Written By: Daniel Ayik
Toronto FC secured a much-needed win over Eastern Conference rivals and familiar foes, New York City FC, in what quickly became a pretty good day for sports in Toronto where all of TFC, Blue Jays, and Maple Leafs earned victories.
First Half
There were many questions leading into this match about Toronto’s attack and more specifically the striker situation. So far during the season, Toronto has only been able to get one goal from all of Adama Diomande, DeAndre Kerr, Jordan Peruzza, Hugo Mbongue, and Ayo Akinola. Management’s solution, make a trade with Nashville SC to secure veteran C.J Sapong, another striker who has had scoring troubles, with his last goal coming in May of 2022.
Given the start on his first match for TFC, alongside Lorenzo Insigne who would wear the captain’s armband given the injuries sustained by Michael Bradley and Jonathan Osorio, as well as academy graduate Kobe Franklin who was a late replacement for Raoul Petretta, fans needed to wait a bit longer to see their new striker in action.
Why you may ask? A fire alarm was triggered from the smoke created by the pre-match pyro show. After a twenty-minute delay, the 21,847 in attendance were finally treated to some football.
The Reds quickly went on the front foot with a myriad of chances which were created by both Lorenzo Insigne and newcomer Sapong. The first half-chance came in the 8th minute when C.J Sapong received a ball from Insigne in the box, held it, quickly turned, and shot with his left. However, the attempt was shot right at NYCFC goalkeeper Luis Barraza.
The most notable change from TFC so far in the match was their pressing as a unit. The match quickly became Insigne’s best when it came to defending as he won the ball high up the pitch numerous times, each creating a half chance for himself, Federico Bernardeschi, and C.J. Sapong.
No one however performed better in the first half than Spanish midfielder, Alonso Coello. Replacing Michael Bradley in the number five role, Alonso successfully completed 42/43 passes and 3/3 long balls which were topped off with a peach of a delivery to Lorenzo Insigne in the 29th minute which led to a corner from the ensuing chance.
To wrap up the discussion on the first half, Coach Bob Bradley outlined a brief summary during his post-game interview, “the first 35 minutes, tactically and everything, we were good, but in the last 10 minutes of the first half we were on the back foot a little bit. We talked a little bit about why.”
Second Half
The Reds were quick out of the gate to start the second half where Premier League loanee Richie Laryea and C.J Sapong connected to score the first goal of the match.
The buildup to the goal was one of the few topics that Coach Bradley discussed with his team at halftime.
“We know that when we get Richie forward in the right moments he’s such a threat,” he continued. “And so the move to get him there and the ball he put across, that changed the game,” said the gaffer.
Additionally, as you can see in the video of the goal above, the play started from a ball that was delivered to C.J Sapong from Norwegian CB Sigurd Rosted. This was also discussed at half-time where Sapong stated, “At half-time, me and Sigurd had spoken about being able to find me in that pocket,” said the forward. “He tried to play a ball in the first half, didn’t see the [opposing] player.”
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