{"id":188759,"date":"2026-08-30T18:21:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T18:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/188759\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T18:21:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T18:21:37","slug":"toronto-fc-fans-boo-u-s-anthem-on-shores-of-lake-ontario-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/188759\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto FC fans boo U.S. anthem on shores of Lake Ontario"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Toronto FC supporters made their feelings toward the United States clear once again Saturday night, loudly booing the American national anthem before <a href=\"https:\/\/wakingthered.com\/2026\/08\/30\/25796\/daniel-salloi-scores-off-bench-to-rescue-valuable-point-for-toronto-fc-extend-unbeaten-streak-to-5\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">TFC\u2019s 1-1 draw with New York City FC<\/a> at BMO Field, on the shores of Lake Ontario.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The reaction came as \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d was performed before kickoff, adding another politically charged moment to the Toronto waterfront stadium\u2019s history when relations with the United States remain seriously strained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Toronto FC head coach Robin Fraser, a former U.S. international, did not want to comment on the BMO Field reaction in his post-match press conference. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m a soccer coach. I\u2019m not a politician,\u201d Fraser said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S.-Canada trade talks reportedly broke down last weekend. On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to officially rename Lake Ontario to \u201cLake America\u201d as tensions with Canada worsen. Trump has railed against \u201centitled\u201d Canada, now claiming that Prime Minister Mark Carney and his cabinet have been difficult to deal with and that Canada is ripping off the United States with unfair tariffs. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The scene Saturday night was strikingly familiar. TFC fans staged a similar protest in March 2025, when the American anthem was met with loud boos before the club\u2019s home opener against the Chicago Fire. The Canadian anthem that followed received an enthusiastic response.\u00a0At that time, Canadians were angered by U.S. president Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs on Canada and his repeated comments about making the country the 51st state.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The latest protest came after a summer in which Canada hosted the FIFA World Cup alongside the U.S. and Mexico \u2014 a tournament which both FIFA and the Trump administration hailed as a \u2018uniting\u2019 success. Maybe not. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Toronto FC claimed a point to extend their unbeaten run to five matches. Nicol\u00e1s Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau put NYCFC on top in the 29th minute, before substitute D\u00e1niel Sall\u00f3i equalized in the 70th minute from Theo Corbeanu\u2019s cross.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Corbeanu also declined to answer about the booing, saying that he didn\u2019t have all the information he needed to share an opinion: \u201cThese aren\u2019t things that I can comment on as I\u2019m not really aware of that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto FC supporters made their feelings toward the United States clear once again Saturday night, loudly booing the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5310,13009,9009,48939,5312,48,330],"class_list":["post-188759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-bmo-field","tag-lake-ontario","tag-new-york-city-fc","tag-nycfc","tag-tfc","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-fc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188759","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=188759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}