After squandering two leads and losing 3-2 to D.C. United on Saturday, Toronto FC have now lost all three visits to RFK Stadium and have given up 11 goals in the U.S. capital. Of the 12 goals TFC have conceded this season, seven have been at RFK.
"I'll be honest with you before the game I was a little bit concerned about it. I've been here three times now and not won," said a partially joking Carver, who was also with the Newcastle United side that lost to D.C. United 3-1 on July 22, 2000.
The loss snapped TFC's 6-game unbeaten streak, but unlike their last visit to Washington, the team is brimming with confidence and regardless of the outcome it appears it will stay that way.
"We created our chances and scored our goals," said captain Jim Brennan. "We were full of confidence and we'll be full of confidence in our next game. We know we have a good squad and we've been playing good football."
"Confidence," said Danny Dichio, who scored both of Toronto's goals, of the differences from the team that came to RFK just more than a month ago for United's home opener. "Confidence always breeds when you are winning and we came in here with confidence tonight. We had a slightly different team than our last appearance here and we thought maybe we could get something out of it."
Toronto came into Saturday's match in unfamiliar territory, looking down at United in the standings. United had scored just one goal in their last four matches, all losses and sat firmly at the bottom of the conference standings. Consequently, Toronto was prepared for anything and everything United was ready to throw at them.
"I fancied this because there has been a lot of pressure on D.C. really and to be fair to the players and their staff, they stepped up to the plate and they didn't give up," said Carver.
But the same can be said for Carver's own players as well. A sure sign that his team's mentality has changed is that they expected to win and are disappointed that they lost a road game in a building they have never won in before.
"Huge disappointment from our point of view -- in the lead on two different occasions and then conceding two goals within two minutes of each other," said Carver. "The pleasing thing is that we are very disappointed that we lost the game and that we came against a really good side and put on a decent performance. ... Other than Greg's (Sutton) mistake we could have gotten something from the game. If we hadn't played well and we hadn't scored goals then I would have a problem."
Sutton, who was brilliant in despite giving up all four goals in their last visit to Washington, could not cleanly handle a knuckling shot from distance by Santino Quaranta in the 72nd minute that Luciano Emilio pounced on to give United the lead.
Two minutes earlier, Jaime Moreno equalized on a penalty kick after Marvell Wynne shoved Quaranta in the back with both hands, sending him sprawling to the turf for an easy call by referee Jorge Gonzalez.
Toronto scored on their only two shots on goal in the first half, spending the majority of the time fending off United's ambitious attack. Carver made a subtle tactical change to start the second half that seemed to work until Tyrone Marshall went out with a hamstring injury.
"I said to the guys (at halftime) we needed to put a bit more pressure on the ball higher up the field so the wide guys needed to get closer to stop them from delivering balls into the box and we did that," Carver said. "But losing Tyrone Marshall was a huge blow for us."
At that point he inserted Olivier Tebily, the 2001 African Footballer of the year, who was making his first appearance with the team.
"We had to put somebody in who hasn't been in the team yet and we conceded two goals so quickly and the game changed," Carver said. "But we didn't give up; we had a right go at them and I changed the team's shape and to try and get two strikers up there and went with three at the back and they had to change their team to bring on defensive players."
TFC did have an opportunity to equalize in the final moments during a mad scramble in the penalty area that include a potential handball that went uncalled by Gonzalez. To the team's credit they didn't make any excuses.
"I've been in enough trouble lately so I'm not going to comment on things I can't really comment on because I have to be honest, from the position I'm in (on the sidelines) I really can't see it," said Carver. "They (TFC players) are honest guys so I'd be very surprised if it wasn't but I have to take a look at it."
Chris Snear is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
