{"id":188159,"date":"2026-08-29T23:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T23:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/188159\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T23:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T23:31:09","slug":"toronto-fc-have-so-much-more-belief-ahead-of-nycfc-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/188159\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto FC have ‘so much more belief’ ahead of NYCFC visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a positive feeling around Toronto FC at the moment, as strong of one as there\u2019s been all season. Can the Reds keep the good times rolling on Saturday against a New York City FC side<\/a> that is winless in their last four league matches?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s actually a 1-2-3 record in the last six games for NYCFC in all competitions if you include a win and two losses in Leagues Cup action \u2014 a six-game span that started with the Pigeons being held to a 1-1 draw at Yankee Stadium by Toronto FC<\/a> on July 31. <\/p>\n

That result was the last in a 12-match winless streak going back to April for TFC, before last week\u2019s seven-point gauntlet where they beat the New England Revolution and Inter Miami, with a comeback draw against Charlotte FC, down two goals and down to 10 men, in between. <\/p>\n

Related Reading: 7-point week could be season-defining for Toronto FC: \u2018We have to build on this\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s remarkable how quickly the feeling around a club can totally flip, sometimes for the worst but in Toronto FC\u2019s case for the better. Suddenly they are within a tiebreaker of the Eastern Conference playoff spots, and making a run down the stretch feels like an expectation more than wishful thinking.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll look to continue their good form on Saturday in front of their home crowd, with the Canadian National Exhibition taking place around the stadium. <\/p>\n

Daniel Salloi \u2014 who had started 20 of the prior 21 matches for TFC and was one of three players with Luka Gavran and Alonso Coello to play all 21 \u2014 drops to the bench in favour of Theo Corbeanu, while Walker Zimmerman replaces Zane Monlouis in the backline in the only other change from the Miami win. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe mood\u2019s been good, I think that there\u2019s so much more belief now,\u201d Robin Fraser said to reporters including Waking The Red on Friday. \u201cHaving guys back, the level of training has been higher, competition has made everyone play better, and as a result I think the belief is higher.<\/p>\n

\u201cTack on the results of last week, that was very positive for us, the week and the way the results went. Even how the results went, where I thought we really had to grind in certainly the first two games and in the last game as well, and I just think there\u2019s a lot of belief in the team now [from] within the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the club\u2019s overall form picks up, TFC players are finding more confidence in each other and in themselves. That leads to a complete, well-rounded performance like the win in Miami \u2014 something they want to use going forward as proof that they can beat anyone when they execute at a high level.<\/p>\n

Feel good, play good?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vibe\u2019s been high,\u201d added Derrick Etienne Jr. \u201cTo be able to go on the road and get a result, definitely a result that we needed to get us moving up the table, was very good, but obviously we\u2019re not in the playoffs yet. We want to make sure that we keep that momentum going, and hopefully it\u2019s going to carry us into the next coming games.\u201d<\/p>\n

After this game, Toronto FC have a week off before two more at home in a row, welcoming Robert Lewandowski\u2019s Chicago Fire and Supporters Shield leaders Nashville SC to town for a Saturday-Wednesday doubleheader. NYCFC host Nashville at Yankee Stadium on Friday.<\/p>\n

More to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a positive feeling around Toronto FC at the moment, as strong of one as there\u2019s been all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5310,318,359,9009,48939,8453,5312,48,330],"class_list":["post-188159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-bmo-field","tag-major-league-soccer","tag-mls","tag-new-york-city-fc","tag-nycfc","tag-robin-fraser","tag-tfc","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-fc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188159","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=188159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}