Toronto FC 1:4 AS Roma. Get Used To It!

Jason De Vos: Kevin, the supporters groups that have created such a great atmosphere here, have voiced their dislike of games like this. They've obviously in many respects, some of them, not shown up tonight. What do you say to fans, to try and get that balancing act, to try and bring games like this to Toronto, but obviously try to be competitive in MLS first?

Kevin Payne: We're going to play these games!

Pause

JDV: So, it's as simple as that?

KP: It is as simple as that.

JDV: So the supporters clubs that don't want them to happen, they're, you know, out of luck?

KP: They should get used to it! We're going to play these games, I don't think it's a detriment, this would be the hard day of training for our team anyway, for young players on the field now for instance, how much is this game worth, to play against teams like this?

Audio of the interview here. H/T to @photohazard

The interview went on for a while, he made it clear we shouldn't be expecting anything big in the way of signings by the time the window closes, and they're under the impression Urruti is a free agent so won't be subject to the window, and a whole bunch of other stuff, but that's the money quote.

Get used to it.

Expect that one to be thrown back into Payne's face repeatedly.

That was by far the most newsworthy thing to happen tonight. TFC did take the lead, an Alvaro Rey cross headed in by a Roma player, what a fantastic moment that is for Own Goal, he'll never forget the time he scored against Roma. Then Roma came back and scored 4 goals, Totti came on after about 70 minutes, tried some fancy things that didn't come off, the crowd looked bigger than the average TFC crowd, announced at 18,000, that's about right, though it was noticeably quieter and obviously pro Roma, and that was that.

Except that wasn't that, as in the first half Alvaro Rey went off injured after a tackle that was far too aggressive for a friendly. The Roma player got the ball but his trailing leg, high and studs up caught Rey's ankle heavily. The worst case scenario for this sort of thing had happened as Rey had to be subbed off. Fran O'Leary said post game that he should be fine, it was just heavily bruised, let's hope that is the case.

So, a possible injury and a whole bunch of fans pissed off, that's a great day's work TFC, a great days work.