Toronto FC aim to record their second away win of the season in the league when they take on Real Salt Lake at Rice Eccles Stadium Monday night. The Reds only win on the road so far came at Los Angeles Galaxy back in April. The game is Toronto's first since the 1-1 tie with Montreal Impact in the Nutrilite Canadian Championship last week.
Despite failing to advance to the CONCACAF Champions League, coach John Carver believes the players are in confident mood. "There's nobody lacking in confidence. Everybody is together and there is a great spirit. They're still seething from the defeat against Montreal. We're going into tonight's game with one win on the road this season, and that's not good enough and we all know that."
"We're not going to the easiest of places, playing at altitude and they've got a very good home record," said Carver, "but we've seen how difficult it becomes to try and get something out of the game, when you have a home record like that. We've seen how determined teams are when they go into somebody else's territory and we'll make the game as difficult as we can for the opposition."
"Everybody tells me the surface in Salt Lake is nowhere near as good as here at BMO Field or at New England, but our players are going to have to cope with it. You just have to get on with it and adapt to it. It's not as big a difference as if we were playing on grass every week and then going to play on a totally different surface," said Carver.
Toronto FC beat Real Salt Lake 1-0 at BMO Field in the opening home game of the season back in April. Laurent Robert scored the only goal. The Reds are again missing players through injury and international call ups. Danny Dichio remains sidelined with concussion and Maurice Edu and Marvell Wynne are away with the U.S. squad preparing for the Olympics. Kick off is 9:00 p.m. live on CBC Bold.
