comeback draw midweek against Charlotte FC<\/a>, down two goals and one player, was another sign of the team\u2019s character \u2014 which Robin Fraser has applauded even when times were at their toughest this season.<\/p>\nThey aren\u2019t in the playoffs yet, though. Toronto FC needs to take the momentum from this win and take it back to BMO Field with them. Waiting for them in Toronto are three consecutive home games, in front of crowds that are expected to be bigger with the Canadian National Exhibition taking over the city for the next few weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s certainly the thought, that we have to continue to build on this,\u201d Fraser said to reporters including Waking The Red after the match. \u201cWe will continue to go one game at a time. We haven\u2019t talked about any other team than the next team that we\u2019re playing, so just to get ready for the next team and go in and have a good solid effort, and then we\u2019ll go on from there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talk about what does it mean for the rest of the season. The rest of the season really is the next game until that game\u2019s coming. Then it\u2019s the next game, so we\u2019re just going to keep focusing on one game at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toronto FC believe that this is how they could have been performing all season long. Whether it was the unbelievable injury bug that ripped through the team or costly mistakes in key moments that dropped points along the way, TFC had not previously played to their high standards this season.<\/p>\n
Now that they have found some better form, they want to do what they can to hang on to it and keep climbing the Eastern Conference ladder.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels great, it seems like the work that we\u2019ve been doing over the break is starting to pay off, and guys are starting to mesh,\u201d added Kobe Franklin. \u201d The squad is pretty healthy, and everybody\u2019s competing with each other and competing for the badge on the field.<\/p>\n
\u201c[We\u2019re] happy to score some goals and get some results, and this is the turning point for the rest of the season. We can\u2019t be satisfied with just seven out of nine. We\u2019ve got to keep going and pick up more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s big win in Miami also came without three of TFC\u2019s most important players \u2014 injured midfield duo Jonathan Osorio and Niklas Dorsch and suspended centre-back Walker Zimmerman. The entire team had to step up, with Josh Sargent and Derrick Etienne Jr finding the back of the net and Richie Laryea among the other players who put in arguably the club\u2019s best all-around performance of the year. <\/p>\n
When you look at who they were up against \u2014 Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Rodrigo De Paul, Casemiro, Germ\u00e1n Berterame, Sergio Reguil\u00f3n and Dayne St. Clair \u2014 it can be easy to expect the worst, but Toronto FC outplayed them for almost the entire 90 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us to have success, it\u2019s going to be about more than any one or two players,\u201d Fraser said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be about the group, and I feel like it\u2019s inevitable that you\u2019re going to miss players from time to time, but I think what has happened over the last couple of weeks, when we\u2019ve had so many guys get healthy, the level of training increases, the level of attention and attentiveness increases, and I think that just makes everyone better. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are going to be moments where we\u2019re going to be without some of our players, and we have to be able to find ways to get results without them. So really, hats off to the group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Playing the game and not the occasion is also important in a game like this \u2014 with the greatest player of all time Messi on the other side, in a new stadium against the reigning MLS champions, on the road. Franklin said his side were not fazed by that at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came in here with a dog attitude,\u201d Franklin said. \u201cWe know the squad we have and the quality we possess, and we believe that we can beat anybody on any given day. Today our team played exactly that, and we were able to take out three points. I feel like we were the better team on the day, and we deserved to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
As they return home, Fraser knows the work is far from over, but that his side can build on what they have done this week as they prepare to play New York City FC. A draw at Yankee Stadium kicked off this four-game unbeaten streak they now find themselves on. <\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone thinks offense, offense, offense, but you have to be able to stop good teams,\u201d he said. \u201cWe do have good attacking players, and we do well in the attacking end of the field, but the key, I think, is going to be our ability to stop teams. New York City is also a very talented team and have some very good players, and we have to continue to work defensively and continue to work to be hard to break down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you work extremely hard and work extremely cohesively, you can earn results, and that mentality is something that we\u2019ve seen throughout this week certainly, and that\u2019s really what we need to build on is the level of cohesion of which we play offensively and defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are 13 games left for TFC, and they have a real opportunity to enter the playoffs in good form if they can scrap their way in. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If Toronto FC do snap their playoff drought this season, the eight-day stretch of August 15-22 might end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5310,7312,5384,318,359,8453,5312,48,330],"class_list":["post-180501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-bmo-field","tag-inter-miami-cf","tag-kobe-franklin","tag-major-league-soccer","tag-mls","tag-robin-fraser","tag-tfc","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-fc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}