Game Thread: Toronto FC vs. New York City FC

Toronto FC vs. New York City FC

3:00 PM Eastern

Yankee Stadium New York, New York

TSN

The Headliner: A Rivalry in the Making?

The unfortunate thing about a new league like Major League Soccer is the fact that rivalries are rarely allowed to grow organically. In an attempt to insure MLS was on par with one the most important revenue and excitement generation tools in sports, rivalries, the league has done a lot of fabrication.

Some of it has worked. While Toronto FC and the Columbus Crew was a test tube rivalry designed by Major League Soccer that has gained some traction. The fans of these two teams truly do not like each other, especially considering incidents with travelling Toronto FC supporters. It has morphed into a legitimate rivalry.

The budding rivalry between Toronto and New York City FC is quite the opposite, however. The reds first meeting with the league's new boys was supposed to be an easy win for the home side a couple of weeks ago. In the end, the blue side of New York bullied them out of three points and left star Sebastian Giovinco in the dust.

It is no secret that Toronto have been looking forward to this game since then as a chance to get some revenge. A 4-0 loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy last week surely helped those feelings as well as this team is incredibly hungry for a victory.

Key to the Game: The Battle in the Midfield

It was in the midfield that Toronto FC lost the last time they played against New York City FC, "cynical" visitor's style aside. NYCFC clogged up the middle and didn't allow Toronto to play the ball.

This time there is a chance Toronto will try something vastly different as the potentially try to spread out New York. This may include playing Jackson and Daniel Lovitz as wingers, or even putting Sebastian Giovinco out wide to keep him away from the New York midfield.

New York will be without Frank Lampard which is a huge loss in this battle, as well as Mix Diskerud who is with the US men's national team. This is good news for Toronto FC who will evidently still be missing Michael Bradley and Jonathan Osorio and may once again need to rely on inexperience in the midfield.

Lineup:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The <a href="https://twitter.com/BacardiCanada">@BacardiCanada</a> Starting XI: Konopka; Lovitz, Perquis, Hagglund, Morrow; Warner, Jackson, Delgado, Cheyrou, Findley; Giovinco. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TFCLive?src=hash">#TFCLive</a></p>&mdash; Toronto FC (@torontofc) <a href="https://twitter.com/torontofc/status/620291608571871232">July 12, 2015</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="et" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TFCLive?src=hash">#TFCLive</a> Bench: Bendik, Creavalle, Zavaleta, Bloom, Chapman, Hamilton, Moore.</p>&mdash; Toronto FC (@torontofc) <a href="https://twitter.com/torontofc/status/620292315051986944">July 12, 2015</a></blockquote>

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It will be very interesting to see Lovitz make his first start at fullback, hopefully he doesn't fall prey to the same problems Creavalle did.