TORONTO FC vs. FC DALLAS
BMO FIELD, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Aug. 3, 2008 | 4 p.m. ET (CBC)
WEEK # 19 | GAME # 126 After another disheartening loss on the road, Toronto FC return to BMO Field -- where they are still unbeaten on the campaign -- for a Sunday afternoon contest against FC Dallas. TFC hasn't won away from Canada since April, Monday's late defeat at Real Salt Lake extended the club's league winless streak to five games. FC Dallas put an end to a four-game winless streak of their own last weekend, Schellas Hyndman getting his first league win in charge of the club in a resounding 4-0 victory against the LA Galaxy.
REFEREE: Baldomero Toledo. SAR (bench): C.J. Morgante; JAR (opposite): Adam Wienckowski; 4th: Jorge Gonzalez
MLS Career: 56 games; FC/gm: 27.1; Y/gm: 3.9; R: 22; pens: 20
INJURY REPORT: TORONTO FC - OUT: DF Todd Dunivant (ankle); FW Danny Dichio (concussion); QUESTIONABLE: MF Kevin Harmse (knee) ... FC DALLAS - OUT: DF David Wagenfuhr (concussion); DOUBTFUL: GK Ray Burse (R ankle); QUESTIONABLE: DF Andrew Daniels (L knee); PROBABLE: MF Juan Toja (L quadriceps)
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: TOR: Maurice Edu, Marvell Wynne (U.S. Olympic team) ... DAL: Dax McCarty (U.S. Olympic team)
SUSPENDED: none
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: TOR: Laurent Robert
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: TOR: Jeff Cunningham, Amado Guevara, Abdus Ibrahim ... DAL: Pablo Richetti, Andre Rocha, Juan Toja
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (2 meetings): Toronto FC 1 win, 4 goals ... FC Dallas 1 win, 2 goals ... Ties 0
AT BMO FIELD (1 meeting): Toronto FC 1 win, 4 goals ... FC Dallas 0 wins, 0 goals ... Ties 0
This is the first of two meetings between the teams this season, the only one set for BMO Field. Toronto FC make their lone trip to Pizza Hut Park on Oct. 11.
LAST YEAR (MLS):
6/17: TOR 4, DAL 0 (Edu 22; Dichio 25; Robinson 65; Cunningham 90)
9/8: DAL 2, TOR 0 (Denilson 36; Thompson 87)
A year ago, the teams split their season series, each winning by shutout at home. Toronto won by the heaviest margin in club history, a 4-0 triumph on June 17, while FC Dallas took a 2-0 decision on Sept. 8.
Coaches record: John Carver vs. DAL: first game ... Schellas Hyndman v TOR: first game
TORONTO FC
Toronto FC continued to struggle away from BMO Field, seeing their overall winless streak reach five games as Real Salt Lake came back for a 2-1 victory Monday evening at Rice-Eccles Stadium. TFC sit in a four-way tie for fourth place in the Eastern Conference with 22 points from 17 matches, level with D.C. United, Kansas City and New York, four points behind the Chicago Fire.
TEAM NEWS
After getting the late leveler, it seemed TFC would finally break its road hoodoo of late. But Findley's goal made it five losses in a row away from home.
"It seems to be the story of our life at the moment, especially on the road," said Carver. "I don't know how we could defend like Trojans at home, maybe it's because you've got 20,000 screaming fans down your throat and if you make a mistake they'll let you know about it. But, there's something not right when we are away from home. You claw your way back into the game, you think you've got something from the game and then, again ... you shoot yourself in the foot - and you come away with nothing."
The Reds have now gone winless in the five games since the 3-1 home win against Colorado on June 14, losing all three away games in that time and playing to a pair of scoreless draws at home. As well, TFC was held to a 1-1 draw by the USL First Division Montrιal Impact in the Canadian Championship that knocked them out of contention for the CONCACAF Champions League.
"It's the same old story -- we can't put 90 minutes together," said goalkeeper Greg Sutton. "We let ourselves down. We did well to get ourselves back into the game in the second half. I thought we did what we said we wanted to do at halftime, and when we came out it was pretty effective. Then we had that mental error again. It's one thing to happen once or twice, but now it's becoming a habit -- a real bad habit."
On Wednesday, Toronto FC finally concluded the deal to obtain Chad Barrett from the Chicago Fire, in exchange for Brian McBride, whose rights were claimed through the allocation rankings. TFC obtained the Fire's 2009 first-round pick in the SuperDraft as well as conditional future considerations.
