Toronto FC picks up rare point in draw with Whitecaps

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Toronto – Entering the six games of Toronto Football Club, Robin Fraser’s team finally has some foundations needed, even if there is no victory yet.

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It was just a scoreless draw, which was by no means beautiful, but Toronto (0-4-2) team against the high-flying Vancouver Whites on Saturday scored 11 points and 27 spots in the MLS rankings.

After four consecutive failures, welcome this. The same goes for the Toronto team’s clean sheets, leaking 12-point league goals in the first five outings.

“I think what really matters today is resilience,” Fraser said.

“What we’ve seen so far this year is that things are not going well and for us, we’ve stalled,” he added. “In those bland situations, we’ve given up on the goal, which is our fatal weakness. Today we have to fight. We have to fight hard in some parts of the game, and that’s really everything on the deck.”

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In fact, until the last few minutes, the game was as monotonous as the weather.

It was a cold two degrees and it felt like subtracting two degrees, kicking off the afternoon at BMO Field in the afternoon. There is also a frozen rain warning.

The season’s weather was bad and bad start, leaving a series of empty seats at the stadium. Attendance time is 22,301.

The whites (4-1-1) will make their offense lack accuracy, outperforming Toronto by 17-6, but the target has a 5-3 shooting percentage. Vancouver also has 12 corners (three in Toronto) threats in many scenes.

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“We have control over a game in most cases, but can’t score points, can’t create opportunities that we should consider how we really get into a good position,” said Vancouver coach Jesper Sørensen.

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“Finally, in the last 15 minutes, either way can be done.”

As Toronto stepped forward, visitors found themselves under coercion later in the race.

“In the end, we were very threatening,” Fraser said.

Toronto goalkeeper Sean Johnson made a big save in the 88th minute to deny Ranko Veselinović’s corner to retain the draw. On the other hand, Ola Brynhildsen was approaching shutdown time and Vancouver survived the goal.

The Whites played the first of the first of five games in 15 days, arriving at the Western Conference and ranked second in the supporters’ shield standings.

The only team below Toronto is CF Montreal, which fired coach Laurent Courtois on Monday. This is due to a lower target difference.

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Vancouver cleaned a Brian White header from the goal line from the corner of Sebastian Berhalter in the 11th minute, starting with Toronto defender Raoul Petretta.

Johnson stopped Tate Johnson late in the half-year when Vancouver left back was allowed to cut into Toronto’s penalty box.

Vancouver beat Toronto 8-1 (target 2-0) in a tough first half game on entertainment.

DeAndre Kerr and Henry Wingo were both at the same time earlier in the second half, with Brynhildsen and Kosi Thompson replacing them in the 53rd minute.

Fraser said Kerr will be tested on his ankle, while Wingo is coping with a recurrence of a hamstring injury.

In the 60th minute after the embarrassing fall, Vancouver’s Andres Cubas stood out. Defender Mathias Laborda also made the appearance in the 79th minute, and Sørensen said neither may be able to compete in Wednesday’s CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals against Mexico’s Pumas Unam.

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It was a quiet day in the office for Vancouver goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka until the 82nd minute when he had to park Deybi Flores’ header on a Lorenzo Insigne free kick.

Toronto missed injured Richie Laryea, Kevin Long and Matty Longstaff.

Fraser made four changes to the match against Sigurd Rosted, