Sports stats



MLS Toronto FC

Toronto FC (2) - Philadelphia Union (1) Post Game Summary

April 16, 2022 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Toronto FC News Release


SCORING SUMMARY

PHI - Julián Carranza 34' (Mikael Uhre, Dániel Gazdag)

TOR - Jesús Jiménez 39' (Jesús Jiménez)

TOR - Alejandro Pozuelo 51' (Kadin Chung)

MISCONDUCT SUMMARY

TOR - Jayden Nelson 19' (caution)

TOR - Alejandro Pozuelo 30' (caution)

TOR - Michael Bradley 45+1' (caution)

PHI - Julián Carranza 53' (caution)

TOR - Kadin Chung 75' (caution)

RECORDS (W-L-D)

Toronto FC 3-2-2 11 points

Philadelphia Union 5-1-1 16 points

LINEUPS

TORONTO FC - Alex Bono; Kadin Chung (Lukas MacNaughton 79'), Shane O'Neill, Chris Mavinga; Jayden Nelson (Deandre Kerr 46'), Michael Bradley (C), Jonathan Osorio (Kosi Thompson 56'), Jacob Shaffelburg; Alejandro Pozuelo, Luca Petrasso (Jordan Perruzza 72'), Jesús Jiménez.

Substitutes Not Used: Quentin Westberg, Adam Pearlman, Themi Antonoglou, Ayo Akinola, Ifunanyachi Achara

PHILADELPHIA UNION - Andre Blake; Nathan Harriel, Jakob Glesnes, Jack Elliott, Kai Wagner; José Martínez, Alejandro Bedoya (C) (Paxten Aaronson 87'), Leon Flach (Jack McGlynn 69'), Dániel Gazdag; Julián Carranza (Sérgio Santos 69'), Mikael Uhre (Cory Burke 77').

Substitutes Not Used: Matt Freese, Matthew Real, Stuart Findlay, Olivier Mbaizo, Quinn Sullivan

MEDIA NOTES

Bob Bradley recorded the 200th victory (185 MLS regular season, 15 MLS Cup playoffs) in his MLS coaching career.

Jonathan Osorio recorded his 100th victory as a starter for Toronto FC, becoming only the second player in club history to reach the milestone.

o Michael Bradley previously recorded his 100th victory as a starter for Toronto FC against York United FC on September 22, 2021.

Jacob Shaffelburg made his 50th appearance for Toronto FC in all competitions.

Kadin Chung recorded his first assist for Toronto FC.

BOB BRADLEY - HEAD COACH, TORONTO FC

Q. You said you wanted to test your team against a tough opposition. They certainly passed the test tonight. What did you think of the performance?

Yeah, I'm proud of the group. We talked about a couple of things. One, that you really need to compete as a team against Philadelphia. They are a team whose style is fight for loose balls, they run very hard, and I said we have to be up to all of those kinds of battles, and I think we really raised the level in terms of just the way we went after the game, and then, too, I said we need more guys stepping up and really giving us more. I think that that was definitely the case tonight.

Q. How pleased were you with the back line?

Yes, I think that Chris (Mavinga) and Shane (O'Neill) both played very well. I think we did a good job winning some balls in front of them but I thought those two guys were very solid, dealt with different kind of duels and the runs that they try to make behind, and then late in the game when they were making subs, I think Lucas (MacNaughton) came in and changed the way we played and I thought that helped us nail things down.

Q. Just wondering if you had a chance to watch the replay of the Jayden Nelson tackle on Kai Wagner in the first half?

I have not seen the replay.

Q. Jayden (Nelson) was substituted off at halftime. What was the reason behind that?

I think he gave us a strong 45 minutes. I also think, you know, I just spoke to him, and I actually said that we were trying to figure out this week between Jayden and Deandre (Kerr) who was a better choice to start.

And so in a way, Jayden got the decision in his favor to start but then we still felt that Deandre could give us a strong 45 minutes. There was a little factor with the yellow card and just the kind of game it was and then the feeling that both of us have been doing a good job in training, I thought that Deandre could give us a slightly different dimension, they are different players. But I thought both guys did very well.

