{"id":197863,"date":"2026-09-06T04:49:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T04:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/197863\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T04:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T04:49:15","slug":"josh-sargent-scores-first-hat-trick-in-wild-toronto-fc-goalfest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/197863\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Sargent scores first hat trick in wild Toronto FC goalfest"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 Josh Sargent<\/a> is playing like a man on a mission.<\/p>\n

Toronto FC<\/a>‘s marquee 2026 signing delivered his biggest performance to date on Saturday, scoring a first career hat trick in a wild 4-4 draw<\/a> against Chicago Fire FC<\/a> at BMO Field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been a while, so happy to finally get my first professional hat trick,\u201d Sargent said postgame.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy kids have been waiting for this moment. They’ve been pestering me, saying, \u2018You gonna score today? You gonna score today?\u2019 So I\u2019m very happy about it, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Big-time performer<\/p>\n

Sargent, who joined Toronto<\/a> over the winter from EFL Championship side Norwich City in a transfer worth up to a reported $27 million, is storming into form as his new team climbs up the Eastern Conference standings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With 4g\/1a in his last four games, the 26-year-old has helped the Reds go undefeated in six (two wins, four draws) to move within a point of an Audi MLS Cup Playoffs spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been saying all along, I think Josh is absolutely fantastic,\u201d head coach Robin Fraser said. \u201cI hear questions like, \u2018What’s wrong with him? What does Josh need to do to get off the mark?\u2019 I think he’s tremendous.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he’s tremendous not only because of his goal-scoring ability, [but] his willingness to work for the team. I think you saw so much of what Josh brings to us tonight, not just in the three goals, but the work that he did outside of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Playoff push<\/p>\n

Since arriving in MLS, Sargent seems to have a knack for scoring against the Fire and former USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter.<\/p>\n

The Missourian scored at Soldier Field in TFC\u2019s final game before the FIFA World Cup<\/a>. And after outdueling legendary Polish striker Robert Lewandowski<\/a> – who had 1g\/1a for the visitors on Saturday – with his first-ever hat trick, more than half of Sargent’s seven league goals have come against Chicago<\/p>\n

Now, with Toronto pushing for an Audi MLS Cup Playoff spot, getting their marquee man in the best possible form is priority No. 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m naturally a very hard worker, and days like this, where I feel like all my hard work kind of pays off, it’s very gratifying,\u201d Sargent said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a process, and if I keep doing the same things, keep trying to put myself in the right spots, the goals will come. So that’s what happened today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2013 Josh Sargent is playing like a man on a mission. Toronto FC‘s marquee 2026 signing delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[18564,1068,1072,48,330,61966],"class_list":["post-197863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-josh-sargent","tag-match-reaction","tag-sendtonews","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-fc","tag-torvschi-09-05-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197863","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=197863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}