Toronto FC vs NY Red Bulls: With TFC In Control Expect The Home Leg To Be (Wet) and Wild
Toronto FC vs NY Red Bulls ~ Nov. 5th ~ 3pm ET ~ BMO Field ~ TSN1/4
It’s Super Sunday in the land of MLS playoffs as the remaining three series are all scheduled today – nice going MLS scheduling gods – which means that we’ll know the conference final matchups by the end of the day! This is a good thing, until you remember that those games don’t start for over two weeks…however, jumping ahead of myself, there’s still a game to be played this afternoon.
Toronto are coming into the home leg in a pretty solid position; they won the away leg 2-1 (yay for away goals), they’re playing at home where they’ve only lost once all season, and they’ve beaten the energy drinks the last two games they’ve faced each other. Of course there’s concern over Toronto’s two injured players in Victor Vazquez and Drew Moor – with the energy drinks at full strength (their injured players haven’t featured in ages so aren’t a loss to this XI), there may be an opportunity for the Red Bulls to take advantage of a slightly weakened TFC side.
Here’s the scenarios for both teams to advance:
Any draw sees Toronto FC advance, any one goal win sees TFC advance, only the dreaded 2-1 (in the energy drinks favour), sees the game going into extra time – the rest would mean a serious goal fest for either team.
General Thoughts:
- If Drew Moor is still injured then Nick Hagglund is a more than capable replacement – though we’d rather see Moor, Hagglund showed himself to be up for the challenge in the away leg.
- If Victor Vazquez is still injured…well, this is a bit dicier as replacing Vazquez is no easy task. But Jonathan Osorio has been doing very well of late and with Jay Chapman nailed to the bench (or not even on it), expect to see Oso to step into the midfielder’s boots.
- It’s going to rain. The entire game. And probably a lot. Dress/prepare accordingly.
- Jozy will score.
- There will be flags at every seat for the fans to wave – perhaps they can double as a hat/umbrella like device?
- Seba will score.
- Felipe will still be an asshole.
- Bradley Wright-Phillips will score.
- Toronto will win.
These are the games we enjoy, the games that our team has momentum on their side, in front of the home fans – though we can do without the rain, it has often been the TFC way – with everything on the line. If Toronto FC win today they’ll go on to face the Crew (#SaveTheCrew) – sorry pizza rats but you know it’s true – in just over two weeks time. Ah yes, the international break; nothing like a huge layoff to dull the excitement eh? Regardless, the focus is on today and advancing to the Conference Final – remember last year? Still the best night ever as a TFC fan – starting on November 21st (home leg on the 29th). It’s going to be scrappy and messy today, but I’m sticking with my 2-1 TFC podcast prediction. Come on boys, lets do this again.
November 5, 2017
There is plenty of talent and skill in TFC’s line-up to make-up for the loss of Moor and VV. Although, the team does seem to want to hide VV’s injury, presumably to prevent the asshole from targeting the injured area again.
If it were me, I would look to defend and wait for the counter.
November 5, 2017
Don’t know that I see them just sitting back, not really TFC’s way – especially at home. But perhaps a bit more caution given conditions etc. 🙂
November 5, 2017
Should be an exciting match (as they all are in the rain at BMO Field)!
November 5, 2017
A lot of good memories of rainy days at BMO!
“It was a rainy day at BMO….” 😉