MLS Toronto FC

Charlotte FC (3) - Toronto FC (0) Postgame Summary

Published on October 4, 2023 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Toronto FC News Release


SCORING SUMMARY

CLT - Karol Świderski 8' (penalty kick)

CLT - Karol Świderski 45+2' (penalty kick)

CLT - Brecht Dejaegere 56' (Karol Świderski, Kamil Jóźwiak)

MISCONDUCT SUMMARY

TOR - Michael Bradley 26' (caution)

TOR - Hugo Mbongue 45+6' (caution)

RECORDS (W-L-T)

Charlotte FC 8-11-12 36 points

Toronto FC 4-18-10 22 points

LINEUPS

CHARLOTTE FC - Kristijan Kahlina; Nathan Byrne, Adilson Malanda, Andrew Privett, Jere Uronen (Jaylin Lindsey 55'); Ashley Westwood (C) (Scott Arfield 79'), Karol Świderski (Justin Meram 79'), Brandt Bronico (Derrick Jones 67'); Kamil Jóźwiak, Brecht Dejaegere (Kerwin Vargas 67'), Enzo Copetti

Substitutes Not Used: George Marks, Bill Tuiloma, McKinze Gaines, Patrick Agyemang

TORONTO FC - Luka Gavran; Sigurd Rosted (Shane O'Neill 44'), Michael Bradley (C), Aimé Mabika; Kobe Franklin, Jonathan Osorio, Alonso Coello, Cristian Gutiérrez (Themi Antonoglou 46'); Federico Bernardeschi (Cassius Mailula 74'), Víctor Vázquez (Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty 46'), Hugo Mbongue (Prince Owusu 61')

Substitutes Not Used: Tomás Romero, Franco Ibarra, Julian Altobelli

MEDIA NOTES

Hugo Mbongue made his first start for Toronto FC.

TERRY DUNFIELD - INTERIM HEAD COACH, TORONTO FC

Q. Obviously a difficult evening. You were up against a very motivated opponent who are tough to play on their home turf. Can you give us your overall thoughts on the evening, and whether you had any thoughts about the two penalties that played a pretty big part in the first half?

Yeah, I thought Charlotte, I agree with you, and we knew it coming in, were a very motivated side. So I think that that's part of the storyline for sure, and then they get a little bit of a lift with the early penalty. But I thought there was some nice spells of football from us where we created some big chances. Unfortunately, we were not able to score. And then a second penalty, it's tough for our guys to I think handle mentally, but we kept going, and I don't think anyone stopped working for our club in the second half. Yeah, there was some nice football in between.

Q. Maybe if not for the efforts of Luka [Gavran], it probably would have been worse because he came up with some really fantastic saves. Just wanted to go ahead your sort of opinion on his performance tonight, and what made you sort of give him the start sort of three games ago? What gave you the faith that he could handle this run of games?

I think he's earnt the opportunity with his performances with TFC II, how he's been training over the last three months. Yeah, he's been big over the last three games for sure. So yeah, amazing to see that nothing phases him. He's got a fantastic personality where he just sticks his chest out and gets after it. I thought his decision-making, too, was good; when to go back, when to go long.

But not just Luka, I thought there was some big performances in a tough result a game where we had a tough result. I thought there was some nice individual performances.

Q. Not to dwell on it too much but did you get any explanation on that first kick, seemed like play carried on before they reviewed it. What does a setback like that do to a side so early in the game?

Yeah, it's definitely, mentally, for sure but I think the resilience we showed from Cincinnati coming back from two-nil down that we can do it, but that was important, and just how tough this year is, and coming back from those decisions. I think it's going to set us up for the rest of our careers. I don't think it's going to get harder than this, and the fact that we keep continuing to move forward is important.

But yeah, I haven't had a chance to review it post-game. I had a look on our monitor and it looked like Luka got some ball. I was told by the fourth official that Luka didn't get any ball and it was contact and that's why the penalty was given.

Q. I know you're in charge this week, so forgive me for having this but we weren't there tonight; John [Herdman] was. Did he have any interaction with the players, or was he a fly on the wall, so to speak?

John and his staff have been flies on the wall, Simon Eaddy, our new goalkeeping coach, worked with Dave Monsalve tonight and was part of our staff on the bench.

Q. First career start for Hugo [Mbongue], which is a pretty good assignment for a 19-year-oled. Just wanted to get your sort of general impression of how he performed over his 61 minutes?

Yeah, I thought he carried on from where he left off against Cincinnati. There's maybe a half chance right at the end of the first half where if he really commits to it, maybe he has a nice opportunity, he's on the rebound. I thought he adjusted well in-game with Charlotte, ran in high on their back line on numerous occasions. I think he can be proud of his performance. He keeps making it a hard job to take him off. It was the plan at 60 to bring Prince on and that's probably the biggest compliment I can give him. We just miss his presence up top when he's come off the last two games.

Q. Speaking of preplan, the [Víctor] Vázquez and [Cristian] Gutiérrez subs at halftime, was that them coming back on injury? And is there an update an Sigurd [Rosted]?

No update on Sigurd as yet. The plan for Victor and Guti I was to play 45 with three games in seven days. It was great to see them back out on the pitch, and I thought both helped us in possession.

Q. It looked like you started off with the back three to begin the match but then shifted to a back four after the opening few minutes. Can you kind of explain that decision?

Yeah, part of it was to get pressure on Charlotte's back line, and they adjust depending how many we pressed with, and I thought in the attacking half, too, it gives us a nice front four. We scored our goals in that structure, as well, against Cincinnati, kind of Oso underneath Hugo or Victor at times, those two kind of exchange. But it allows us to be a little bit more on the front foot but you do lose a number in the box. Our feel is that we can only stay in the 4-2-3-1 for a certain amount of time and then we go back to the five. I think the role really suits Michael [Bradley] well.

