Toronto FC lost a painful one on Wednesday night, falling 2-0 away to the Chicago Fire at Soldier Field.
Jhon Durán scored both Fire goals inside the first 16 minutes.
The first came in the 4th minute when the 18-year-old Colombian forced a turnover out of Chris Mavinga and then got on the end of a Chris Mueller through-ball to bear down on goal and slot a left-footer past Quentin Westberg.
The second came 12 minutes later when a long ball out of the Chicago box was deftly flicked on by Brian Gutierrez and Durán got on the wrong side of Mavinga to surge into the area for another left-footed finish.
“A terrible start,” said Bob Bradley post-match. “[We] put ourselves in a bad situation where we’re trying to establish control in the game and three minutes in Shane [O’Neill] starts to dribble, the little ball he plays back to Chris, he’s got better options. Chris has got to handle the play better and then at the end of it all Q gets caught leaning and doesn't really give himself a chance.”
“We're trying at that point to see if we can get back into it, get a strong response, and then another mistake off of a goal kick where we have a chance to slide over and try to win it in their half. Gutierrez makes a clever flick, Chris gets caught on the wrong side of Duran and so now we really put ourselves in a spot,” he continued. “We have a lot of the ball after that, but in terms of really making more out of attacks, more of a threat, we didn't do enough.”
It was another night where TFC made it too easy for the opposition by giving up bad goals.
“The goals we've given up lately have been mostly individual errors,” pinpointed Bradley. “We’re working hard with all of those guys to correct some things.”
“You can't have a good defensive game if you make a couple of those mistakes,” he added. “And that's the thing that hurts us the most.”
Said Mark-Anthony Kaye: “Anytime you go to an away game, it's important to start with the right mentality and the right structure to make sure you keep yourself in the game. If you go down early, it makes it very difficult on the road.”
“We didn't help ourselves by letting in those two easy goals,” he continued. “We could have done a better job overall, collectively, but kudos to the guys, this is a team that is very possession-based and keeps the ball and wants to create chances. We can be more aggressive in the final third, having more runs in behind and stretching the opposition. We were just a little bit safe in the way we were playing.”
“It’s my first game with the team and I'm just trying to get an understanding for all the guys and build the right chemistry. It's unfortunate that we didn't get a win tonight, but I see some positives,” Kaye added. “I'm just excited to have gotten my debut and I just want to continue moving in the right direction.”
It was Kaye’s first appearance, following his trade from Colorado on Friday, he went 63 minutes despite nursing an injury that has limited his time on the training field.
“My emotions were in check going in, trying to take care of business and make sure I was tuned in every moment of the game,” he said. “I'm happy to be playing for TFC and I feel like maybe the first home game is going to hit me a little bit more, but tonight I just tried to go out there and focus on what I needed to do to help the team.”
Kaye’s debut gave the first look at a midfield trio of him alongside Michael Bradley and Jonathan Osorio.
“Adding Mark with Michael and Oso is going to be an important part of our team. You could see some moments of the understanding between the three of them, but when you get behind early and the other team is clogging the middle and we don't get enough from any of our attackers, that's not something that we want to be very positive about,” explained Bradley. “There's still a couple of guys that, on a tough night, away, fight and keep everybody around them going in the second half. And even though we don't score, we keep going.”
“I've talked a number of times this year that there's good leadership and some resolve that comes from those guys. We've got to keep that part going,” he highlighted. “And then of course, look forward to adding a couple more guys and see if we can make a real run. Tonight we never gave ourselves a chance.”
Toronto will have little time to lick their wounds ahead of a massive game this weekend as they travel to Quebec for a clash with CF Montreal at Stade Saputo on Saturday.
Not a bad match on the docket for Kaye’s second game with the club.
“Any rivalry at any club is a big deal. I know how important it is to our fans, to the club,” said the midfielder. “Excited to be a part of it for the first time in my career, but I've been a part of some big rivalries. I know what it takes mentally to get prepared for it. I'm excited to play in that game on Saturday.”
Bradley’s message to the side was plain: “We've got a big game coming up.”
“We need guys that learn from this game, strong guys, guys that as a group can push each other and help each other,” he added. “And see if we can respond.”
