looks like a game the Reds can earn three points. DC United has struggled this season (4W 6L 1D) and is coming off a mid-week 2-0 loss to NYCFC on Wednesday — the club’s sixth loss in the last nine games.
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Last month, the Black and Red fired head coach Hernán Losada and replaced him with Chad Ashton as the new interim manager. It’s a team still trying to find its way. On the other hand, TFC is a team just trying to find enough veterans to play.
The Reds are still dealing with multiple injuries to key players and that has played a big part in the club’s losing streak. The good news is, coach Bob Bradley is expected to have veteran midfielder Jonathan Osorio back. As well, goal-scorer Ayo Akinola could start for the first time since injuring his ACL and undergoing surgery last July.
Bradley needs Akinola to give his team an extra scoring punch, along with new forward Jesus Jimenez, who has seven. The Reds haven’t scored a goal in three straight games and has one in its last four.
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On the down side, Bradley will likely be without the services of attacking midfielder Alejandro Pozuelo, the 2020 MLS MVP, and full back Jacob Shaffelburg, both of whom have lower body injuries. Also unavailable for Saturday’s match are fullback Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty, midfielder Noble Okello, defender Chris Mavinga and full back Kadin Chung.
TFC has 11 points in 12 games, tied with the Chicago Fire for last place in the MLS Eastern Conference.
“We all know that we’re going through a rough time, but at the end of the day we’re doing things that are going to help us (win),” said TFC centre back Carlos Salcedo, who is recently off the COVID health and safety protocol list. “We have to just keep working with the same mentality. If you analyze the games, we’re killing ourselves (with bad goals). We’re all aware that it’s time to raise the bar, to do what we have to do to learn from the mistakes we’ve made and to keep moving forward. I think we’re close to getting some good results.”
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Toronto has not recorded a clean sheet in its last 20 MLS matches, one shy of the club record of 21. In all, the Reds have managed one clean sheet in their last 42 MLS matches dating back to last May. However, TFC almost came away with clean sheets in its last two games – losing 1-0 to both the Vancouver Whitecaps (May 8) and Orlando City (May 14). Tosaint Ricketts scored for Vancouver in the 90th minute while Kyle Smith scored for Orlando two minutes into added time. So there is some optimism heading into the DC United match.
Bradley said new DC coach Losada has kept a lot of Losada’s ideas in terms of tactics. The addition of Greek international Taxiarchis Fountas this season has helped the DC offence.
“They’re still playing with three in the back, some version of 3-4-2-1,” said Bradley. “Taxi has been a good addition, he finds good spots. He scored obviously five goals so far. I think that has been very important for them in this last stretch.
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“The rest, in terms of the way they use their wingbacks (Brad) Smith and Russell (Canouse), pretty good on attack and set pieces (and) getting crosses into the box. They have had some issues defending corners. Yeah, it’s a team that I think responded pretty positively to the coaching change,” Bradley added.
Ola Kamara has also scored five goals for DC United. The Norwegian international has scored six career goals against TFC.
FROM RUSSIA WITH SKILL
There is a report by Transfermarkt.us that Uruguayan left back Diego Laxalt could be TFC-bound. Laxalt, 29, plays for Dynamo Moscow of the Russian Premier League. Citing sources, Transfermarkt.us reports that Laxalt is a potential candidate to join the Reds in place of Italian international Domenico Criscito who reportedly agreed to a deal to join TFC this season but then withdrew from a potential transfer. Laxalt is currently making around $1.7 million per season and, according to the Transfermarkt.us report, that number would not prevent him from moving to Toronto as he would not have to be signed as a Designated Player. According to the report, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia makes it unlikely that TFC would have to pay a transfer fee.
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