Q. Osorio had to come off and looked like he was favoring his leg. I know you don't have a definitive diagnosis at this point in time but do you have an indication as to what the injury might be will?

No. They are checking him out.

Q. You said after the NYCFC game that there was more to come from Jiménez. With five goal contributions in his first seven games, how impressed have you been with him adapting to life in MLS so far?

Jesus is a very good player. He's smart. He's skillful. He's got a really good presence in the group. We keep saying that there's more there, too. I think we can even push him physically and see even more power and more explosiveness to go with the football part.

But look, he's smart. He knows how to position himself in certain kinds of finishes. He knows exactly how he wants to beat the keeper. So you see all those things every day and it's going to continue to get better.

Q. Pozuelo took his goal really well today. I thought there were a couple of passes that were a little bit shorter; what did you see from him?

I think he put a lot into it. And so I think as a team we did a very good job of now playing -- in the moments where the game is on Philadelphia's terms, I think we did a very good job of dealing with 50/50 balls, getting to loose balls, winning those kind of battles. And then obviously when we had moments to start to play our football, we had this sequence that led to the first goal which was very good.

But I think on the night there were certain passes, the weight of the pass, some of the first touches; so some of those things still for me -- I believe in our football, and I was very happy with the way we pushed and competed. But I still think our football in moments was not as sharp as I expect.

So you know, Ale might have had a few of those passes that fit into that category. But I also want to give Ale credit for the effort he gave us and the commitment to the game and a really well-taken goal.

Q. This is the third time in the last four games your side has conceded first but managed to come away with a result. What does that say about your ability to find that resolve?

I think we are growing as a team. I think there's a belief in terms of the mix of our football tonight. I've said this several times, the challenge for the group was that in order to play teams like Philadelphia, you have to also understand that there's going to be balls where they play long, where they fight for headers, where there's battles for second balls, where they run hard to get numbers forward.

So we haven't given anything away in the moment when the football is sort of their style and then we have moments where we can put the ball in our terms.

So that to me is the important step tonight and you know, again, I think there's a belief that if we go on the field, push for 90 minutes, play the way that we can, that even if we go down a goal, it's not going to stop us from finding ways to still win.

Q. Congratulation are due for you on your 200th MLS win. On a night like this, do you take a moment to reflect on your career?

Not at all, actually. People a long time ago could tell you when they tried to do some kind of ceremony after the 100th win, and I was totally like, no chance.

It's all about the team, and you've got to stay in the moment. You know, the thing that is so important is that you don't become a good team by accident. You become a good team just with consistent training, consistent work, every day, and then you can grow into becoming a good team.

So the most important thing tonight is that I saw some of those things going in a good direction.

Q. Following up on that, every game is a learning experience but for some of the younger players, was a game like tonight valuable? Is this the kind of game that will be valuable down the road?

Well, it's valuable because, again, and you have to battle for every play, and if a play doesn't go right, you have to just continue and go with the next play.

You know, the ability to do that and still find ways to play the football that we want, there's still a lot of room for improvement in terms of just the quality of the football sometimes. Our ability to be a little bit more fluid; our ability to make the right pass, the right decisions.

But playing in these kind of games tests you and so I think that every time, you know, we come through these games and we get a little better feel for what they are all about, that helps.

Q. I know they didn't feature tonight but the inclusions of Adam Pearlman and Themi Antonoglou into the match-day squad, can you speak on the decision to call them up?

Yes. You know, as we have gone through the season on different days, it's been important that we get some of the different guys from the second team into first team training. It's always been something that we wanted to do, and it's important especially when you have some players out that you have some numbers in training that make sense.

Hugo (Mbongue) is in training fairly often. He was part of preseason. (Kobe) Franklin has been in first team training a lot but both Themi and Adam now have been involved more lately and just based upon where we were positionally tonight, we felt that those were the two guys that made sense just in the event of emergency.

Q. You've always talked about this being a work-in-progress. Given the last couple games as maybe a measuring stick, are you where you thought you would be at this point in the project or maybe ahead of schedule? Where do you think things sit right now?

There's still so much work. The idea of exactly what we're going to be -- when I say that, what I really mean is just how much can we be a team that controls games, how can we be a little bit better with the ball.

