TORONTO FC v D.C. UNITED
BMO FIELD, Toronto, Ont., Canada
3:30 p.m. ET (CBC; CSN-DC)
May 19, 2007 (WEEK 7) / MLS Game #41
Now riding a two-game unbeaten streak, Toronto FC look to keep the home wave rolling on Saturday afternoon when D.C. United comes to BMO Field for the first time. After opening their inaugural campaign with four losses and 10 goals conceded, TFC won twice in four days, claiming a 1-0 victory against defending MLS champion Houston Dynamo on Wednesday. United, last year's MLS Supporters' Shield winners as holders of the league's best record, began the season winless in their first four games before a 2-1 home victory against Chivas USA two weeks ago in their last match.
REFEREE: Baldomero Toledo. SAR (bench): Thomas Supple; JAR (opposite): Nate Clement; 4th: Jonathon Lavergne
MLS Career: 34 games; FC/gm: 28.0; Y/gm: 3.6; R: 9; pens: 9
Games involving Toronto FC: first game
Games involving United: P8 W2 L2 T4; FC/gm: 26.1; Y/gm: 4.0; R: 1; pens: 2
INJURY REPORT: TORONTO FC - OUT: DF Nana Attakora-Gyan (ankle); MF Tyler Hemming (knee); FW Abbe Ibrahim (groin); DF Marco Reda (knee); QUESTIONABLE: MF Miguel Canizalez (ankle); DF Chris Pozniak (groin) ... D.C. UNITED - OUT: MF Jeff Carroll (shin splints); QUESTIONABLE: DF Devon McTavish (hip flexor strain); PROBABLE: MF Clyde Simms (ankle sprain); MF Fred (groin strain)
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none
SUSPENDED: none
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: none
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: DC: Christian Gomez
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME: first meeting
• This is the first ever meeting between the clubs, the first of three on the season. They are next scheduled to meet at BMO Field on Aug. 25, with the lone encounter at RFK Stadium set for Sept. 29.
• Coaches record: Mo Johnston v DC: P3 W1 L1 D1 ... Tom Soehn vs. TOR: first game
TORONTO FC
Toronto FC followed up their historic first victory with a second just four days later, making a first-half goal stand up in a 1-0 victory against Houston Dynamo on Wednesday night at BMO Field. TFC is now in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, now with six points from six matches, two points ahead of last-place D.C. United and a point behind the Columbus Crew.
LAST MATCH
• Just four days earlier Toronto FC had scored the first goal - and won the first game - in club history, while Dynamo were returning to action for the first time in 11 days after finally breaking out of an offensive slump with a 3-1 win against Colorado.
• But on a cold, rainy night at Exhibition Place, Toronto scored the game's only goal in the 25th minute. Ronnie O'Brien swung in a free kick from the left flank, and Andy Welsh got his head in ahead of the massed pack to nod home his first MLS goal.
• The TFC defense made that lone strike stand up for the first clean sheet in club history. Greg Sutton made four saves in goal for Toronto - and was helped in the 12th minute when a corner kick deflected past him, but O'Brien was perfectly positioned to hoof it away off the line.
• Dynamo 'keeper Pat Onstad also made four saves, keeping the Orange close in the 81st minute when Edson Buddle came racing in all alone on goal, but standing up to block the angled shot with his chest.
• Toronto FC boss Mo Johnston made one change to the team that defeated the Chicago Fire 3-1 the previous Saturday for the first victory in club history. After Danny Dichio - who scored TFC's first-ever goal - was sent off in the game, Alecko Eskandarian returned to the lineup to partner Buddle in attack.
