Toronto FC (0) - FC Cincinnati (1) Postgame Summary

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MLS Toronto FC

Toronto FC (0) - FC Cincinnati (1) Postgame Summary

May 14, 2025 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Toronto FC News Release


SCORING SUMMARY

CIN -Kévin Denkey 18' (DeAndre Yedlin)

MISCONDUCT SUMMARY

TOR - Federico Bernardeschi 20' (caution)

CIN - Gilberto Flores 24' (caution)

CIN - Evander 32' (caution)

CIN - Lukas Engel 90' (caution)

RECORDS (W-L-T)

Toronto FC 2-7-4 10 points

FC Cincinnati 9-3-1 28 points

LINEUPS

TORONTO FC - Sean Johnson; Kosi Thompson, Sigurd Rosted, Kevin Long, Raoul Petretta (Kobe Franklin 19', Lazar Stefanovic 36'); Deybi Flores, Alonso Coello, Lorenzo Insigne (Maxime Dominguez 69'); Federico Bernardeschi (C) (Tyrese Spicer 69'), Theo Corbeanu, Ola Brynhildsen (Derrick Etienne Jr. 69')

Substitutes Not Used: Luka Gavran, Zane Monlouis, Matty Longstaff, Markus Cimermancic

FC CINCINNATI - Roman Celentano; DeAndre Yedlin, Gilberto Flores, Miles Robinson (C), Teenage Hadebe (Alvas Powell 77'), Brad Smith (Lukas Engel 59'); Pavel Bucha, Tah Brian Anunga, Evander (Yuya Kubo 59'); Gerardo Valenzuela (Kei Kamara 84'), Kévin Denkey (Sergio Santos 59')

Substitutes Not Used: Evan Louro, Nick Hagglund, Obinna Nwobodo, Corey Baird

ROBIN FRASER - HEAD COACH, TORONTO FC

Q: Robin, you held a really good side to one. Nothing tonight, but the goal that happened was unfortunate on a lot of levels. The turnover, Raoul [Petretta] injured, was that one of those moments that just changes things?

Without a doubt. I mean the final score is one zero and that was the moment. Yeah, I mean with Raoul [Petretta] going down at the time, still not really. I haven't looked back at it, so I just feel like [Kévin] Denkey had a little bit too much space in the box, but I haven't looked at it closely yet. But between R Raoul aul getting hurt and Kobe [Franklin] getting hurt, I don't know if I've ever seen two subs used in the first half on the same position. I really don't think I've ever seen that.

Obviously it just limits what you can do later in the game. So if you make a change, you have to make a drastic change of three players if you're trying to get fresh legs on and that sort of thing. So it was definitely a challenging game, A good team. There are no moral victories. I know this and I understand this, but again, I look at the effort of the group and it was fantastic. I think they put in a real shift on Saturday and I think possibly we just weren't quite as sharp as we need to be tonight. But again, I can't fault the effort.

Q: Do you have an update on Raoul [Petretta]?

Nope. As soon as I leave here, that's where I'm going. I don't know.

Q: Not much offence generated again tonight. Was that down to Cincinnati or something else tonight?

It was a little bit of both. I thought that the game was so different from our last game where we had some time and could set up attacks. Cincinnati was very aggressive and I felt like in the first half we didn't really have enough solutions. I felt like in the second half we were able to find some players in between which could then lead into the next attack and we actually ended up toward the end having some pretty decent moments.

Again, I think it's growing pains and recognizing what's available when and different teams are going to play differently and we just have to be able to recognize where the opportunities might be. Like I said, I thought in the second half we were able to get more penetration. The first half I don't feel like we had much penetration. I think their press really was able to get to us and keep us wide and make things very predictable for them. And in the second half I thought we found our pivots a bit more and I think that allowed us to have some more unpredictability in our attack and as a result I thought we created some more chances in second half.

Q: We've talked about this a little bit all season, but there were a couple of times today where the team had got the ball in good positions and then two or three passes later they're playing back to Sean [Johnson] again. That hesitancy that we talked about was that sort of a difference tonight? When Cincinnati got in those positions, they pressed that advantage.

That was probably part of it. I was probably part of it, but I did think as the game went on, we got into those situations and we were able to find forward passes and it really kind of changed the feeling of the game in that we were able to play forward and between the pressure a little bit, which then allowed us to really get into the attack, get into our wingers. But certainly, early on I think there was just some uncertainty about where the options were. Cincinnati came hard and they came with a lot of numbers and I think without a lot of clarity as to where the options are, it can definitely hurry you and make you make decisions that probably if you look back on video, you might change.

Q: No goal and no shot on target for Ola [Brynhildsen] tonight. Does he have to do something different to get more involved? Does the club have to do something to get him more involved?