"I would like to thank all parties involved in getting this done," said TFC director of soccer Mo Johnston. "The real winners in this deal are MLS, the Chicago Fire, Toronto FC, and Brian McBride. The Fire has brought back a wonderful striker and we're getting in return, a promising young striker - as well as a first round draft pick. It was important that we received the No. 1 pick in this deal, and hopefully it will serve us well in the future."
FC DALLAS
FC Dallas gave Schellas Hyndman his first league victory as head coach in impressive fashion, rolling to a 4-0 victory against the Los Angeles Galaxy on Sunday evening at Pizza Hut Park. FCD is now tied for fourth place in the Western Conference with 22 points from 18 matches, a point behind the second-place between Los Angeles and Houston.
LAST MATCH
FC Dallas had played to three consecutive draws and had just one win since May 24 -- a span of eight games -- while the Los Angeles Galaxy hadn't won in five games, playing to ties in their last two.
The teams had last met on May 18, a 5-1 Galaxy win in Frisco, ironically Steve Morrow's last game in charge of the Hoops. It didn't take long for Kenny Cooper to show that game was in the minds of the FCD players, with two goals in three minutes.
First, in the 15th minute, he cut across the top of the area from the right before lashing a low drive that took a slight deflection before sailing inside the near post. Then in the 17th minute, he dispossessed a defender before playing a one-two with Dominic Oduro, side-footing home a terrific strike from outside the area for his 11th goal on the campaign, one off the league lead.
Oduro made the lead 3-0 in the 36th minute. Arturo Alvarez split the Galaxy defense with a pass from the center circle and Oduro raced in alone on goal, rounding Galaxy 'keeper Steve Cronin in the box before tucking home the ball from a tight angle. Abe Thompson completed the rout in the 89th minute, curling home a wonderful long-range strike into the upper right corner.
Hyndman made three changes to the team that played to a 2-2 draw with the Colorado Rapids the previous weekend. Aaron Pitchkolan and Arturo Alvarez returned to the team and Eric Avila made his first league start, with Juan Toja injured, Marcelo Saragosa suspended and Dax McCarty having been called into the U.S. Olympic team.
Here's Hyndman's team (4-4-2): Dario Sala - Drew Moor, Duilio Davino, Aaron Pitchkolan, Adrian Serioux - Andre Rocha (Michael Dello-Russo 66), Eric Avila, Pablo Ricchetti, Arturo Alvarez (Chase Wileman 75) - Kenny Cooper, Dominic Oduro (Abe Thompson 72). Substitutes Not Used: Ricardinho, Mike Graczyk, Bobby Rhine, Blake Wagner
"The players were very focused on getting a good result after the last time playing LA here was an embarrassment," Hyndman said. "We had a lot of fans question what FC Dallas was all about. Very seldom in life do you get a chance to come back and redeem yourselves. Today, I thought they did a fantastic job of coming back and playing for their pride and their community. The players all played for each other and we did something that we haven't done very often, score first and score again."
TEAM NEWS
FCD played in a 4-4-2 system for the first time since a 1-1 draw at Houston on June 26 and the shift in formations was a success.
"It was outstanding," Hyndman said. "This is what we all want to do, is win. We train very hard, want to find success and make a difference. I just felt that we had to get more people involved in the attack instead of just two. It's hard to ask players to do things when you don't show them and design it for them."
Going to the system meant some changes for the FCD coach. Eric Avila made his first MLS start and Aaron Pitchkolan made his first in four games. Michael Dello-Russo made just his second first-team appearance while Chase Wileman made his full league debut.
"We had a lot of players that haven't played very much like Eric Avila who was outstanding today. [Aaron Pitchkolan] was very strong in the air and we even brought on two players, Chase Wileman and Michael Dello-Russo, who don't play very often and they did a great job for us," said Hyndman.
Cooper now has goals in five of his side's last six games. After being the subject of numerous international queries over the past few weeks, earlier the week the club made it clear he would remain with the Hoops.
"We received offers from multiple international clubs for Kenny Cooper during this transfer window, but we elected to decline them all. The international interest is a credit to Kenny, FC Dallas and the ever increasing talent level in Major League Soccer," said FCD general manager Michael Hitchcock. "Winning championships is our priority, and we feel strongly that Kenny will continue to be an important part of our success as we compete for the MLS Cup this year and in the future."
While Hyndman had experienced a victory since taking over as head coach - a third-round Open Cup win against USL First Division side Miami FC - it was the first league victory. After the game was over, Cooper made the point of getting the match ball for Hyndman.
"It feels very good to walk away with the win," Cooper said. "I thought we did the things that the coaches have asked of us. I feel that Schellas has been making a good impact on us on a daily basis. It's nice to show that in a result like today."
TFC vs FCD: Match Thread Baby!
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