TORONTO –There is little time for Toronto FC to dwell on their latest league loss.
The Reds play for the Amway Canadian Championship on Wednesday against the Vancouver Whitecaps at BMO Field (8 pm ET; Sportsnet One) with a chance to win their fourth consecutive Voyageurs Cup.
That means they’ll have to put their latest league failure – a 3-1 thumping at D.C. United – in the past as quickly as possible. Especially since the loss dropped TFC to 0-9-0 in MLS play.
“There’s no other choice,” defender Adrian Cann said after the D.C. loss. “It’s either we’re hungry, we win the championship, or we play like we did [Saturday] and come away with nothing.”
TFC are tied with the ‘Caps 1-1 after the first leg of the ACC final in Vancouver, with only Eric Hassli’s dazzling stoppage-time volley keeping them from a win.
They expect to have captain Torsten Frings in the lineup for Wednesday. He injured his shoulder in the 2-0 loss to D.C. United at BMO Field on May 5, played through the injury in a 2-0 win over the Montreal Impact in the second leg of the ACC semifinals on May 9 and did not play in Vancouver or Washington.
Toronto FC head coach and technical director Aron Winter said he is “very confident” that this team can win Wednesday, and that he did not sense a difference in his team between the draw in Vancouver or the loss in D.C.
“No, the performance was the same as Vancouver,” Winter told MLSsoccer.com in a telephone interview after Saturday’s game. “The feeling was the same, but the only thing in a minute there was a good delivery from [Branko] Boskovic and it made it 1-0. And even then we dominated, and that’s the biggest difference.
“Because we tried to play football, we gave the pressure, we had some very, very good chances and all the stats and all the things with corners and the shooting we were the better team.”
Toronto’s next league match is Saturday against the Philadelphia Union at BMO Field.
Winter is taking a positive stance.
“Wednesday we’re going to win the Cup,” he said. “And Saturday, we have to get our first points.”