• Here's Johnston's team (4-4-2): Greg Sutton - Marvell Wynne, Jim Brennan, Andrew Boyens, Kevin Goldthwaite - Ronnie O'Brien (Chris Pozniak 73), Maurice Edu, Carl Robinson, Andy Welsh (Adam Braz 83) - Edson Buddle, Alecko Eskandarian (Andrea Lombardo 65). Substitutes Not Used: Srdjan Djekanovic, Gabe Gala, David Guzman, Cristian Nunez
• "I think we had the clear chances in the game, but I'm more pleased at not giving up any goals," said TFC coach Mo Johnston. "We're worked very hard these last 2-3 weeks on defense."
TEAM NEWS
• Not only did the lone Toronto goal come from a standard situation, but TFC was also trying to ensure they didn't allow a goal on set piece. It nearly happened in the first half, except for O'Brien's timely intervention; he then provided the service that led to the lone goal.
• "Obviously we were working against a set piece. For me they're the best team in the league in terms of getting the ball in; we tried to disturb them a bit, put Welsh out on corner kicks," Johnston said. "But I always felt that we could get in behind them in terms of movement - towards the front post, Ronnie (O'Brien) can pick anyone out 30, 40 yards out and it was a great header."
• A special point of emphasis on the night was Dynamo attacking midfielder Dwayne De Rosario, who is from the suburb of Scarborough, Ontario. De Rosario was cheered during pre-match introductions, but that's about when the niceties ended.
• "He's a very dangerous player who can score from anywhere," Johnston said. "But we had two guys in the midfield who worked very, very hard in [Carl] Robinson and [Maurice] Edu."
• Said Edu to The (Toronto) Star: "It's hard to shut him down because he's a quality player," Edu said. "He had a few chances but we did a good job of limiting him. We just tried to keep him in front of us, and tried to play physical when we could. We tried to limit his touches going forward and get him to play back. When we got him to do that we were more successful."
• Ronnie O'Brien was in his second game for TFC, playing the right-sided midfield role, after returning from a preseason knee injury. He contributed his first assist for the club.
• "I didn't feel as good as I did on Saturday," he said to The Star. "Two games in four days after being off for a couple months is a little rough. But I'll rest up and hopefully feel better on Saturday."
• The shutout was the first career clean sheet for Greg Sutton, who made five appearances (four as a starter) for the Chicago Fire in 1999-2000 before returning to the league this year with TFC.
• "It's nice to have under your belt, get it under your belt. We did a couple things this week, and that was to get our goals out of the way, and now we've got our shutout out of the way. It's something that we've been working on, and progressing every game. You see it now, you see the guys really start to know each other, and we're making things easier on ourselves."
• Dynamo were frustrated after the match by what they felt were physical tactics. "We fought for every ball. That's the way we have to play to win games. Remember (Houston) is the MLS champion and we played them tough the whole game," Johnston said.
D.C. UNITED
D.C. United return to action nearly two weeks after their last match, their first victory of the season coming in a 2-1 victory against Chivas USA at RFK Stadium on May 6. United are now in seventh place in the Eastern Conference with four points from five games, two points behind Toronto FC and a full 10 points adrift of the New England Revolution.
LAST MATCH
• D.C. United were still looking for a first victory in their fifth game, while Chivas USA were trying to recover from a heavy loss to in-stadium rival Los Angeles Galaxy the week before in the first Super Clasico of the year.
• Both goalkeepers were called upon to make some fine saves in the first half, but United took the lead just three minutes after the break. Ben Olsen put in a cross from the right, Guy-Roland Kpene made a neat flick to pop the ball up behind him, and Christian Gomez lashed a volley into the corner to give D.C. the lead for the first time this season.
• United doubled the margin in the 65th minute, when Lawson Vaughn dumped Kasali Yinka Casal in the area, and referee Kevin Stott ruled it a penalty. Jaime Moreno stepped up and hit a cheeky chip right down the center of the goal after Brad Guzan had dived, his second penalty conversion in four days and the 107th league goal of his career, now just one behind Jason Kreis.