I still think that we have to find ways to create more chances. I think our ability to compete and deal with different moments in the game is going in a good direction.

I think that there's more and more guys that are putting more into the game and understanding that when you have a full commitment from everybody, that raises your chances for good results, and then there's just football details that continue to be worked on all the time.

So I'm not sure, I still see a lot of things that need to get better but I'm also pleased with the response of so many guys.

ALEX BONO - GOALKEEPER, TORONTO FC

Q. It's early in the season but you just took down the league's leading team. How big a win was it, and what's the mood in the dressing room right now?

Yeah, it's huge. Philly have a certain style, certain way about them that always makes them tough to play against. On top of that, they are on a pretty good run of form to start the season. Them coming in here we knew was going to be a battle from start to finish. We knew some guys were going to have to get down and do the dirty work today and we did that. We're really proud of the guys. We really grinded out another victory today. It's early in the season, we are just trying to accumulate points, put good performances today and let the results take care of themselves. But today, today was a big win for us for sure.

Q. Before the game, Jonathan was talking about how you were trying to build that big-game mentality. What does that mean to you?

Yeah, we talk about before games, we have to have a lot of guys showing up and putting good performances together individually and as a group.

You know, there have been some times, there's just not enough guys that have put forth good enough performances to really get us over the line.

Especially when it comes to big games, when it comes to teams that are close to the top of the table, it really is a mentality thing. From the first whistle, you have to know that things are going to kick off and you have to be ready to go. You have to be ready to make a play in the first 30 seconds that might make a difference in the entire game. You might have to fight through that fatigue in the 90th minute and we had guys playing out, making plays all the way down the wire till the end of the game today.

So that's that big game mentality and the more games we can bring that to, the more success we are going to have and it's good to get a result like this and see what it feels like to go out and grind out a victory. Now we know what it takes and we're just going to keep putting performances together like that.

Q. You talked about how the team is able to grind things out, especially during the tailend of the game. Is the next thing the team winning comfortably and trying to see things out a little bit easier?

That will come. Again against a team like Philly where it's not going to be the prettiest game of football, it doesn't matter what it looks like, especially at this point in the season. Fact of the matter is, we came in today, we battled toward and at the end of the day we had more goals than the other team and that's what the objective of the game is. You ask Diego Simeone if he cares what the game looks like; as long as he gets three points, advances.

You know, sometimes that has to be the mentality, that it's not always going to look pretty. We know we can play a really attractive style of football. We know that we can pick teams apart with our passing when the time is right. But at the end of the day the most important thing is getting over the line after 90 minutes and getting three points, so that's what we did today. The performances will come but right now to be able to grind out performances early in the season like this and really see out a game against a really direct team that's got a lot of weapons, that's tough to play against, I'm not really worried about how it looks at this point. I'm worried about getting victories.

Q. You've got quite a few new faces playing in front of you in defense. How has it been developing chemistry?

It's been good. We are still working through some stuff obviously. You see some miscues, some just little mishaps that happen naturally when you're trying to get camaraderie with some new players and that sort of thing.

But everyone that's new to the team has come in with an incredible work ethic and incredible hunger to help us as Toronto FC and I think that speaks volumes to the front office to the guys they went out and got this year. They went out and got guys they scouted and know have ability and that could come in and help us put together wins. You saw that today. Shane (O'Neill) was awesome, he's a warrior and Kadin another really great shift and it was nice having Chris back. It was vintage Chris Mavinga; he was awesome today.

Yeah, some new faces coming in, there's always going to be hiccups, learning curves and little things that happen but at the end of the day, we've got some warriors on this team and so the guys that came in; the few faces as you like to say, they are starting to feel less and less new as time goes on. We've been together long enough where we are starting to get a real understanding for everyone's tendencies and you can see, it starts with results and performances are going to come.

Q. Three straight wins at BMO Field after the last couple years ago away. Can you speak about what a lift you've been able to get from playing in front of the home crowd?

Yeah, you were here, you heard it tonight. It was awesome. I heard the Viking clap and I got so hyped and was like, yeah, we're going to see this out, it's no problem.

