Toronto FC looked like the more dangerous of the two teams at times on Saturday, but their winless streak was extended to seven games with a 3-1 defeat away to Charlotte FC.<\/p>\n
With 13 first team players out or due to injury, Zane Monlouis the latest after being listed as \u201cquestionable\u201d on Friday with a knee problem, four players were called up from Toronto FC II on Short-Term Agreements: defenders Luca Costabile, Jackson Gilman and D\u00e9kwon Barrow and midfielder Fletcher Bank.<\/p>\n
Gilman started at centre-back alongside Walker Zimmerman for his MLS debut, with Raheem Edwards on the left and Kobe Franklin on the right in front of Luka Gavran. Jonathan Osorio and Alonso Coello were partnered in midfield as usual with Derrick Etienne Jr., Malik Henry, Daniel Salloi and Emilio Aristizabal making up the attacking unit.<\/p>\n
There was some rare positive news on the injury front in the second half, as Nicksoen Gomis replaced Edwards just before the hour mark for his first appearance in over a year as he recovered from a long-term Achilles injury.<\/p>\n
Coello and Kerwin Vargas traded early long-distance shots in the first few minutes of a back-and-forth start to the match, and Toronto was repeatedly unleashing the pace and directness of Henry down the right side to put early pressure on the Charlotte defence.<\/p>\n
Gilman got his head on the end of a cross to the back post on a corner kick in the 16th minute, but Kristijan Kahlina reacted quickly to catch the ball on the line. Vargas had another attempt at the other end of the pitch moments later but sent a cross-goal shot high over Gavran\u2019s net without coming close to testing the TFC netminder.<\/p>\n
Vargas set up the opening goal in the 19th minute, chipping a high cross into the box and overhitting it slightly, but finding Wilfried Zaha. Zaha, whose loan at Charlotte expires during the World Cup break, beat Gavran at his near post, finding the bottom left corner of the net. <\/p>\n
Zaha was left off the Ivory Coast World Cup squad, but responded in a big way on the club\u2019s first shot on target of the match. <\/p>\n
Etienne Jr. wasn\u2019t left off Haiti\u2019s World Cup team<\/a>, and showed exactly why three minutes after his team conceded, moving patiently along the edge of the penalty area before firing a powerful shot past Kahlina for his second MLS goal of the season.<\/p>\n \u201cWe broke from the right side, the ball found Oso [Jonathan Osorio] and he played me and I was in a 1v1 opportunity,\u201d Etienne said after the match. \u201cI was able to cut inside, there was no help defender and I was able to set my feet, get a good preparation touch and get a good shot on goal. <\/p>\n \u201cI was glad I got a clean strike and yeah, you saw what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n Gilman thought he gave Toronto the lead in the 27th minute when he headed home from a set piece, but referee Allen Chapman went to the monitor and spotted an alleged foul on Jonathan Osorio. Osorio didn\u2019t appear to foul anyone, but was merely standing his ground when Idan Toklomati ran into the back of him and went to ground.<\/p>\n The goal was called off, and it proved to be costly when Charlotte found a second goal of their own eight minutes later. David Schnegg stepped into a long-distance shot and blasted it along the ground and into the bottom right corner to make it 2-1 for the hosts instead.<\/p>\n