For the first time in their MLS existence, St Louis City will head north of the border to BMO Field to battle a struggling Toronto side on Saturday.
Earlier this week, the Reds extended their winless run to seven matches, falling 4-0 at Orlando City, while St Louis have won back-to-back fixtures, blanking the Colorado Rapids on Canada Day 2-0.
Match preview
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Two matches into the interim tenure of Terry Dunfield as Toronto coach and this team have looked just as poor under his leadership as they did when outgoing boss Bob Bradley was at the controls, failing to find the back of the net since the former TFC midfielder took charge.
Toronto head into this encounter on a four-game losing streak and have shown virtually nothing in attack, registering just two shots on target in their last two matches combined while allowing a total of 16 targeted efforts already this month.
They will enter this match sitting second from the bottom in the Eastern Conference with 19 points, though the Reds have played two more games than the club behind them, Inter Miami.
For a while, it looked as though this group had improved from its dismal defensive showings in 2021 and 2022, but lately they have not been sharp in that area of the field either, conceding 10 goals in their last four games.
Their current three-match winless run at BMO Field equals their longest stretch without a home victory in this competition from a year ago, while the Reds have not claimed three points against a Western Conference opponent in the regular season since defeating the Portland Timbers 3-1 on August 13, 2022.
In the early stages of the new campaign, this team struggled to hold onto advantages, and that has continued into the summer, with Toronto dropping six points since the start of June when scoring first.
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Heading on the road to face the San Jose Earthquakes late last month without a victory in their previous four games, it appeared that the bubble in St Louis was starting to burst.
However, just like we have seen from them throughout their inaugural campaign, this group have fought back and shown a lot of resilience, defeating the Quakes 2-1, winning consecutive games and vaulting into the Western Conference lead, three points above the Seattle Sounders and Los Angeles FC.
With 14 matches still to be played, Bradley Carnell's men look poised to, at the very least, qualify for the postseason, scoring the second-most goals in MLS (39) and leading the league regarding goal difference (+15).
All seven of their losses this year have occurred when they have given up the opening goal, while they have not won a game when going behind 1-0 since March, defeating the Portland Timbers 2-1 on that occasion.
In the early part of this season, it seemed as though this group were relying heavily on their Designated Player, Klauss, to score and create scoring opportunities, but the Brazilian has been out through injury for some time now, and this team have shown they can be successful without him, as 10 players (including Klauss) have netted multiple times for St Louis in 2023.
St Louis have had fewer than 40% of the ball in seven matches this season but have won six of those encounters, with their lone defeat in that scenario coming in early April on the road against Seattle (3-0).
Team News
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The Reds will be without joint top-goalscorer Federico Bernardeschi after he received a pair of second-half cautions on Tuesday, while Lorenzo Insigne, Victor Vazquez, Sigurd Rosted, Matt Hedges, Cristian Gutierrez, Adama Diomande and Michael Bradley were all unavailable with lower body injuries.
Richie Laryea, who is currently with the Canadian team at the Gold Cup, should know soon whether he will return to Nottingham Forrest or continue with the Reds after his loan spell officially ended, Jonathan Osorio will miss this match as he is also with Canada as they face teammate Sean Johnson and the United States in the quarter-finals this weekend, while Tomas Romero could be back in between the sticks after El Salvador were eliminated from the group stage of that competition.
Mark-Anthony Kaye leads the league in tackles won (52), while third-string goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh has conceded 10 times in his last four matches.
Klauss and Eduard Lowen missed another match for St Louis this week due to quad strains, while Joakim Nilsson is still recovering from a knee injury.
Jared Stroud notched his fourth of the season last weekend, Samuel Adeniran picked up his first assist of the year as he now has three goal contributions in his previous two games, Tim Parker netted his second of the campaign, while Roman Burki recorded his fifth clean sheet of 2023.
Burki and Parker were selected to compete in the MLS All-Star game, while Adeniran had a brace in their previous road victory at San Jose with Rasmus Alm collecting his fourth assist of the year in that game.
Toronto possible starting lineup:
Romero; Franklin, O'Neill, Mabika, Petretta; Marshall-Rutty, Kaye, Antonoglou, Servania; Akinola, Sapong
St Louis City possible starting lineup:
Burki; Nerwinski, Bartlett, Parker, Hiebert; Stroud, Blom, Vassilev; Ostrak; Gioacchini, Adeniran
We say: Toronto 0-2 St Louis City
There are too many question marks surrounding Toronto at the moment, not just with potential absences, but also the fact that they do not look like a unified team in any way.
On the other hand, St Louis have consistently responded well when faced with adversity, while overall, they simply have more quality and cohesion than TFC.
How to watch
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Joel Lefevre
