San Diego FC (0) - Toronto FC (1) Postgame Summary
MLS Toronto FC

San Diego FC (0) - Toronto FC (1) Postgame Summary

July 17, 2025 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Toronto FC News Release


SAN DIEGO FC (0) - TORONTO FC (1) POSTGAME SUMMARY

SCORING SUMMARY

TOR - Theo Corbeanu 20' (penalty kick)

MISCONDUCT SUMMARY

SD - Luca de la Torre 40' (caution)

SD - Onni Valakari 45' (caution)

TOR - Theo Corbeanu 45+3' (caution)

SD - Luca Bombino 65' (caution)

SD - Ian Pilcher 90' (caution)

SD - Emmanuel Boateng 90+2' (caution)

TOR - Alonso Coello 90+4' (caution)

TOR - Kevin Long 90+5' (caution)

RECORDS (W-L-T)

San Diego FC 13-7-3 42 points

Toronto FC 5-11-6 21 points

LINEUPS

SAN DIEGO FC - Pablo Sisniega; Oscar Verhoeven (Manu Duah 79'), Christopher McVey, Ian Pilcher, Franco Negri (Luca Bombino 60'); Onni Valakari, Jeppe Tverskov (C), Luca de la Torre; Anders Dreyer, Alex Mighten (Emmanuel Boateng 60'), Tomás Ángel (Hirving Lozano 60')

Substitutes Not Used: CJ dos Santos, Jacob Jackson, Hamady Diop

TORONTO FC - Sean Johnson (C); Kosi Thompson, Kevin Long, Sigurd Rosted, Raoul Petretta (Tyrese Spicer 31'); Richie Laryea, Alonso Coello, Theo Corbeanu (Derrick Etienne Jr. 70'), Maxime Dominguez, Matty Longstaff (Jonathan Osorio 75'); Ola Brynhildsen (Deandre Kerr 70')

Substitutes Not Used: Adisa De Rosario, Luka Gavran, Kobe Franklin, Lazar Stefanović, Markus Cimermancic

MEDIA NOTES

Theo Corbeanu scored his team-leading fifth goal of the 2025 MLS season.

Sean Johnson recorded his sixth clean sheet of the 2025 campaign.

ROBIN FRASER - HEAD COACH, TORONTO FC

Q: Congratulations on the win. Obviously, a great result against one of the best teams in the league. What did you think of your team's performance overall tonight? What did you like about it?

The discipline. We asked them to do some things that are maybe a little bit uncharacteristic, but they just did so much work and they did everything that was asked of them and a really well-deserved team victory. One of the things I said to them is we don't win this game if we have one selfish player, and for me, everybody put in such an incredible shift doing their job, helping each other out, and at the end of the day, some games look great and you have a ton of possession, some games you have to defend, and this is obviously one of the best teams in the league, and so for us to make it difficult for them was really, really positive for us I thought.

Q: We've talked about this a lot this season, but how would you rate the level of engagement this evening?

As high as it gets, to be quite honest, just the discipline to continuously get into the spots to make things difficult for them was incredible, and the only way that you get that sort of discipline is with very, very high level of engagement. And I thought tonight was a really good performance, a really disciplined performance and for us that is kind of is how we have to be. We have to work, we have to work together, we have to work as a team, and when we do, we can get some results.

Q: The second game in a row where Richie [Laryea] has been played in a bit of a different role. Can you just talk about the decision to play him more in that sort of central midfield role and how would you evaluate his performance? I thought he was outstanding tonight.

I thought he was fantastic because the reason to play him in there was to get the amount of numbers we needed defensively. And for me, [Anders] Dreyer is one of the best players in the league, and I have Richie [Laryea] close to him, and this is something I've loved about Richie [Laryea] since he came in 2019, is that he's unselfish and he'll just do what's asked of him and he'll do what is supposed to help the team win. And so yes, we have played him in a couple of different positions recently, but he's so versatile and he's so athletic and so talented and so experienced that having him in there I thought was a really, really good thing for us.

Q: Theo [Corbeanu] confidently steps up to that spot. Just a word from you on him sort of meeting the moment.

Yeah, it's big. Theo [Corbeanu] is progressing I think over, certainly over the last five games and he was building toward that, but over the last five games, we're seeing a lot of maturity in Theo [Corbeanu] in his decision making, in his confidence in taking people on and his belief that he's going to be dangerous and for attacking players, well, for everyone really, but for attacking players. Confidence is such a huge thing, and I think Theo [Corbeanu] feels really confident right now.

Q: How big of a result is this just given what happened on Saturday [vs. Atlanta United] with the late collapse? I mean, to be able to see things out like this on the road against one of the best teams in the league, I would have to think this is a big confidence booster.

I have to think so too. I think one of the things we've talked about throughout the year, really over the last six or seven games, we've talked a lot about putting in really good moments in a game but somehow letting ourselves down. And the thing that is, I think I've said this before in press conferences is, just it kills me that they don't reap the rewards from a really, really good performance because of a mistake or two or mental lap or two. And I think tonight was the epitome of a group being engaged for the entire time. It's the kind of thing that for them to realize that if they are engaged and if they do work together and they do move together, they can get results. So, I think that this will certainly help in confidence, but it's just this game. The trick is, or the real key is to be able to replicate this sort of performance. Every game is going to be different. Different things are going to be required, but the level of engagement I think has to carry on in every game regardless of what the game plan is.

