Toronto FC sees improvements in the field as Incine is waiting in the wing

Toronto — Approaching the midpoint of the MLS season, Toronto FC is 5-8-3, 5 points away from the playoffs photo, with Italian star Lorenzo Splint waiting in the wing.

Columbus Crew (4-5-6) will be visiting on Wednesday, so there’s still a lot to do. But despite sitting in 11th place in the east, Toronto can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Bob Bradley’s team lost only one of the last seven games (4-1-2) in every tournament with reinforcements at hand. Incine is scheduled to debut on July 9, and is expected to help Italian rookie Domenico Criscito strengthen TFC’s defenses.

Criscito was scheduled to land in Toronto on Tuesday afternoon, as the signature of Genoa’s captain had not yet been announced, according to anonymous sources.

Bradley is seeing improvements. Now he wants to see them consistently.

“We always want to see more good football,” he said after training on Tuesday. “We can see it right away. I think we’ve seen some good stretches after taking all the games so far, but we’re aiming to keep improving in every way.

“That’s the job. That’s how you build a good team.”

Midfielder Jonathan Osorio added: “Although it’s in the early stages of the whole process, we’re already starting to see a lot of positive signs in the last few weeks. I’m happy. (But) we don’t think these signs are consistent all year round. We know we don’t. We need to be consistent and work on improving every game. “

Toronto was 3-8-5 at the same time last season after the start of the campaign 1-8-2, which sacrificed Chris Armas’ job as head coach.

Bill Manning, president of Toronto, said the change needed after a disastrous 2021 when the club finished 27th overall with a record of 6-18-10.

“In our club things were really going wrong. I wasn’t feeling good about the direction of the club,” he said this week.

“We felt we needed a basic piece that was literally a global superstar,” he added, referring to Insigne. “And we felt we needed a world-class coach, and Lorenzo was at the top of my list.”

Bradley became head coach and sports director last November, rebuilding the roster that saw 20 first team members move into the off-season.

Improving defense and achieving some success on the road is at the top of the TFC’s to-do list.

Toronto has won two straight games at home, 5-3-0 in BMO Field this season and 0-5-3 on the street. The last eight MLS victories of TFC dating back to September are all back home, as are 26 of the 31 points the team earned during that period.

Toronto is currently in the midst of a five-game homestand.

“We have to change things apart,” Bradley said. “We played some decent games away, but we need to turn it into more points.”

Columbus was undefeated in the last three games (1-0-2), but the injured crew themselves followed the start of 2-0-2 in the season when they visited Toronto and won 2-1. I dug a hole in. Columbus has been 2-5-4 since its inception and has won only one in the last six league appearances (1-2-3).

Of the 18 goals in Columbus this season, 10 were in the first four games. Breaking the pair of relationships, the crew managed only three goals in their last five outings (1-2-2).

Aggressive midfielder Lucas Serrarayan leads Columbus with four goals, but hasn’t scored because of injuries since being named MLS Monthly Player of the Year in March. .. An Argentine-born designated player representing Armenia internationally has lost to Los Angeles FC 2-0 since May 21st.

The injuries affected more than just Serrarayan. Columbus had a 0-0 draw at Real Salt Lake on Saturday without Brazil’s Arthur, Derrick Etienne Jr., Erik Hurtado and Kevin Molino.

Serrarayan, Etienne and Hartado, who scored 10 of the crew’s 18 goals, are allegedly suspicious in the Toronto match, along with Marlon Hairston and Yo Yeboah. Artur remains out due to an injury to his leg.

Toronto goalkeeper Quentin Westberg and Mexican defender Carlos Salcedo, who survived a fierce clash with a 2-1 victory against Atlanta on Saturday, are part of a training session that reporters were allowed to watch on Tuesday. It wasn’t.

“There’s nothing big, but we’ll see if everyone can attend, or if we need to keep some guys out and prepare for Saturday (against Seattle),” Bradley said. Told.

Midfielder Noble Okello, who last played on April 9, is still sent off due to an injury.

The match on Wednesday features Columbus’ 17th place attack (average 1.20 goals) and Toronto’s 27th place defense (1.88 goals match).

Colombus has signed 23-year-old Colombian forward Juan Camilo (Cucho) Hernandez (pronounced COO-cho) as a young designated player in Watford, England, hoping to spark an attack. The crew said the transfer fee was the largest in the club’s history, but didn’t elaborate.

Like Insigne, Hernandez has to wait for the MLS secondary transfer window to open on July 7th.

The crew won the last two meetings with Toronto in the home field, dating back to the beginning of the 2016 season, 1-6-1 including playoffs with Toronto other than Columbus.