DC United have a chance to extend their home unbeaten run against Toronto to six games when they host the Canadians on Saturday at Audi Field.
The Reds have not won an away game in the US capital since 2016, suffering their worst defeat in Major League Soccer against them a year ago, 7-1.
Match preview
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Less than a week after earning a resilient 2-2 draw with Inter Miami, twice coming back from a goal behind, the Black and Red struggled to create much against New York City FC in midweek, failing to register a shot on target in a 2-0 defeat.
They have been up and down seemingly with every game under interim manager Chad Ashton, without successive defeats or wins since he took charge.
The Black and Red often like to press, which has enabled them to score multiple goals in three of their last four MLS fixtures.
There is no doubt that this team possesses some quality attacking players who can bury their opportunities, but the service to their frontmen has often been lacking.
We have rarely seen them react well when faced with adversity this year, claiming just a single point when trailing at the half.
This season, three of their four victories have come against Eastern Conference opponents, though they have also conceded six goals beyond the 75th minute of play.
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It was another relatively solid 90 minutes of football for Toronto a week ago which ended in disappointment yet again.
Despite their best efforts, they always seem to come up short, conceding beyond the 90th minute for a second consecutive week, losing to Orlando City 1-0.
Rebuilding a team seemingly from scratch does not happen overnight, and these youngsters are learning the harsh realities that can come when you have even one lapse in concentration, which has cost them over the past few weeks.
They have failed to score in three straight encounters for the first time since 2014, and another defeat this weekend would tie their longest losing run from 2021 when TFC lost six consecutive games on a pair of occasions.
Their previous trip to DC is one that the players remaining from 2021 would rather forget as they were behind after two minutes, without an answer for what the Black and Red were throwing at them, in a game which led to the dismissal of former manager Chris Armas.
However, in their previous meeting against them this year, we saw a much more positive effort as they came back to win 2-1, leading to a four-match unbeaten run.
Current boss Bob Bradley is urging supporters to stick with them despite the growing pains that the players are experiencing right now.
Even with their current slump, the results for this team would indicate that they are not too far away from potentially ending that slide, losing five of their seven fixtures this season by a single goal.
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Team News
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Chris Durkin missed DC United's match on Wednesday through suspension, while the injured list for them at the moment includes Adrien Perez (foot), Nigel Robertha (head) and Chris Odoi-Atsem (ankle), while Gaoussou Samake, Moses Nyeman and Andy Najar all have thigh issues.
Taxiarchis Fountas has been quite the find for the Black and Red, with the Greek striker scoring five goals already with his new squad, which puts him even with Ola Kamara for the team lead.
On Wednesday we saw several new faces to their starting 11, who were on the bench to start their previous match versus the Herons, as Rafael Romo started in goal instead of Bill Hamid.
Tony Alfaro, Griffin Yow and Kamara were also in the opening lineup, replacing Julian Gressel, Fountas and Michael Estrada.
Numerous regulars remain out of the lineup for Toronto as Kadin Chung, Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty, Chris Mavinga, Noble Okello, Jonathan Osorio and Jacob Shaffelburg all have lower-body injuries.
Ayo Akinola had the only goal in their 7-1 defeat in DC last year, while Alejandro Pozuelo levelled their match against them last month with the winner coming courtesy of Osorio, who was set up beautifully by Luca Petrasso.
Alex Bono has been under siege in goal for TFC at times this season, leading the league in saves with 51, Jesus Jimenez is tied for second in league goals with seven, while Michael Bradley has been a precise ball distributor with over 600 accurate passes, the fifth-most in the league.
DC United possible starting lineup:
Hamid; Pines, Birnbaum, Hines-Ike; Smith, Canouse, Gressel, Djeffal; Flores, Fountas; Kamara
Toronto possible starting lineup:
Bono; Thompson, O'Neill, Salcedo, Petrasso; Kerr, Bradley, Priso; Akinola, Jimenez, Nelson
We say: DC United 2-0 Toronto
When you are losing in the fashion that Toronto have been, it can be challenging to snap out of that sort of funk, and at the moment, nothing seems to be going their way, despite probably deserving a little better.
The Black and Red always seem to be able to recover from a setback, and we anticipate their dangerous attacking players will punish the Reds, who have yet to solve their defensive issues.
For additional data used by our team to analyse our suggested result please click here.
Top tip
Joel Lefevre