Q. You talked about how you were proud of the guys keeping going against a tough evening. But this is sort of one more body blow in a series of body blows. It must be hard for the team to be taking this. What is the mood right now?

Yeah, I think we're all human, and these tough results do build up and a body blow is a good way to say it. But we can't feel sorry for ourselves for too long. We've got a game in less than 72 hours and what we try to do is focus on positives. And I think it would be easy for us to go towards the two tough calls on the penalty, on the penalties that we gave up, and that would just feed to, from my side, just feeling sorry for ourselves. I think we have to remain positive, and there were some good individual performances in there that Herdman and his staff would have seen.

Q. Curious what the next two days look like. Will you guys return to Toronto or are you going to stay in Charlotte and then leave for New York and will you get a training session in before the weekend?

Yeah, our plan is to travel back tonight. We'll review the game, go over it with the guys tomorrow. The guys who didn't play a ton of minutes today, they will train tomorrow. The guys who played heavy minutes will regen and then we start to shift towards the Red Bulls.

JONATHAN OSORIO - MIDFIELDER, TORONTO FC

Q. A tough result with only two games left in the season, what's the mood like generally speaking with the team right now after another disappointing result and performance?

I would say it's frustrating. Frustrated. We're very frustrated with how this season has gone. We know that we've let our fans down. You know, we let ourselves down in a lot of these games. I also think that you would hope that, you know, a bounce or two would go our way, and it just seems like we can't even make that happen.

So yeah, it's difficult right now mentally for everybody. But what I would say, guys are trying. You know, we're giving it our all, and I think in a game like today when calls don't go our way, two penalties and then we go down with the way the season's gone, and the state of everybody's mentality, it's difficult. It's difficult in a game like this, and at this pitch against a team that's fighting, you know, for their lives to get into the playoffs, it's difficult, I would say. So all we can do is look forward to the next game and try to put a better performance in today.

Q. You've experienced great highs with this team and some pretty bad lows. I know everybody is trying to do their best and I think this team is better than its record reflects, but how does this season compare to what you've gone through in the past? It must be a very difficult experience.

To be honest, I've been a part of a few losing seasons, unfortunately, in my career. But I can say honestly, I've never gone through a year like this. I don't know anybody has to be honest. I'm pretty sure none of us have gone through a year like this, and it's frustrating. It's very, very frustrating. There's just so many things, to be honest. It's not just a couple of things. There's many things, and things that are even, you know, sometimes out of your control. That's the frustrating part I think.

And so yeah, it's been tough. It's been a very tough year. But you know, can't feel sorry for ourselves. I think the first thing everyone has to do is look at themselves in the mirror to see what everybody individually can do better and then yeah, we have two games to put in performances that make the fans actually proud of at least these last two games, and for ourselves, we have to play for our own pride as well. Because we can't just back down now because we're not the best and whatever. It's easy to do that. We have to go into these two games with, really, playing with that feeling that there's nothing to lose and everything to gain, and sometimes that's a good thing. That's the mentality we have to go with moving forward the last two games.

Q. What's going through your mind when they make that early VAR decision to give that penalty kick? What does that do to a side that's already up against it?

Yeah, it's really hard to explain. But the best way, I guess, that I could explain it, just it's frustrating. I can't really think of another word right now. It's just frustrating how that can really go either way, and to be honest, I haven't seen the replay of both the penalties, but in real time, at the time in the first penalty, I thought it didn't seem like he got a lot of him and the ball would bounce there and he got the ball, so I don't know.

I haven't seen the replay to be honest but it just seems like every call like that goes against us, every one. And so unfortunately this year, we have not had a good mentality. We have been very fragile when it comes to going down a goal. And to be honest, being on the inside, it's understandable because of everything that has happened. I'm not trying to make excuses but with everything that I think people have gone through and the way the season's gone, when calls like that go against you, it's very demoralizing. It takes real mental strength to come back from that. I thought we showed a little bit of that in the last game against a first-placed team after going up 2-0, but today we weren't able to do that.

Q. Just curious what it's been like this week having John [Herdman] finally having arrived at the team. I know he's not necessarily working with the team and he's taking a hands-off approach but what it's been like having him in camp, and you know, you work with him obviously with the national team and you know the sort of magic that he can wield. Are you confident that he can help turn this team around much like he turned around the Canadian men's team?

Yeah, I'm very confident he can do it. I've seen it happen. I've been a part of a project that he has taken and turned around. He also has a track record with what he's done, also, with the women's national team as well. Yeah, I'm confident he can do it. I would say this week, he came in on Monday and you know, introduced himself as well as his staff, and you know, he had a very interesting and intriguing first meeting. I think he really caught the attention of everybody, and yeah, since then, he's just been kind of watching trainings and getting to know everybody on the team, everybody in the building, and yeah, he's just doing his due diligence.

He's doing what he should be doing. Yeah, I think I'm confident that he will be able to turn this around.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Luka [Gavran], a young guy who has had the kitchen sink thrown at him and made some pretty miraculous saves. Just your thoughts about him on and off the pitch.

Great kid. Great kid. Great talent, and he's shown it in the last few games that he's played in, the potential and the talent that he has. And yeah, to be honest, we have let him down on but he's kept us in it. He's kept us in games and he's put in some very good performances for himself. I'm very happy for him. I think he's proven in these games that he can play at this level. Yeah, very happy for him. He's a great kid. He deserves it, and yeah, he's got a bright future ahead of him.

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Major League Soccer Stories from October 4, 2023


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