TORONTO \u2014 Toronto FC head coach Robin Fraser says Saturday\u2019s 1-1 tie with FC Cincinnati feels like two points lost after his side gave up another goal to a shorthanded team.<\/p>\n
Down to 10 men for the final 20 minutes of the match, a scrappy Cincinnati side scored a spectacular goal in added time to record a 1-1 draw.<\/p>\n
TFC appeared to be cruising to a third straight victory before the Kenji Mboma Dem scored on a counter-attack in added time with a left-footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. The goal was assisted by Ayoub Jabbari, with the second assist by Samuel Gidi.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve given up three goals while being up a man in the last two weeks and that should never happen,\u201d Fraser said after the game. \u201cBut at the end of the day, you still get a point, we\u2019re still moving forward, we\u2019re still accumulating points. And let\u2019s not forget Cincinnati is a very good team with very good players and credit to them for creating that goal being a man down.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tie extended TFC\u2019s unbeaten streak to five games (3-0-2) and improved the club\u2019s overall record to three wins, two draws and two losses for 11 points. Cincy now has two wins, one draw and four draws. The Reds have not lost in 11 straight games at BMO Field.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re definitely not happy (with the final score) but we\u2019re not really too hard on ourselves,\u201d said TFC goalkeeper Luka Gavran, a native of Hamilton. \u201cObviously we wanted three points and we missed out on that. But we\u2019re gaining points and it\u2019s better than last year (when) we weren\u2019t doing that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just have to get our heads right and get back at it Monday,\u201d added Gavran, adding that the players are feeling optimistic about the direction the team is going this season.”<\/p>\n
Cincinnati fell behind 1-0 in the 83rd minute after giving up an own goal when centre back Gilbert Flores directed the ball over the line, giving Toronto a 1-0 lead. The ball was directed toward the box by TFC\u2019s Josh Sargent before Flores accidentally put it past his goalkeeper Roman Celentano.<\/p>\n
Possession in the match was just about even with both squads managing four shots on target.<\/p>\n
Gavran made a huge save in the sixth minute on Tom Barlow to keep the score 0-0 early in the match. In extra time in the first half, Gavran dove to punch the ball out of harm\u2019s way after a header by Cincinnati\u2019s Matt Miazga.<\/p>\n
Gavran picked up where he left off in the second half, making a great save of a corner kick at the far post on a header by former TFC defender Nick Hagglund in the 54th minute.<\/p>\n
The Reds had a glorious opportunity to take the lead in the 58th minute when left wing Daniel Salloi fed Josh Sargent with a great forward pass in the box and Sargent shot it just wide of the goal from in-close.<\/p>\n
A number of Cincinnati players earned the wrath of the fans at BMO Field with constant embellishment. In the 70th minute, referee Ricardo Fierro appeared to lose patience with Cincy\u2019s antics, issuing a yellow to striker Kevin Denkey for his dive in the TFC end of the field. One minute later, Denkey picked up a second yellow and was issued a red card, giving Toronto a man-advantage with over 20 minutes left in the game. Denkey was booed as he left the field.<\/p>\n
The Reds lost midfielder Djordje Mihailovic for eight weeks with a pelvic stress fracture, the club signing TFC II standouts \u2014 forward Jahmarie Nolan, 16, and 18-year-old defender Richard Chukwu \u2014 to short-terms agreements for Saturday\u2019s game. TFC was also without solid centre-back Walker Zimmerman, who was a game-day scratch with a calf issue. <\/p>\n
Fraser said not having Mihailovic and Zimmerman was a big loss for the Reds but refused to use their absence as an excuse for not picking up the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we started off really well, had really good control, spent a lot of time in their part of the field but in those moments we didn\u2019t create enough actual danger,\u201d the coach said. \u201cAnd then after about 25 minutes, it felt like the game just kind of went back and forth and we didn\u2019t have the control that we did (early). So that was a little bit disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Reds host Austin FC on Saturday, April 18 at BMO Field.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 11, 2026.<\/p>\n
Steve Buffery, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Toronto FC head coach Robin Fraser says Saturday\u2019s 1-1 tie with FC Cincinnati feels like two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-597861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}