TORONTO – Ty Harden hasn't been able to put Toronto FC’s 2-1 loss last Saturday in Montreal out of his mind.
The defender is particularly haunted by his mistake on the second Impact goal, scored by rookie Andrew Wenger, when Harden failed to properly clear the ball.
“I wish I could say I could forget about it,” Harden told reporters on Tuesday during training at BMO Field. “But of course I’ve been thinking about it. ... That’s all I’ve thought about for like the past three days. You try to take positives out of every game and you try to learn from all the mistakes you make as well.”
The loss in Montreal dropped Toronto 0-4 in league play. They will have a week to think about that before they take on Chivas USA at BMO Field on Saturday (4:30 pm ET, watch LIVE online).
But it is a rare opportunity for a break for TFC, who have played eight games since March 7, including four in the CONCACAF Champions League.
Toronto had a players-only meeting on Tuesday, something they do regularly. Harden reported that it was reaffirming that the players support each other and believe they’re not as bad as their league record would indicate.
“We all still believe in what we have here,” Harden said. “We still all believe in what we’re doing. I think we have the team. I think our team knows that and that [meeting] was just a little bit of a reminder.”
The Reds have just endured a winless stretch of five games in 14 days in all competitions and Harden feels the week of training leading into the next game should be a benefit.
“I think not having a midweek game, not having our sixth game in like 15 days or something is going to help us,” Harden said. “We’re going to feel a lot more rested and better prepared for the game.”
That said, Harden doesn’t believe they can blame their failures thus far on the difficult schedule.
“I don’t want to make excuses for it,” he said. “But, of course if you’re tired, you’re more likely to make another mistake or it’s that much harder to get close to somebody or that much harder for someone to get back when maybe they would have before. At the same time, it’s still a simple mistake.”
And mistakes are what have done Toronto in so far this season. Harden does not need to be reminded of that.
