Reds face gauntlet, beginning with Crew
TFC plays champs in the first of four games in 11 days
Coach John Herdman isn’t putting too much stock in the fact that Toronto FC, since losing 4-0 in Columbus on July 6, has posted a better league record than the defending MLS champion.
Toronto, which beat visiting Austin 2-1 on Saturday, has won four of six league outings (4-2-0) since that setback at Lower.com Field, while the Crew are 3-2-2.
“I don’t put any credence (in that),” Herdman said. “I just look at their squad and I salivate.”
Its easy to see why. Columbus had an MLS-high five players at the allstar game on its home field in July: defenders Rudy Camacho and Steven Moreira, midfielder/captain Darlington Nagbe, and forwards Cucho Hernandez and Diego Rossi.
Herdman sees layers of talent behind those all-stars. “You see the way that they’re able to almost carbon-copy players. One comes in, another goes out … and they feel like they have a very similar profile. So to be able to take (Christian) Ramirez out and then bring (Canadian forward Jacen) Russell-Rowe in as a power forward, you look and go, ‘Whoa, that’s good to have.’ ”
Federico Bernardeschi was Toronto’s lone all-star.
Columbus (145-8) comes to
BMO Field on Wednesday in third place in the Eastern Conference, five places and 14 points ahead of TFC (11-15-3). A playoff spot already clinched, the Crew hopes to leapfrog Cincinnati into second. Coach Wilfried Nancy is looking forward to matching wits with Herdman.
“John is going to cook (up) something,” the Frenchman said with a belly laugh. “I know John. When we played (in the) pre-season, it wasn’t a pre-season game. It was a real game. But this is John. That’s why I like him … he’s intense all the time.”
Herdman says TFC will have to play error-free football. While the Crew have failed to score in their last two outings, Toronto is hurting in its backline. Nicksoen Gomis and Henry Wingo both left the Austin game early with hamstring injuries, with Herdman estimating that Gomis will be out three to four weeks and Wingo 10-12 days. Veteran Kevin Long missed the Austin game after tweaking his hamstring in training and will undergo a fitness test ahead of the game. Shane O’Neill, meanwhile, is suspended for yellow-card accumulation.
The Columbus game is the first of four in an 11-day stretch for TFC, which will visit Colorado on Saturday, Vancouver on Sept. 25 in the Canadian Championship final, and Chicago on Sept. 28. Toronto closes out the regular season at home to the New York Red Bulls on Oct. 2 and Inter Miami on Oct. 5.
If the playoffs were to start tomorrow, TFC would face ninth-place D.C. United in a wild-card matchup with the winner advancing to take on the East’s top seed, Miami, in the best-of-three first round.
Herdman hopes to overtake seventh-place Charlotte, which has two points and a game in hand over Toronto. The seventh-place side will take on No. 2, currently Cincinnati, in the first round.
“We’re looking up, not down at the moment,” Herdman said. “It’s a good motivation for the lads to see that next level on the table. And it has been raised. If we’re able to get to that point, it means you’re not headed down to Miami in the heat, which is a tough place to go.
“We’ll take whatever comes … the critical part is to get into these playoffs. That’s the key mission at the moment.”
Toronto has not made the postseason since 2020.