We\u2019re at the official halfway point of an MLS regular season that concludes in November, but Toronto FC is in serious danger of dropping completely out of the playoff race before the summer is even over.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s 2-1 road loss<\/a> to D.C. United extended Toronto\u2019s winless run to 11 consecutive MLS matches \u2014 12 in all competitions \u2014 with its previous victory coming on April 4.\u00a0<\/p>\n With just three wins from their opening 14 matches, TFC sits three spots and six points out of a playoff berth, thanks to a first half of an MLS campaign that has been a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly.\u00a0<\/p>\n The good: Toronto has been competitive in all but one game \u2014 a blowout road loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps in March \u2014 and has consistently played with genuine grit and determination.\u00a0<\/p>\n The bad: A stuttering attack that has produced just 23 goals \u2014 fourth-worst in the Eastern Conference \u2014 for a paltry average of 1.64 goals per match.\u00a0<\/p>\n The ugly: A never-ending injury crisis that has prevented coach Robin Fraser from fielding a consistent starting 11 that reached its nadir in a May 16 loss to Charlotte FC, when 13 members of the 27-man squad were out injured.\u00a0<\/p>\n Without consistent access to his best players, Fraser has chopped and changed his starting lineups and forced square pegs into round holes by deploying players out of their natural positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n With a completely out-of-hand injury situation, the club took action earlier this month when it hired Adam Brett as its new director of player health and high performance. Brett’s resume includes stints with Tottenham and Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League, and the hope is that he can get to the bottom of the club\u2019s injury crisis and find solutions to keep players fit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Toronto also hasn\u2019t been getting its money\u2019s worth from DP Josh Sargent, who has yet to set MLS alight since his transfer move from English club Norwich City in late February. The American forward has three goals and an assist in 10 league appearances (eight starts) while logging 691 minutes \u2014 an average of one goal contribution every 173 minutes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Part of the issue is that Sargent hasn’t had the benefit of quality service from DP playmaker Djordje Mihailovic, who only recently returned after being sidelined since March with a pelvic stress fracture. The pair have played together for just 33 minutes this season, but now that Mihailovic is fit again, TFC will be counting on him to forge a dangerous attacking relationship with Sargent in order to get the American scoring goals that they so desperately need.\u00a0<\/p>\n But it\u2019s going to take the Reds a lot more than just that to turn this season around and challenge for a playoff berth.\u00a0<\/p>\n With just nine wins in 46 MLS games since Fraser took over at the start of last year \u2014 and its last post-season appearance coming in 2020 \u2014 Toronto FC is weighed down by its recent history of failure. It has to find a way to overcome its mental blocks and hurdles, and start converting its positive performances into points and wins.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think, all in all this season, there’s been positive moments,\u201d TFC winger Theo Corbeanu said. “There’s been negative moments. I think everybody knows that. And all I can say is that with the group that we have, with the mentality that lies in this group, our fate can change.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Elsewhere in MLS this weekend:\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2022 No Lionel Messi? No problem for Inter Miami. The defending MLS Cup champions overcame the absence of Messi and Argentinian teammate Rodrigo De Paul \u2014 both have been given time off after the FIFA World Cup \u2014 to record a 1-0 win over CF Montreal at Stade Saputo on Saturday. Luis Su\u00e1rez scored the winning goal from the penalty spot in the 81st minute and celebrated by holding up the jersey of teammate Germ\u00e1n Berterame, who was taken off the field in an ambulance earlier in the game after suffering a hard foul.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2022 The Vancouver Whitecaps have company atop the Western Conference table (see below) following a 0-0 draw away to Minnesota United. Goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka registered his sixth clean sheet of the MLS campaign, but Vancouver\u2019s attack faltered, as it was unable to take advantage of its massive edge in possession (62.1 per cent) and convert on any of its five shots on target.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0Los Angeles FC moved into a tie with Vancouver for first place in the Western Conference, courtesy of a rampaging 4-0 home win over Sporting Kansas City.\u00a0 Star winger Denis Bouanga had a brace and an assist, and South American international Son Heung-Min also scored for the black and gold, who have now won four in a row.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2022 The latest installment of the Ohio rivalry, dubbed the \u201cHell is Real\u201d derby (what a great name!) by MLS, saw the Columbus Crew come from behind to earn a dramatic 2-1 home win over FC Cincinnati. The visitors took the lead via an early goal from K\u00e9vin Denkey off a setup from Evander, one of the league\u2019s best playmakers. But the Crew notched goals just before halftime through Jamal Thiar\u00e9 (a header off a corner kick) and D\u00e1niel Gazdag (from the penalty spot) to complete the comeback.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2022 Felipe Mora chose the perfect way to say goodbye to the Portland Timbers. The Chilean forward \u2014 who is set to join Mexican club Atl\u00e9tico San Luis \u2014 bagged a second-half brace to guide Portland to a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Real Salt Lake in his final appearance for the club. “He was excellent tonight and sometimes stories are already written,” Timbers interim coach Jack Cassidy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n John Molinaro is one of the leading soccer journalists in Canada, having covered the game for over 27 years for several media outlets, including Sportsnet, CBC Sports and Sun Media. He is currently the editor-in-chief of TFC Republic<\/a>, a website dedicated to in-depth coverage of Toronto FC and Canadian soccer. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re at the official halfway point of an MLS regular season that concludes in November, but Toronto FC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-829494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829494","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=829494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}