Sports stats



MLS Toronto FC

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

June 21, 2023 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Toronto FC News Release


FC CINCINNATI (3) - TORONTO FC (0) POSTGAME SUMMARY

SCORING SUMMARY

CIN - Santiago Arias 35'

CIN - Luciano Acosta 54' (Marco Angulo)

CIN - Dominique Badji 63' (Luciano Acosta)

MISCONDUCT SUMMARY

CIN - Obinna Nwobodo 19' (caution)

TOR - Raoul Petretta 25' (caution)

TOR - Federico Bernardeschi 41' (caution)

CIN - Ray Gaddis 41' (caution)

CIN - Bret Halsey 82' (caution)

RECORDS (W-L-T)

FC Cincinnati 13-1-4 43 points

Toronto FC 3-6-10 19 points

LINEUPS

FC CINCINNATI - Roman Celentano; Alvas Powell, Ian Murphy, Ray Gaddis; Santiago Arias, Obinna Nwobodo, Marco Angulo (Malik Pinto 68'), Álvaro Barreal (Bret Halsey 77'); Luciano Acosta (C) (Gerardo Valenzuela 89'), Dominique Badji (Arquimides Ordóñez 68'), Yuya Kubo (Stiven Jimenez 90')

Substitutes Not Used: Alec Kann, Joey Akpunonu, Isaiah Foster, London Aghedo

TORONTO FC - Greg Ranjitsingh; Kobe Franklin (Cristian Gutiérrez 77'), Richie Laryea, Aimé Mabika, Raoul Petretta (Sigurd Rosted 42'); Mark-Anthony Kaye, Jonathan Osorio (C), Brandon Servania (Kosi Thompson 46'); Federico Bernardeschi, Lorenzo Insigne, CJ Sapong (Deandre Kerr 46')

Substitutes Not Used: Luka Gavran, Shane O'Neill, Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty, Ayo Akinola, Jordan Perruzza

MEDIA NOTES

Greg Ranjitsingh and Cristian Gutiérrez made their debuts for Toronto FC.

BOB BRADLEY - HEAD COACH, TORONTO FC

Q. Bob, you're on the road against the league leaders, so obviously it was a tough task to start with, but it looked like your team made life difficult for itself with at least two of those goals.

Yes, that's true. Especially frustrating when I thought we had a pretty good start to the game. Had a pretty good rhythm. Had good control. Didn't create enough chances but over the first 20 to 25 minutes, I thought we had played our way into the game in a good way.

The corner, they got just in front of CJ and obviously left the rebound and we didn't react fast enough. And then the second and third are really tough goals to give up as you're trying to push back into a game.

Q. You referenced it real quick there about the lack of chance creation. Maybe if you can just expand on that. Why was it so difficult for your team to get good looks on goal and create some quality scoring chances, do you think?

When you get up around the goal, there's all the different things that create chances. You know, we got a good ball across early, but the timing and the number of runners in the box wasn't good enough. We won a ball but didn't react fast enough to take advantage of an opportunity. When it's tight around the box. Some of our decisions about when to try to play a little pass or when to shoot, you know, there were some spaces to play through. I thought one example would be when Oso slipped a good ball to Fede and he was in, Celentano cut the angle and Fede couldn't do enough with it.

So I thought we got ourselves into areas around the box, and then late had some shots, but overall still not sharp enough in all the different things that you need to do to create chances.

Q. How did that first goal change the game tonight?

Yeah, I mentioned that we started well and then when we found ourselves down 1-0, I think that mentally took something out of us. We spoke about that at halftime; that when you start well, if something goes against you, you can't let that turn the whole game upside down, and our ability once we went down to keep going, we spoke about it as I said at halftime and I thought we started the second half again in a better way but then immediately hurt ourselves with the second goal where we got caught with a bad pass from the back.

Q. Can you share an update on Raoul Petretta's status? Did he pick up a knock in that first half?

I don't have a complete update so I can't give a good answer, so I'll find out more later, but I'm sorry, I don't have an answer on that right now.

Q. I wonder if this sort of lack of chance creation today, does it give you pause for thought in terms of changing things up, whether it's maybe playing Lorenzo in and Fede more centrally? Do you consider that possibility? Does there have to be change?

They got the ball an awful lot centrally tonight as well. So if you look through the whole game and see where they got the ball, I think they still got the ball both inside and outside in the first half in that early phase, Fede was coming inside quite a lot which is something that we worked on. So I wouldn't get caught up with the pure formation part. I think regardless of how you play, I think it comes down to then your ability in certain moments to execute, whether that's the dribble part to get by a guy or whether it's the right pass, whether now you get a touch and create yourself an opportunity for a good shot, so I don't think it's the formation.