The support is always great at BMO Field. They are tough at times and they deserve to be. They come out in numbers and waves in every single game and they are supporting us until the end and that's all we can ask for. To be able to be back here, three straight wins at BMO Field, we are on our way, and we need to make this place a fortress again and make teams not want to come here and play us.

You saw today, like I said, we had warriors, guys that were ready for battle and the fans really fed off that. They love guys going in on tackles, flying in on crosses and laying their body on the line. That gets them hyped up and that gets me hyped up and that goes a long way towards helping us get over the line in a tough game where we are up against it towards the end of it.

Q. I guess you lead the league in shots on target against shots faced but you also lead the league or close to lead the league in saves. Just wondering how you are finding it this year and where you are at personally?

Yeah, I'm just trying to go out there and do my job and help the team win. Don't really care about saves. I don't really care about shots on goal. All I care about is three points and another tally in the win column.

Q. Can you walk us through what you saw on that disallowed Philly goal? Did you have a sense it would go into review?

I didn't really see much to be fair. There were a lot of bodies in front and all of a sudden the ball was past me and I didn't really know what happened. I saw some bodies moving out of the way that were in my sight lines.

So in a situation like that, I don't know that there's a Philly guy offside. I don't know that he's affecting the play. I mean, these are the rules of the game. If you're in an offside position and you're messing with the viewpoint of the goalkeeper, then by law it's ruled offside. And it worked in our favor today. And there are times all around the world where you see it and it either doesn't get called or you see that goals get disallowed for that reason.

I couldn't see much honestly but before I knew it, I was trying to react to a ball that was already halfway past me. But obviously the system worked for us today. The VAR worked for us and they made the right call.

Q. Jesus (Jiménez) has come in and made a bit of a name; what makes him so dangerous?

Clinical. That was a great finish today and also Oso to play the 1-2 and get the ball to him. Both of those guys have been on a tear. So it's great to see that little tight spaces, Oso playing in tight spaces, Jesus. His movement puts him in a really, really good position to score goals and you've seen him kind of grow into his own as he's come here, I'm sure it's always been there, but now that he's learning the tendencies of guys, he's made an impact for us.

And that was some sort of classy finish today, it really was, for him to back off like that and have Oso find him and one touch, just leaning back and put him in the far corner. He's a joy to watch and he's a joy to train with and he's working his ass of all the time. So to see that, to see him come in and continue to put goals on the board for us is huge.

Q. Just to circle back, you're talking about being hyped up during the clap and it sounded like the emotions were high, the blood was pumping. You've had big nights in this park. How important is a grind-it-out game like tonight when it comes to building a winning mentality, a championship culture with the young guys that you've got in this squad?

Yeah, it's huge. I've been saying this for a long time. There's so much talent in this city and so many talent coming through our academy that we are signing to first team deals or have first team futures. That's all well and good, and not many academies can say they have the amount of talent that we have coming through which is special.

But at the same time you have to mould these guys to understand that it's not always going to be perfect and it's not always going to be "hey, we are going to go play around everyone." Sometimes you're going to have to face some adversity and be up against it. Yeah, we have some young guys and have a lot of talent. But for them to be in a game like that and understand that, listen, it's not easy. It's not easy when a team is bombing it forward with two really athletic tall guys and playing for second balls that we are not going to be able to play our style for 90 minutes.

So a mentality switch just to say, yeah, we are going to have to bunker down or make recovery runs that we don't want to make or that we are not used to making. The more guys that can understand that's a part of what we stand for here, a part of battling and getting 2-1, 1-0, holding teams down late and not letting them get opportunities, that's what this club has been built off of. That's what our success has been built off.

For them to understand that that's a part of being on the first team; that it's not always going to be pretty and not always going to be tiki-taka, win 4-0, that's not the league, right.

So the more guys that can understand and you see guys that have put in shifts and laid their body on the line and from start to finish have given us that grind and that performance.

As we go on, as we face more adversity as you always do in a long season, the more guys that buy into it and lay it all online and after 90 minutes come into the locker room and say, I have nothing left, the more successful this team is going to be.

Check out the Toronto FC Statistics



Major League Soccer Stories from April 16, 2022


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