Ryan Williams of the Ottawa Fury goes to the ground to relieve TFC’s Jonathan Osorio of the ball in Toronto on Wednesday during the second-leg of the teams’ Canadian Championship semi-final.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Toronto FC may have nine goals in its past two games but the emphasis will be on the defensive side of things in the squad's last game before a welcome two-week break.
The New England Revolution may not look like much of a threat, given its eighth-place standing in the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer with a 4-5-5 record. However, at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., the Revolution is a powerhouse. All four of its wins are at home this season, where the team plays on the attack and has yet to lose a game, as it has two ties to go with the four wins.
"It is a difficult place," TFC defender Drew Moor said Thursday about playing at Gillette Stadium. "New England does well there and they've made it a difficult place for anybody to get points.
"It's a good opportunity to keep our momentum going, to end this kind of run and start our break on a high note."
TFC is undefeated in its past eight MLS games and goes into Saturday's game having scored nine goals in its past two games and allowing none, which includes Wednesday's 4-0 shutout of the second-tier Ottawa Fury in the Canadian Championship semi-final. A win or a draw will set a franchise unbeaten record.
But TFC has more working against it for Saturday's game than the Revolution offence, as the Reds are facing their second game in 72 hours and once again will be missing a bushel of players.
Out because of national-team duty are forward Jozy Altidore and midfielder Michael Bradley, along with forward Tosaint Ricketts (hamstring injury) and midfielder Marky Delgado (suspension).
On the plus side, striker Sebastian Giovinco will return from a quadriceps injury, although it is not clear if head coach Greg Vanney is willing to take a chance on letting him play the full 90 minutes. This also explains the emphasis on defence, which is where most of TFC's vaunted depth lies.
With Bradley out, veteran Benoît Cheyrou is expected to start in the midfield with an eye to keeping a blanket on New England midfielder Lee Nguyen, who drives the offence.
"All 11 guys on the field, no matter who it is, work so hard defensively and work hard to get into good places and communicate well," Moor said. "That's one thing that flies under the radar with this team. As good as we are attacking and going forward and exploiting other teams, from the back I look forward and I trust everybody that defensively they are going to put the work in.
"That's where we get a lot of our joy and I think that's been on display the last couple weeks."
Moor does not expect fatigue from TFC's busy schedule to be a problem. He pointed out the Revolution also played a game on Wednesday. Vanney said the competition for playing time also keeps the Toronto players fresh.
"I think everyone is focused," Vanney said. "They want to continue the [undefeated] run and everyone has to prove their worth because the next guy is waiting for your spot.
"I think the group as a whole, everybody's hungry. I know every time I have to tell somebody they're not in the 18 [playing roster] or not starting, it's a battle because they all want to play. It will be no different on the weekend."
Still, Moor admitted, it will be hard not having Bradley playing in front of him.
"Yeah, it's different," he said. "[Bradley] just covers so much ground. In both halves of the field you can count on him. In attacking, defensively, he's the heartbeat of our team.
"You can't replace a guy like Michael in everything he brings but when we have to, we adjust well."
While the Reds' 12 goals-against on the season is the best mark in the Eastern Conference, Vanney said their extra stinginess of late was because he asked for more attention to detail.
"Before these last few games I felt we had gone through a stretch where we hadn't got a shutout and we needed to tighten up some of those things between the casual mistake here-and-there, the missed clearance," he said. "We were giving away the odd goal.
"So it was just to refocus the group in making every play count and not giving away silly goals."
Vanney said Ricketts' hamstring injury, which occurred in the second half of Wednesday's game, is not considered serious. He was expected to undergo a magnetic resonance imaging test on Thursday and is not expected to be available before the break.