Trying to replay Ola's moments in my mind. I think early on our inability to mount a number of constructive attacks. I think if you're the nine and you're reliant on service and we don't get the ball to the wingers who then don't provide the service, then you're going to starve. And I think that, as I said, I felt like early on their pressure was enough to make it so that we weren't able to put together constructive attacks.

And in the second half I felt like it got better and better. Just being able, I think Alo [Alonso Coello] got on the ball a lot in the second half. I don't feel like it was on the ball that much in the first half. And that's the start of being able to construct attacks that if you can find players who connect you from the back to the front, if you're always reliant on going back to front, then you're playing what is much more of a hopeful game. And I thought in the second half we were much more purposeful in playing through our pivots, which allowed us to set up some decent attacks. But the thing for Ola is we have to get the ball into good positions to provide the sort of service that he needs.

Q: I mean it was a great goal by Kévin Denkey too obviously, but I wonder if the defending could have been, especially when he had so much time in the box, if that could have been better?

Yeah, I mean I think without a doubt, and I think if you ask any of the defenders, I don't even remember who exactly was around. I think they would agree as well that he just had a little bit too much time in space and certainly afford a good player time and space inside your box, he'll do what he did, which is he picked out the corner and put it there really well.

But again, this was, we talk about moments, we've talked about moments all year, and that was a moment for us that certainly we would love to change, but then you think about the rest of the game and how Kevin [Long] and Siggy [Sigurd Rosted], in particular the players, they had to deal with big strong guys how they fought, and this is the problem obviously if you're a defender, you can have 89 great minutes and that one minute or that 10 seconds or five seconds can change a course of the game. So again, I want to acknowledge how hard they worked and the battling that they did, but to be honest, we probably should have done better with that.

Q: Deybi Flores seems to continue to make his presence felt on the field. What's your impression of his form recently?

I think Deybi's been really good lately. I think, well, you guys have known him longer than me. You've always seen him work hard and defend and that sort of thing, but I think the thing that he's adding to his game is as a central player, as a pivot, the ability to get us off one side into the other. So I look at on the attacking end, he's certainly, I think improved at that and is really figuring out ways to get us across the field, which is how we get some time. But his effort and his endeavor to win the ball, to disrupt opponents, I think it's really big for us. And I think he's been really solid, certainly over the last number of weeks. And tonight was another night where physically a lot of the guys are just shattered. They really, really worked and certainly Deybi is an example of that.

Q: Game on Saturday as well. What's your closing message to the guys as they leave here tonight and look forward to that game?

Again, I look at this game that I felt like our effort was great. We probably just weren't as sharp as we needed to be, and I don't think it has to be greatly different. I think if we connect a bit more, then we create more opportunities and so the message is do what we need to do to get ourselves physically ready for a battle on Saturday. Like I said, I know they worked extremely hard these last two games and we have to find it again on Saturday and not that today was this huge aberration from last time. Again, I think the effort was absolutely fantastic, but it's the moments where we could be just a little bit sharper and certainly we need to do what we need to do to get ourselves physically ready so that we can take advantage of those moments on Saturday.

DEYBI FLORES - MIDFIELDER, TORONTO FC

Q: A disappointing evening. You held a good team to just one goal, but you didn't win and suffered a few injuries though. What was your take on the evening?

We were very aware that this team is one of the strongest ones in the league. They're at the top end of the table right now and they have a lot of individual talent, so we worked really hard to try to stop their attack, but we were aware of the capacity that they have, the abilities they have on the attack and now we just have to try to take the positive of the game and focus on the next game.

Q: With all the injuries and everything that happened on the field, what was the positive to take away from the game?

Unfortunately, two of my teammates went down very quickly on the game and that kind of put us in a tough spot. But if we have to take a positive out the game, I think we put up a fight with one of the top opponents in the league. We created some chances and right now we just have to continue working and I know this is the beauty of the sport that gives you another opportunity to play and on Saturday we have another game to play.

Q: What gives you hope that the team can turn things around and start winning games on a regular basis?

I'm a person that is very strong mentally and always positive. And I think I trust that my teammates are also very strong mentally and they have a lot of experience so they can bring that to the team. I have hope that the team was going to continue working and if we continue working on our mentality, we can continue doing things well, we can do that. We just have to continue working really hard.

Q: Quick turnaround to Saturday and now a big game against Montreal again. What are you thinking about heading into that one and how much does the Canadian Championship shootout loss impact that?

It is a very important game. It is like a derby and obviously they took the opportunity for us to advance in the Canadian Championship last time here in Toronto, but we have to leave that in the past and change the mentality and the chip right away. It's a new game. We are players with a lot of experience with strong minds and also, we are men and when it comes to a derby, derbies are not to play. They have to be won. So we are here to win the games, and we have to continue working and tomorrow's a new day to start and we have to start tomorrow.

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