{"id":93877,"date":"2022-03-20T15:48:05","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T19:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/?p=93877"},"modified":"2022-03-20T15:48:05","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T19:48:05","slug":"energized-reds-come-back-to-earn-first-win-of-the-season-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/blog\/energized-reds-come-back-to-earn-first-win-of-the-season-at-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto FC pick up their first win of the season"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Toronto FC<\/a> picked up their first win of the 2022 MLS<\/a> regular season on Saturday afternoon with a 2-1 victory over D.C. United at BMO Field.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The visitors took the lead in the 10th minute when Russell Canouse snuck into the area to get on the end of a Nigel Robertha cross from the left and his glancing header found the far-side of goal, but TFC responded in the 24th minute from an attacking corner kick when Luca Petrasso\u2019s in-swinging ball to the near-post was flicked on by Michael Bradley and Alejandro Pozuelo arrived in a timely fashion to sweep it over the line from close range.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Energized, Toronto would take the lead early in the second half on a devastating attack that saw Pozuelo pick out Petrasso on the left and he delivered a tempting ball behind the D.C. back line for Jonathan Osorio to arrive at the back-post for a sliding finish \u2013 the 50th goal of his TFC career, a game-winner in front of the South End.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cHard fought,\u201d summarized Bob Bradley post-match. \u201cIn a game like this, this time of the year, it’s a lot about mentality. Within the group we always work on football ideas, but we’ve talked a lot lately about also how you take the training that you put in and turn it into the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThat includes getting to loose balls, that includes winning headers, that includes just the mentality,\u201d he continued. \u201cSo you go down, get back on a well-organized goal off the corner. And then in the second half, excellent goal by Oso and then a really strong mentality to finish the game out. So in those ways, from a team standpoint, those are all big pluses.\u201d<\/p>\n

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For a team still finding itself after a busy off-season, these first three points are massive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cGetting this result in front of the fans was huge; getting the result and fighting the way we did,\u201d said Osorio. \u201cWe wanted to give the fans more of what they deserve, they didn’t deserve the result in the home opener, so we made sure to fight today.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt was a very good response when we went a goal down. It would have been very easy to let that kill our spirits, but we kept going and we got the equalizer and the way we came out in the second half was great,\u201d he added. \u201cSo overall, just a great performance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There was a hint of the steel required as Toronto closed out the result. D.C. looked to push and had their half-chances, but the home side refused to break.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cDown the stretch of the game, I thought the concentration across the board was really quite good,\u201d highlighted Bradley. \u201cWhen we talk as a group of the things that you need to become a really good team, a complete team. The part of dealing with a game, the part of having a lead, finding ways to make sure that you can hold on to it, trying to get the insurance goal, but if it doesn’t come, making sure that being ahead by one goal, that that’s enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThose are really important parts, especially for a team that has young players, for a team that’s still evolving,\u201d he stressed. \u201cIn all those ways today, I’m really proud of the commitment of the group.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After the final whistle, TFC, led by Pozuelo, rushed to celebrate with their fans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to have fans again,\u201d said the Spanish maestro. \u201cThey helped the team to win this game.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe last 10-15 minutes [D.C] tried to push a little bit more, but we the fans were amazing,\u201d continued Pozuelo. \u201cThey need to come to BMO because we need them, we need all the people here, they help a lot. They are the number 12 in the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The victory was the first of the Bob Bradley era. With Osorio scoring the game-winner and a TFC goal scored in the 24th minute, it was a mix of the new with the familiar, a fitting start.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe felt that we had a chance to take three points in Dallas. I’ve talked too many times already about the disappointment of the home opener. Last week, in many ways a good first half but just not the right response when Columbus pushed us in the second half \u2013 I didn’t like the goals that we gave up, and so today to come from behind and now know how to finish the game, for me that’s really important,\u201d said Bradley. \u201cI say it every week to the media and I say it every day to them that we’re going to become a good team, but now you\u2019ve got to get some rewards for yourself, so that was really, really important.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Every team must learn how to win.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cEarly in the season in MLS the team has to really develop a mentality of knowing how to go on the field, still trying to play football, but how to win games in different ways,\u201d said Bradley. \u201cFor me, that’s the number one important part of today.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Added Osorio: \u201cIt\u2019s huge, especially for a young group, to get the feeling of what it takes to get three points in this league, the hard work that you have to put into every game.\u00a0It’s important to have that feeling, to experience that feeling of the three points.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI think this is a big step for us,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe guys are going to keep working during the international break and looking forward to that game against New York City here at home again, that’s going to be a big game. We needed to get this and the way we performed out there we deserved the three points.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Toronto FC picked up their first win of the 2022 MLS regular season on Saturday afternoon with a 2-1 victory over D.C. United at BMO Field. The visitors took …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":93878,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17411,4432],"tags":[14148],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/20220319160332-a070802a90e84ed2a3142933459ebc8110a690b9a9fcdc7a71ab5316a435befe.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93877"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93879,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93877\/revisions\/93879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}