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MLS Toronto FC

Chicago Fire FC (2) - Toronto FC (0) Post Game Summary

July 14, 2022 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Toronto FC News Release


CHICAGO FIRE FC (2) - TORONTO FC (0) POST GAME SUMMARY

SCORING SUMMARY

CHI - Jhon Durán 4' (Chris Mueller)

CHI - Jhon Durán 16' (Brian Gutiérrez)

MISCONDUCT SUMMARY

TOR - Shane O'Neill 34' (caution)

TOR - Lukas MacNaughton 37' (caution)

CHI - Chris Mueller 45+1' (caution)

CHI - Brian Gutiérrez 64' (caution)

TOR - Domenico Criscito 65' (caution)

TOR - Jayden Nelson 90+4' (caution)

RECORDS (W-L-D)

Toronto FC 5-11-4 19 points

Chicago Fire FC 5-10-5 20 points

LINEUPS

TORONTO FC - Quentin Westberg; Kosi Thompson (Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty 72'), Shane O'Neill, Chris Mavinga (Lukas MacNaughton 32'), Luca Petrasso (Domenico Criscito 63'); Michael Bradley (C), Mark-Anthony Kaye (Jacob Shaffelburg 63'), Jonathan Osorio; Deandre Kerr, Jayden Nelson, Jesús Jiménez (Ayo Akinola HT')

Substitutes Not Used: Alex Bono, Kadin Chung, Jordan Perruzza, Ifunanyachi Achara

CHICAGO FIRE FC - Gabriel Slonina; Boris Sekulić, Carlos Terán, Rafael Czichos (C), Jonathan Bornstein; Federico Navarro, Mauricio Pineda, Chris Mueller (Stanislav Ivanov 77'), Xherdan Shaqiri (Jairo Torres 77'), Brian Gutiérrez (Fabian Herbers 68'); Jhon Durán (Kacper Przybyłko 68')

Substitutes Not Used: Spencer Richey, Jhon Espinoza, Kendall Burks, Andre Reynolds, Chinonso Offor

MEDIA NOTES

Mark-Anthony Kaye made his debut for Toronto FC.

Ayo Akinola made his 50th MLS regular season appearance for Toronto FC.

BOB BRADLEY - HEAD COACH, TORONTO FC

Q. Your team dug a hole early with some defensive miscues and didn't seem to muster much offense after that. What do you say to the players after that performance?

Terrible start. Put ourselves in a bad situation where, you know, we were trying to establish control in the game. And three minutes in, you know, Shane starts to dribble, the little ball he plays back to Chris, he's got better options. Chris has to handle the play better and at the end of it all, Q gets caught leaning and doesn't really give himself a chance.

You know, we're trying at that point to see if we can get back into it, get a strong response. Then another mistake off of a goal kick. We have a chance to slide over and try to win it in their half. Gutierrez makes a clever flick. Chris gets caught on the wrong side of Durán, and so now we really put ourselves in a spot. You know, we have a lot of the ball after that but in terms of really making more out of attacks, more of a threat, no, we didn't do enough.

Q. Anything that you liked about the performance tonight, any sort of positives that you can kind of hang your hat on going forward?

We've been talking about our midfield, adding Mark with Michael and Oso is going to be an important part of our team. You can see some moments of understanding between the other but when you get behind early and the other team is clogging the middle, and we don't enough from any of our attackers, that's not something we want to be very positive about.

I think that there's still a couple of guys that on a tough night away, try and keep everybody around them going in the second half. And even though we don't score, we keep going and so that -- I've talked a number of times this year that I still think there's some, there's good leadership and some resolve that comes from those guys.

And so we've got to keep that part going, and then, of course, look forward to adding a couple more guys and see if we can make a real run. Tonight we never gave ourselves a chance.

Q. Another game, multi goals, what needs to change to fix some of the defensive frailties with this team?

Yeah, I think that the goals we've given up lately have been mostly individual errors. Working hard with all of those guys to correct some things. You know, again, I already mentioned that a lot of times, chances start when you have the ball. So from a moment where we should have real stability, Shane's little pass to Chris, and even in that moment Chris under pressure can make a better decision and not let Durán get a foot in.

And then on the second one, on a goal kick if we are going to slide over like that, Chris's positioning as the ball gets flicked, he's on the wrong side of Durán. So those are individual mistakes that can't -- you can't have a good defensive game if you have a couple of those mistakes a game and that's still probably the thing that hurts us the most.

Q. From a coach's perspective, can you describe the mood in the dressing room following that result?

There's a mix. There's some guys that keep on top of the other guys and say this is how you become a good team. And some of the guys look like they are down and out, that you keep them alive, and then yeah, there's some guys that are dejected. You know, for sure, some guys that it's harder than they thought, you know, and it's not coming easy. And so you just have to as a group collectively keep them going. See if they can get better. See if they can keep their -- see if they can learn and become guys that now in a tough season can be counted on. So on a night like tonight, you know, we've had a lot of games this year where you would look around and say, yeah, maybe on a night we didn't have quite enough quality but tonight we had just not enough guys that, you know, in an away game where -- against a team that's just lost after being ahead by two goals, we didn't have enough guys tonight that really were ready for all parts of the game from the beginning.

Q. Is there any word on Mavinga's health?

He felt something in his hamstring. That's all that's been said so far, so we'll see.

Q. Just sort of on that note, too, with Mavinga going down, seemingly injured there, and Carlos Salcedo finally departing the club, where is your level of concern with the team's depth at centre back now?

