Toronto FC lost 4-1 to the Chicago Fire at BMO Field on Saturday night.
Maren Haile-Selassie opened the scoring in the 41st minute, getting on the end of a Fabian Herbers cross after Luka Gavran made a last-ditch save on Hugo Cuypers, pouncing on a Toronto error.
Lorenzo Insigne pulled TFC level before half-time when his left-footed strike snuck past Chris Brady in the 44th minute – it was ruled offside on the field, but given following a video review. Insigne's 15th goal for the club prompted some life, but Cuypers reinstated the visitors lead in the 57th minute, out battling the defense to burst in on goal.
Mauricio Pineda quickly made it three with a shot from range after Toronto were punished for a turnover and Allan Arigoni scored Chicago’s fourth in the 89th minute sealing the result.
John Herdman was not happy after the final whistle.
“‘Disappointment?’ That’s an understatement, a real understatement,” said the TFC coach post-match. “For the fans, firstly, I apologize. We weren’t at the level tonight.”
“While there was effort there and opportunities, we’re too soft. We gave goals away tonight,” he continued. “We've discussed this. We’ve got to be harder to beat, at home there's got to be an identity that fans can be proud of. That's the first night in my time where I've really shared the disappointment of the fans.”
“I always look for that silver lining, whether it's the effort, being tough, creating opportunities, but tonight we were flat,” Herdman levelled. “It's very raw at the moment. We've had some conversations in the dressing room, but we can’t see that again.”
“We've got three days to turn this around,” he added. “And as I've said to them, ‘The real us has to show on Wednesday.’ The real us, because that wasn’t us.”
It was not the return to action after a two-week pause that the side were hoping for.
“I don't think we were at the races,” summed up Matty Longstaff. “We were below our standards by a long, long way. We have to be better.”
Sometimes the other team scores a good goal and all one can do is applaud and redouble the efforts. Others are self-inflicted.
“None of them were acceptable,” said Herdman of the four goals. “This has been a trend. At times you’ve got to put the ball into Row Z. We're trying to nutmeg players in our own quarter [of the field].”
“We keep talking about that maturity of a championship team,” he expanded. “Fede [Federico Bernardeschi] was talking about [former Italy and Juventus captain Giorgio] Chiellini putting the ball in the Row Z to let the team set – having those moments and managing those moments.”
“I'm really emotional about this one,” underlined Herdman. “I’ve never been this disappointed in the 30 years of my coaching career. With women, men, youth teams, whatever. This one sucks.”
The post-match on-field huddle was sharp, not a lot was said before the side went to applaud the fans for their support. There was then a long wait between leaving the field and coach and player emerging from the dressing room to speak to the media.
“He said what we knew: we have to be better. It's that simple,” shared Longstaff of the conversation behind closed doors. “We have a game on Wednesday, that's not us that showed up tonight, and to come out and play like that, that's unacceptable.”
“From the start of the year we set high standards and today was nowhere near,” he continued. “We’ve spoken about how we want to make [BMO Field] a tough place to come – tonight we were probably the furthest thing away from that. We need to make sure we’re ready for Wednesday.”
Toronto will be back in action midweek with the visit of Nashville SC.
“You’ve got to win Nashville, that's it,” instructed Herdman. “This is gone. As I said to them, the real you, the real us, better show up on Wednesday.”
“We owe the fans something, we owe them,” he closed. “The one thing that I want these fans to always feel is that we would never give up, we'd always give them our everything, and I didn’t think [we did] that tonight.”
