Captain Chris Mannella scored his first professional goal for Toronto FC II but it wasn’t enough as the team suffered a 2-1 loss against bitter rivals FC Montreal at Stade Saputo’s Turf Field on Wednesday.
With the defeat TFC II’s record falls to 4-12-3, extending their losing streak to three matches.
The struggles continue for Toronto. The team has given up 14 goals in their last 8 matches and has only managed to score 5 during that span.
It was a slow start for the young Reds at Stade Saputo and FC Montreal came out pressing, looking for an early goal.
Montreal appeared to have opened up their account early in the match but Jacque Haman’s goal was called back as the linesman had their flag up for offside.
A few minutes later Montreal was able to draw first blood in the 401 Derby.
The home team was awarded a penalty after Emeka Ononye pulled Haman down in the 7th minute of the match. Ononye consequently received a yellow card for his foul.
FC Montreal Captain Jeremy Gagnon-Lapare stepped up and made no mistake, placing a low shot into the bottom right corner past Quillan Roberts to put them up 1-0.
Montreal came close to adding to their lead in the 26th minute. Alessandro Riggi made a great play to find an open Lajoie-Gravelle near the top of the box who hit it first time but Quillan Roberts was able to dive to his right to rob Lajoie-Gravelle of a goal.
TFC II’s best opportunity in the first half was a long distance shot from Captain Chris Mannella but David Paulmin was up to the task, diving to his right to make the save and preserve Montreal’s lead.
Montreal added to their tally five minutes into the second half. Zachary Sukunda found some open space on the left flank and put in a cross that was met by Haman who headered it home, putting FC Montreal up 2-0.
TFC II’s lone goal came in second half stoppage time from an indirect free kick inside the box near the penalty spot. The free kick was called after Paulmin made an error in picking up a back pass from one of his midfielders.
Raheem Edwards laid it off to Chris Mannella who was able put it into the bottom left corner to spoil Paulmin’s shutout and get TFC II on the board.
It was too little too late, however, as the whistle was blown for fulltime shortly after to give FC Montreal the three points.
Toronto’s next match is on Saturday, August 15th against the Richmond Kickers at the Ontario Soccer Centre. Kick-off is set for 3PM ET.
Scoring Summary
FCM – Jeremy Gagnon-Lapare 8’ (PK)
FCM – Jacque Haman 53’
TFC II – Chris Mannella 90’ + 1’
Misconduct Summary
TFC II – Emeka Ononye 7’ (caution)
FCM – Louis Beland-Goyette 13’ (caution)
FCM – Mitchel Bringolf 56’ (caution)
TFC II – Mo Babouli 77’ (caution)
FCM – Marco Dominguez 81’ (caution)
Records:
Toronto FC II: 4-12-3 15pts.
FC Montreal: 7-12-3 24pts.
Lineups
Toronto FC II – Quillan Roberts; Gabriel Boakye (Wesley Charpie46’), Skylar Thomas, Emeka Ononye, Mark Anthony Kaye (Luca Uccello 62’); Chris Mannella ©, Anthony Osorio, Sal Bernal (Marcos Nunes 76’), Raheem Edwards; Edwin Rivas (Mo Babouli 46’), Jordan Hamilton
Substitutes Not Used: Filippo Di Bennardo, Robert Boskovic, Manuel Aparicio
FC Montreal – David Paulmin; Janouk Charbonneau, Mitchel Bringolf, Jonathan Grant, Zachary Sukunda; Jeremy Gagnon-Lapare © (Marco Dominguez 74’), Kyle Bekker, Louis Beland-Goyette (Zakaria Messoudi 62’); Frederic Lajoie-Gravelle, Alessandro Riggi (Yacine Ait-Slimane 80’), Jacque Haman (Fabio Morelli 69’)
Substitutes Not Used: Yann-Alexandre Fillion, Mele Temguia, Aron Mkungilwa
