Toronto FC will be looking to win a second consecutive match and extend a modest unbeaten run to five when they host a New York City FC side that is struggling on the road.
Toronto (1-4-4, 7 points) hasn’t exactly been dominating during its unbeaten streak, which began one match after manager Robin Fraser decided to restore Italian star Lorenzo Insigne to the squad.
The Reds have only scored twice in that stretch, playing to three draws before last weekend’s 1-0 win at Real Salt Lake decided by Theo Corbeanu’s ninth-minute tally.
Toronto weathered plenty of late pressure to hold on to the win in Salt Lake despite playing the final 29 minutes up a man after Diego Luna’s ejection.
“To play from the front changes everything,” Fraser said. “When you have a lead it just gives you a certain level of confidence and belief, And for as hard as these guys have worked, they just haven’t had the opportunity to experience that much this year.”
Meanwhile, NYCFC (3-4-2, 11 points) still haven’t won away from home this season under first-year manager Pascal Jansen.
NYCFC have failed to score in three of their five away fixtures. But even when they’ve found the net, they’ve settled for a 2-2 draw at 10-man Inter Miami on opening weekend, and giving back a two-goal lead in a 4-3 loss to Atlanta United.
More recently, NYCFC became the first team to concede multiple goals to the New England Revolution in a 2-0 defeat last Saturday.
“The nine games that we played so far in consideration, it’s been inconsistent,” Jansen said this week. “You know, as well as I do, that we have a young squad. Inconsistency is also something that is part of that process, but we’re trying to manage that as well as we can.”
Alonso Martinez leads City with five goals, including the match-winner in a 1-0 home win over Philadelphia two weeks ago. Hannes Wolf has three goals for NYCFC.
-Field Level Media