Yeah, it's an area where we are pretty thin, no doubt about that. But the work to build a strong team is -- there was a lot that needed to be done just to get rid of some guys, and now that we're at this point, there are areas where we've got to find ways to see if we can secure ourselves, and also just trying to get more from the guys you have.

There's no doubt we are thin in the centre back. Going back to one of the questions -- a few questions ago, we've got to -- we've got to be a little stronger in the centre and the defense. Lately there's been still some plays where, you know, we feel like we played pretty well but just not handled a moment. Especially if you've done an away game, you can see that takes a lot out of the group.

Q. Pretty big game you guys have coming up in a couple days heading to Montréal. What are you saying to the guys after today, looking to turn things around?

That we've got a big game coming up; that we need guys to learn from this game, strong guys, guys that as a group can push each other and help each other. Got to figure out now where some guys are health-wise and see if we can respond.

Q. Forgive me if you've alluded to this already but your thoughts and impression on Mark-Anthony's performance tonight?

Yeah, it's just good to get him here, get him on the field. You know, when he came off, he said that he felt comfortable in everything that was going on but felt like in certain situations, when he needed to close down a little faster, maybe get to a ball a little quicker, he just felt like he didn't have all of that. And so the good news is that he was able to play 60 minutes. He could have gone a little more but when he arrived and he felt a little something in the glute or the hamstring, we wanted to be smart about it tonight.

Look, football-wise, understanding the game, finding good spaces, knowing how to play with the other midfielders, knowing how to look forward, he's very good at seeing windows to play forward. And then I know that his comments, I would agree with that -- that he can be a bigger part of things defensively but that will come.

MARK-ANTHONY KAYE - MIDFIELDER, TORONTO FC

Q. 62 minutes, of course you told us earlier in the week that you were dealing with that sort of glute injury, how did it feel? Was there some tightness? How do you feel about that performance?

Yeah, there's definitely some soreness overall. Obviously if you don't train as consistently as you have been.

The game was always going to be a little intense, and I felt like it did pretty well and it's a good step in the right direction for Saturday. But just being cautious, my minutes were managed tonight.

Q. It's been quite a journey for you from the academy to starting for your hometown club tonight. What were your emotions taking the field this evening for Toronto FC?

Yeah, my emotions were in check. We had to go in here and try and take care of business. Put the team first obviously and tried to make sure I was tuned in every moment of the game. I'm happy to obviously be playing for TFC and I feel like maybe the first home game, it's going to maybe hit me a little bit more but tonight, you know, I just tried to go out there and focus on what I needed to do to help the team. But again, I'm very excited, and I'm very competitive and I want to win, and I know that's what the club wants, too, so that comes first.

Q. Could we get your thoughts on the performance today from the team, how that sort of played out and maybe where that game went wrong for you guys?

Yeah, any time you go to an away game, it's important to start the game with the right mentality and right structure to make sure you keep yourself in the game and I think if you go down early in the game, it makes it very difficult on the road. So we didn't help ourselves by letting in those two easy goals. I think we could have done a better job overall collectively.

But you know, kudos to the guys. This is a team that is very possession-based and keeps the ball and wants to create chances. I think we can be more aggressive in the final third having more runs in behind and stretching our position, I felt like we were just a little bit safe in the way we were playing. But you know, it's my first game with the team and I'm just trying to get an understanding for all the guys and build the right chemistry. It's unfortunate that we didn't get a win tonight but I just see some positives and I'm excited about my debut and I want to continue moving in the right direction.

Q. Tonight was the first time playing that midfield trio with Oso and Michael. What are your thoughts on how you played as a collective unit and what adjustments do you feel you have to make going into a rivalry match with Montréal?

We already kind of have an understanding of how Oso and Mike play. Both players love to get on the ball and move the ball forward and I like to find spaces to be able to turn it and play forward, too. I think we complement each other. You can see throughout the game, we are really working to try and find each other, which is important when you're playing in this system.

But I don't think we need to change anything. You've got to keep hammering at the same things consistently that you do week in and week out at training. Yeah, I don't see the need to change anything going into Montréal. Obviously we can continue to be more aggressive when we are stepping up and really need to be a threat in behind. We need to test the opposition's back line and make them feel a little bit of pressure.

Yeah, the midfield, I'm comfortable with Mike and Oso.

Q. No doubt you kind of understood that the team was struggling before you came here for results on the pitch, and I know it was only 60 minutes tonight but do you have a better understanding of why the team is in the position it's in based on that performance tonight?

I think, you know, there's a lot of quality on this team. The team is also very young. Part of the team is young kids that are still trying to develop in their own way and understand what it takes to be competitive and successful in this league. That just takes time with experience. I remember when I was their age, I think they were already a step ahead of me. So there's some good things to take from that but it's at the point now where they need to start pushing themselves a little bit more and trying to understand how to expand their mind when it comes to tactical awareness on the field, when they need to run it behind, when they need to turn, when they need to keep possession, how to step up and be aggressive. I just think it's a learning curve for them. They have good starting points but it's very tough to be real competitive in a game when you have a lot of young kids who are still learning, which is not a bad thing, they are getting experience every game, but hopefully they turn a page and they can be real assets to this club going forward.

Q. You're going to have to wait a couple days more for your debut at BMO Field, but it's a pretty tasty fixture going up against Montréal. This was always going to be one of the bigger games on the calendar. Your thoughts going into the derby on the weekend?

Yeah, any rivalry at any club is a big deal. And I obviously know how important it is to our fans and the club, this game. I'm excited to be a part of it for the first time in my career, but I've been a part of some big rivalries and I understand what it takes mentally to get prepared for it. I'm sure the coaching staff and the club will get all the guys ready to go, so I'm excited to play in that game on Saturday.

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