FT: Toronto FC 0-1 New York City FC–Match thread, preview, & how to watch

Live Match Thread

FT—Toronto FC 0-1 New York City FC—That’s back-to-back losses for the Reds.

85’—Jayden Nelson and Ralph Priso. That’s it. That’s the update.

82’—Another youngster checking into the match as Jayden Nelson checks into the game for Nick DeLeon. Let’s see if the difference maker can make a difference here. Immediately, he wins a corner for the Reds taking his defender on 1v1.

77’—Castellanos just tried to disrespect TFC and I fully expect karma to be coming his way... Westberg having none of that.

76’—Box-to-box midfielder Ralph Priso checking into the game for Liam Fraser. Vanney praised the way the 18-year-old trained this week, so I’m not surprised to see him here. Big moment for the youngster in his second appearance for the club...

72’—The Reds with their best stint of the match right there as they had NYCFC back on their heels. Let’s see if that’s the turning point and Toronto can build some momentum here...

66’—I know I said positive vibes only tonight... but it’s 2-1 Phili now. We can afford a loss with only two games left to play after this.

59’—Shaff alert! Jacob Shaffelburg checks into the game for Toronto FC along with Tsubasa Endoh. Morrow and Mullins make way.

56’—As Ed Harrison pointed out in our comments, it’s 1-1 between Philadelphia and Chicago. The Fire are playing with 10 men, however, so hopefully they can see this out.

54’—Okay, I bit my tongue on this because the game was still scoreless and TFC were defending that at that point, but now with them trailing, one of Bradley/Fraser need to start pushing forward. There’s a clear gap at that No. 8 hole that one of them have to be willing to fill—getting up and down. If that means you sub one of them off, so be it. But that needs to change asap if the Reds want a fighting chance at this game.

51’—GOAL! Toronto FC 0-1 New York City FC—The visitors get on the score board first after a pretty bad error from Quentin Westberg. It was a difficult shot to handle, but that’s just the last place you need that rebound to pop out. Jesus Medina makes no mistake.

46’—We’re back. No changes for either side as we’ll see how TFC respond after the halftime interval.

HT: Toronto FC 0-0 New York City FC—The Reds and NYCFC head into the break scoreless as both sides had their chances. What would you change if you were Greg Vanney?

45+1—CHANCE! Wow, Nick DeLeon almost blessed us with another screamer—this time left-footed from well outside the box—but he hits the post! Dang, what a hit, he had Sean Johnson beat.

40’—NYCFC has dominated the tempo of this opening half. 66 per cent possession to Toronto FC’s 34, seven shots to the Reds’ three, which I’m pretty sure were all from Justin Morrow.

34’—Nick DeLeon or Lionel Messi?

33’—Are you kidding me Quentin Westberg? What a save! I don’t even care if it was offside, that was ridiculous, diving to his left to deny Mackay-Steven.

27’—I tweeted this out and it seems people would agree with me. What do y’all think?

23’—Morrow misses another chance...to be fair, he created that one on his own really, bursting through the midfield, but his scuffed effort goes wide of the post. Is it worrying that J-Mow is the one getting our best chances? As I’m typing this, big save from Q! Castellanos gets in behind Ciman but Westberg holds his ground. Still scoreless here at The Rent.

18’—Second time tonight Justin Morrow messes up a quality scoring chance for Toronto FC as he picks out the wrong option on what looked like a 4 on 3. That’s the payoff if you’re playing Morrow as a midfielder to shore up the left side.

12’—New York City come back knocking, but nothing comes of their strong build-up play. I don’t think either coach will be very happy with their team’s start so far...

8’—CHANCE! What a ball from Alejandro Pozuelo, left-footed diagonal to release Justin Morrow in behind, but the fullback takes too long to get his shot off, allowing the New York City defender to recover just enough to get a foot on the ball and deflect Morrow’s effort over the net. Catch your breath yet? What an opening 10 minutes here.

7’—Michael Bradley with a crucial tackle that saves what looked like a sure NYCFC goal. This is shaping up to be a wide-open, back-and-forth entertaining game....

6’—Why is Poz not playing as your NO. 10!?!?!!?! Come on. That would be Poz running at the NYCFC back line making that decision, not Nick DeLeon (although he didn’t do horribly).

3’—Early yellow card for Justin Morrow. You can argue that Omar Gonzalez could’ve picked one up too in the opening minute after trying to stop the NYCFC counter attack. Either way, not a great start for The Reds...

1’—GO—nevermind! Blown down for offside, but New York City FC came close to opening the scoring within one minute. Bad giveaway in the midfield and some great counter attack play by NYCFC leads to Moralez finding the back of the net, but not before play was halted.

1’—Players, coaches, officials all take a knee prior to kickoff in protest against racial injustice. And we’re off. Here we go! Come. On. You. Reds!

7:32 p.m. EST—This should have been a 30-minute pregame show @TSN.

7:17 p.m. EST—Friendly reminder to get your guesses for tonight’s final scoreline in our prediction league before kickoff! We’re about 20 minutes away...fwiw, I guessed 3-1 TFC, and I’m in first, so you should probably guess that ;).

7:11 p.m. EST—Here’s what TSN had for how Toronto FC are going to line up tonight—and they don’t have Poz as No. 10...come on now. But positive vibes! It’s not how they line up on paper, it’s how they’ll play on the field & I highly doubt that this is how TFC will look after kickoff!

7:00 p.m. EST—We’re baack! Thanks once again for joining us. I hope everyone is well, and hopefully doing exactly the opposite of whatever the heck y’all were doing Saturday night because that did not work! Positive vibes only tonight as The Reds try to get back into the win column and keep the pressure on Philadelphia, who are ahead of TFC only by goal differential. Tonight’s opponent, of course, is NYCFC who are always tricky. They’re in fifth in the East, but have fallen to Toronto twice already in MLS regular-season play this year. Was anyone at that March. 7 game at BMO Field—Achara’s game winner?

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Starting XI

The Toronto FC injury list is LONG! Here’s what Greg Vanney’s putting out tonight against New York City FC, which in my opinion, still gives the Reds more than a fighting chance.

And for the visitors...

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How to Watch

Who: New York City FC

When: Wednesday, October 28, 7:30 PM ET

Where: Rentschler Field, Connecticut

TV: TSN 1/3/4/5

Radio: TSN 1050