Q: By my count, that's three wins from your last four road matches. I hinted at this when we spoke before the game, but is there some extra clarity that comes from playing on the road for you guys?

I don't think so. I think at the end of the day we have times where I think we've been good in almost every game this year. We've had moments that have led us down on the concentration, engagement, to avoid the mistakes. Yes, those have popped up on the road. We've also obviously had some good ones at home, but I don't think it's necessarily a home or away thing. I think with this group it's a belief and a confidence thing, and I think as a game wore on their belief and confidence grew and this, as I keep saying, has to carry on.

Q: Can you build on a performance like this? It's a great result, but there's three more tough games ahead all on the road. How confident are you that this could potentially be maybe a turning point for the club?

I would like to say that I've been around soccer enough where you go through moments like this and you think it's going to turn around and it doesn't necessarily, and I've been around in moments where something like this turns you around on the belt forward. It's hard to say at this point. I believe that the more the players feel, how their level of engagement led to this result, then hopefully the more we can see this level of engagement. This is an incredible group of young men who they work hard and they're unselfish, and when they don't have the moments as we've spoken about so many times, we get results and it's really for us, we don't have a lot of room for error given the way the first half of our season went. So, this has to continue. I say this, I mean winning. Yes, we'd love to say we're going to win every game, but the fact of the matter is we need to give ourselves a chance to win every game. This level of engagement we do.

THEO CORBEANU - FORWARD, TORONTO FC

Q: Congratulations on the win and great result beating one of the best teams in MLS. How would you characterize the team's performance overall tonight? What were the aspects that you were most pleased about?

Yeah, definitely. Thank you. First of all. No, I thought it was great. Today, it wasn't pretty at all, but we did what we had to do. We stuck to the task and I thought the boys did tremendous defensively. I thought we were so aware, so attentive, all game. Our engagement levels were so high. And yeah, I felt like even though, like I said, it wasn't the most pretty game to watch, we stuck to the task. We did exactly what we had to do. We scored early, which was very important for us, and we had a couple chances after that. I mean, those are moments where we can capitalize, but we weren't down on ourselves by any means. We defended so well, we're patient, and we got a great result against, like you said, one of the best sides in the MLS. So we're very pleased, but we know there's a lot of work to do and we just got to keep it up. And we did today.

Q: There seems to be more certainty to your game right now, a good level of confidence. What are some of the factors contributing to that at the moment?

Yeah, absolutely. I think it's continuity. I think more recently, and especially this season, for the first time in a really long time, I've gotten this continuity, this rhythm to my game where I've been getting a lot of minutes and I feel comfortable within this group. It's a great group and the boys helped me out. And yeah, I think there's aspects of my game that needed work prior, and I'm starting to put these aspects into place and yeah, I'm happy with the way I'm doing, but there's always more. There's another level that needs to be reached and yeah, I'm really excited to continue like this and to hopefully get better and better each game.

Q: Was there something different tonight compared to the game against Atlanta United that allowed you to see things out and get over the finish line, whereas compared to what happened on Saturday where you concede the late equalizer?

Yeah, I mean, look, Atlanta's game again, where we went one-nil up a little bit later, it was in the second half. It's a different game for sure, but today we were away and I felt like we had a lot more control in the Atlanta game, and it's very unlucky in the end what happened. It can happen to anybody and it's an honest mistake and it happens. These things can happen to anybody, like I said. But today we saw the game out and we did exactly what we needed to do after the first goal. We were very solid. We defended as a unit, no individuals, just the team who's hungry and willing to get a result. And I think as well, because it's San Diego, I mean we don't take anybody lightly at all, but especially because it's them. We felt like we had a point to prove today, especially after an unlucky result against Atlanta. None of us were delighted with that because we felt like we should have won that game. So all in all, we're very pleased with the way we did today, with the way we worked today. And yeah, today we got the result in the end, so we're so happy.

Q: We've asked this often enough on tough nights, but take us inside that room. What are the guys saying to each other after a one like this?

I think everybody's so tired. I mean, when I look around the change room, I see a bunch of guys who worked their asses off, sorry, for lack of a better expression, and I think everybody gave it their all. They're 100%, and you can see that. And yeah, it's one unit that's the most important thing. It's one unit, it's an honest group who put in the work and in the end, we got what we deserve for this honest work. So the vibes are good, the vibes are high, but we know that we have another game in a couple of days. We need to recover and do it again because away games are never easy. But we did what we had to do today, so we're really happy.

Q: Can we get your thoughts on Richie Laryea tonight playing in a bit of a different role? Not too often we see him playing in central midfield and he was tasked with shutting down Anders Dreyer, one of the best attackers in the league. What did you make of his display tonight?

Phenomenal. Phenomenal, outstanding. Honestly, just watching him out there, it's like he has three lungs. It's unbelievable. So what he did today, especially like you said, against an individual who's having an unbelievable season, I believe up there with Player of the Year alongside a few others, but yeah, that's a great player and he completely shut him down. I felt like he didn't give him any space, and that was his task. And he was phenomenal.

Tonight, like I said, he worked so hard, but it wasn't just his defensive side of things. I thought he was very good on the ball. He made some great decisions, got some very important fouls at times where we needed the game to slow down. And yeah, he was great today. And obviously, like you said, it's a credit to him because he played a different role, so he's not used to that. That's not a position where he has been a lot of times before. But he's an individual who can play anywhere on the pitch. And he's done it with the [Canadian] National Team. He's done it here at this club and we're very, very impressed with this display.

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