TORONTO - Toronto FC ended an eight-match winless streak in spectacular fashion on Saturday with a 4-1 victory in front of 15,879 at BMO Field against a D.C. United side clearly preoccupied with a more important fixture early next week.
HIGHLIGHTS: Russell's Goal | Rey's First Goal | Rey's Second Goal | Dike's Goal
INTERVIEWS: Rey | Bloom | Henry | Dike | Agbossoumonde | Russell | Brennan
D.C. United sat stalwarts such as Dwayne De Rosario, Chris Pontius, Perry Kitchen and Bill Hamid in light of their upcoming U.S. Open Cup final match, and Toronto missing key players such as Robert Earnshaw, Steven Caldwell, Matias Laba and Jonathan Osorio. In the end, United’s Jared Jeffrey and TFC’s Darel Russell scored highlight-reel goals in the first half to fill the void left by the absence of such significant star power.
D.C. opened the scoring in 12th minute when Jeffrey beat TFC keeper Joe Bendik with an exceptional strike from 25-yards out.
Toronto evened the proceedings 11 minutes later when Russell delivered a sure AT&T MLS Goal of the Week contender when he chested an errant ball inside the D.C. box and turned and volleyed past 'keeper Joe Willis in genuinely spectacular fashion.
TFC took the lead on another high-quality goal in the 67th minute when right back Mark Bloom delivered a fantastic cross that striker Bright Dike finished with authority via a thundering volley.
Toronto added an insurance goal four minutes later on the break when a cross from Alvaro Rey ended up in the back of the D.C. net courtesy of an own goal by defender Conor Shanosky.
Rey added a spectacular goal of his own in the 87th minute when he showed off some fantastic dribbling ability in the D.C. box before delivering a well-placed shot inside the far post.
With the loss, D.C. United saw their current league winless streak stretch to eight games. Toronto, meanwhile, earned a much-needed victory in their second-to-last home fixture of the season and made a winner of assistant Jim Brennan in his debut as an MLS head coach.
The former TFC defender and Canadian International took over on the sideline due to the suspensions of head coach Ryan Nelsen and assistant Fran O’Leary following their ejections in Toronto’s 2-1 loss to Sporting Kansas City last weekend.
Toronto FC return to action on October 5 against the Philadelphia Union at PPL Park, while D.C. United will face the Real Salt Lake on Tuesday in the U.S. Open Cup final.
Scoring Summary
DCU – Jared Jeffrey 15’
TFC – Darel Russell 25’
TFC – Bright Dike 67’ (Mark Bloom)
TFC – Conor Shanosky (OG) 71’
TFC – Alvaro Rey 87’ (Justin Braun)
Misconduct Summary
DCU – Collin Martin (caution) 37’
TFC – Bright Dike (caution) 45’
TFC – Darel Russell (caution) 62’
DCU – Marcelo Saragosa (caution) 68’
TORONTO FC RECORD: 5-15-11 26 POINTS
D.C. UNITED RECORD: 3-21-6 15 POINTS
Lineups
Toronto FC – Joe Bendik; Mark Bloom, Gale Agbossoumonde, Doneil Henry, Ashtone Morgan; Alvaro Rey, Darel Russell, Jeremy Hall, Bobby Convey (Reggie Lambe 84’); Bright Dike (Justin Braun 81’), Andrew Wiedeman (Kyle Bekker 90’+2)
Substitutes not used: Stefan Frei, Jonas Elmer, Ryan Richter, Richard Eckersley
D.C. United – Joe Willis; Daniel Woolard (Conor Doyle 45’), Conor Shanosky, Sainey Nyassi, Taylor Kemp; Jared Jeffrey (Dennis Iapichino 69’), Kyle Porter (Casey Townsend 79’), Marcelo Saragosa, Collin Martin; Michael Seaton, Lionard Pajoy
Subsitutes Not Used: Andrew Dykstra, Luis Silva
