Toronto FC II drop a second consecutive home game

Despite starting Toronto FC first team players on Wednesday afternoon, Toronto FC II fell at home for the second time in under a week.

The starting lineup caught most people off guard as it had six players from the first team:

This is likely going to be similar to the side Greg Vanney employs in Ottawa for the first leg of the Canadian Championship on Wednesday night. Jay Chapman, Ayo Akinola and Ashtone Morgan in particular are three players who haven’t seen a lot of game minutes recently, so they’ll likely see the field at TD Place Stadium.

The first half was relatively quiet, with the first goal coming in the dying stages of the half.

In the 42nd minute, Don Smart, who has caused TFC II problems all season, fired a perfect ball through the middle of the pitch to Paulo Jr. He won the foot race with Ashtone Morgan and chipped the ball over Yann-Alexandre Fillion for an incredible opening goal.

After the break, Paulo Jr. doubled his tally, scoring another incredible solo goal in the 61st minute. After dancing around Terique Mohammed, he fired a bullet into the top-right corner of the goal, making the score 2-0.

It then went from bad to worse for TFC II, as Rocco Romeo scored an own goal just four minutes later. The ball was played across the goal, but Romeo redirected it toward the net. Despite his best efforts, Griffin Dorsey was unable to keep the ball out.

TFC II pulled one back in the 68th, capping a wild 10 minutes at the BMO Training Ground.

Moments after coming on for Ayo Akinola, Jordan Perruzza ran onto the end of a magnificent pass by Liam Fraser and curled the ball around the Forward Madison goalkeeper for his 8th goal of the season. He is now tied with Jake Keegan of Greenville Triumph SC for second place in the USL League One golden boot race, one back of North Texas SC’s Ronaldo Damus.

Just to rub salt in the wound, Forward Madison scored another highlight reel worthy goal in the 86th minute. Two minutes after replacing Josiel Nunez, Louis Bennett crossed the ball to Brian Bement, who scored with a jumping volley.

It capped off a well-earned win for Forward Madison FC, who are yet to lose to TFC II this season.

It would appear that TFC II needed defender Franco Ramos Mingo in their lineup to stop Forward Madison, who are known as The Flamingos:

Here are the full highlights of the match:

Up next for TFC II is their first game against Greenville Triumph SC this season. That game, at the BMO Training Ground, will be on Friday, August 9th at 4 pm.