• Chivas made for a tense 17 minutes when they scored the club's first-ever goal at RFK Stadium. Maykel Galindo took a pass on the right side of the area and skipped into the heart of the penalty area, driving an angled shot past Troy Perkins at the near post, but they couldn't find the equalizer and United won for the fifth time in five all-time meetings between the clubs.
• United head coach Tom Soehn made four changes to the team that played to a 1-1 draw with the New England Revolution the Thursday previous at home. Justin Moose and Brian Carroll came into the midfield, in place of the injured Fred and Clyde Simms. Guy Roland-Kpene made his first career MLS start, in attack alongside Jaime Moreno, as they replaced the strike partnership of Luciano Emilio and Nicholas Addlery.
• Here's Soehn's team (4-3-1-2): Troy Perkins - Bryan Namoff, Facundo Erpen, Bobby Boswell, Joshua Gros - Justin Moose (Kasali Yinka Casal 46), Brian Carroll, Ben Olsen - Christian Gomez (Stephen deRoux 78) - Guy-Roland Kpene (Luciano Emilio 66), Jaime Moreno. Substitutes Not Used: Nicholas Addlery, Rod Dyachenko, Jay Nolly, John Wilson
• "I see the difference in their mentality. We know we're better than what we showed in the first three games and there's a real positive to build off of as far as the mentality that we brought to the table on Thursday," Soehn said. "That desire to not be beaten and to win, like I said, we're taking baby steps and there's a lot of progress to make, but it's steps in the right direction."
TEAM NEWS
• United had not scored a goal in open play in some 307 minutes when Gomez volleyed home the 48th-minute opener, and the Argentinean's cool finish gave his team their first lead of the MLS season.
• "It was an important goal for us, because it was the first goal of the night and it gave us a little bit of tranquility for the rest of the match," said Gomez. "We had many more chances against New England [on Thursday], but we weren't able to finish them. Today we didn't have as many chances but the ones we had, we were able to put in the back of the net."
• For Gomez, it was his second goal of the season. He led United with 14 goals a season ago. "I was excited for Christian to get his goal, he's been a little frustrated and all it takes is something like that, a goal, to get your confidence back," said Soehn.
• Soehn continued his recent lineup shuffling on Sunday, giving Guy Roland-Kpene his first-ever start and giving 45 minutes apiece to young wingers Casal and Justin Moose.
• "I think it was important to get Kasali [Yinka Casal] in the game - they didn't really play with a left-sided guy and I thought it was a good chance for him to use his speed and his wheels to get in behind and I think he did a good job of that," Soehn said. "I don't think we started the game very well, I think it took us a bit to find our momentum and once we did we started to expose some of the holes and create some chances."
• While the win followed a draw and started to build some momentum, the United boss is still looking for the attacking form the team showed earlier in the year.
• "Sometimes, I think we need to be better with the ball. Today, I don't want to gauge it too much because I know we were tired at times and it took us a while to get our rhythm, but we've got to be better with the ball," Soehn said. "Our service could still be a little bit better, I don't think we did a good job in the first half of exposing the flanks and in the second half, I thought we did a little bit better job and we created some chances out of it."
• Still, the United defense showed the effects of playing their third match in eight days. "Our back four, although they were a little tired today, I think they're going to continue to make progress," said Soehn. "We're taking baby steps. Was it perfect? No, but we're going to build on it."
• It was a second game for Facundo Erpen as a center back in the back four. "He's been better. I thought he was very good today," Soehn said. "It always helps when you have cover and when we first scouted Erpen that's where he was, he was a center back in a four [man defense] and we've tried to convert him to a marking back, and it's a tough job, it's a lot of responsibility to mark man-to-man - especially with all the good forwards in our league."
• Moreno's delicite penalty kick chip put him one goal away from tying Jason Kreis for the all-time league goals record, now with 107 for his career - 31 of those coming from the penalty spot. "It was spicy - extra picante on that one," Ben Olsen said. "He does that at practice, he's got like five or six of his little tricks on those."