Q. It seems like the fullbacks were taking up inside channels an awful lot. Was that about trying to get bodies for Fede on one side and Lorenzo on the other to play with a little bit, and is there an update on Kobe? It looks like he hurt his shoulder a little bit there.

Yes, Kobe fell on his shoulder and was able to continue for a while. I think he's had a shoulder issue in the past a couple seasons ago. So hopefully we can be on top of it. Sometimes that requires a brace when you get that type of fall.

You know, the spaces inside vary in terms of who moves into those spaces, the way they play, it gave us an opportunity at times for our fullbacks to move inside. That is especially important in moments when the wingers are wider so that now you've got some type of overload and trying angle on each side. We thought that was a way that we could attack them. I thought some of the buildups through those areas were good but as we discussed a few times, just didn't do enough with it.

Q. You've talked in the past about margins being very tight. Do you feel that you're still not that far out of the playoffs?. Do you feel that if something goes your way, team scores first, or you don't make those mistakes, that a turnaround is not too far away?

Yeah, I think the fact that we show moments of good football every game is what we point to, but we've got to be able to sustain it and we've got to be able to eliminate some of those mistakes and we still have to do more in terms of scoring goals. The margin is tight for all those reasons.

AIMÉ MABIKA - DEFENDER, TORONTO FC

Q. Tough result tonight against a very good Cincinnati team who have yet to lose at home this season. Wanted to get your general thoughts on the performance tonight, not so much the result but the performance from TFC?

I thought we started the game really well. That was kind of what we wanted to do. Obviously away from home but we still wanted to take the game to them and I think we did well in that first 25 minutes, I think, up until the goal. To give up a goal off a set piece, obviously super disappointing.

And then after that, yeah, I just felt like we stopped doing what we had been doing to begin the game, and after that, it's really just a game of moments. Because on the second goal again, we start the second half well, kind of dominating and then they score. After that, it's obviously really difficult.

But yeah, just quite not good enough from us in terms of big, defensive moments I think.

Q. What happened on the third goal and how do you guys sort of stop that from happening again?

Yeah, I think just doing things quicker. I believe I had a foul high up the field in the opponent's half, just for us getting back quicker, because it was one pass really, and then obviously I think I can do better on that initial tackle. Not sure if I got fouled or not but yeah, doing faster and getting back into shape quicker.

Q. Pretty tight turnaround, back to New England. You always hear that guys, when you suffer a setback, you want to get back out there. Is that the case?

Yeah, I mean, yeah, we were really excited for this game, obviously a good test playing a really good team away from home. Didn't quite go how we wanted it to, so yeah, the schedule gets pretty hectic again. So just have to recover as quickly as possible and try to get a result against another really good team in New England. So yeah, hopefully that game comes quick.

Q. Frustration has been a word that's been bandied around a lot this season. Especially on a night like tonight when playing against a good team, you had a good start to both halves. Does the frustration level keep growing or do you see the glass half-full that there are good moments?

There are good moments, but I would say in this moment in time where we are in the season and sort of how the season has gone, I mean, there's no time really to sulk. We need results which I feel like we've done that recently.

I know we had a few draws but we had gone four games unbeaten when maybe we could have gone on a four-game winning streak but at this moment in time, we could be frustrated all we want. We need results. That's the bottom line.

Q. For you, what needs to change for these results to get turned from a night like tonight to turn into a draw, for some of those draws to get turned into wins? What do you want to see?

Yeah, going back to the draws that we had before even the four-game unbeaten streak and with the three draws that we had in a row, I said it earlier, I think it's just moments, really. So last week where we put together a really good game, really good first half and we scored, maybe we score again in that first half and make it 2-0 and maybe the game is over then.

So attacking moments and defensive moments for us because we are doing really good stuff over the course of 90 minutes. I think we could continue playing and then yeah, I think in this league with so many good players, you could be dominating a game and then one of the special players on the field does something, so just in terms of staying concentrated because we are so close, but obviously not tonight because the result was a big margin. But in the draws that we had, even a couple of the losses that we had, it's really moments. When you go back to Austin, moments there; Minnesota, moments there; even last week, where maybe we put the game away 2-0 and then also giving up a goal.

Check out the Toronto FC Statistics



Major League Soccer Stories from June 21, 2023


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central