Toronto FC II Holds on for 1-1 Draw with FC Montreal
June 15, 2016 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Toronto FC II News Release
Vaughan, ON - Despite going down a man late in the game, Toronto FC II will come away from the weekday 1-1 draw with FC Montreal.
FC Montreal opened the scoring in the 55th minute after some good work from Alessandro Riggi on the left flank. He received the ball deep on the wing and cut back onto his favoured right foot. His cross was whipped in along the six yard line and met on the volley by a lunging Anthony Jackson-Hamel for his first of the season.
Toronto's equalizer came late and off the forehead of Liam Fraser. Luca Uccello floated a free kick across the centre of the box and Fraser was able to shrug off his defender and stoop down to send the ball into the bottom left corner. It was his first professional goal and, more importantly, gave TFC II a share of the points.
The Young Reds came out strong in the first half, maintaining a defensively responsible shape without the ball, and utilizing their pace in behind the Montreal defence when breaking forward. Sal Bernal was lively down the right wing, linking with the rapidly maturing Shaan Hundal well.
Fraser and Uccello were being given the time and space to dictate the play, repeatedly setting the wide players free, including a particularly gilt-edged chance 15 minutes in. Fraser had set Bernal free and Maxime Crepeau had raced out of the Montreal goal in an effort to shut him down. Bernal got his foot to it and beat the keeper, but the ball bounced just wide of the right post.
Crepeau kept his team in the competition throughout the game, including an important stop on a sliding Uccello just before half time, and blocking the shot of debutant Ayo Akinola, late in second half injury time to preserve the draw.
TFC II were forced to play with 10-men from the 82nd minute on, after Jobe saw a second yellow card for blocking off the run of Aron Mkungilwa. The hometown club didn't let their heads drop, however, and battle on to level the game and keep up the momentum ahead of a tough two game road trip.
Jason Bent was frank following the game.
"We have to put teams away" the TFC II head coach said. "From our perspective we definitely dropped two points, but we showed great character at the end to fight through and get a point"
TFC II are back in action on Sunday June 18th when they travel to Nippert Stadium to take on high-flying FC Cincinnati. Catch the livestream from 7:00pm on tfc2.ca
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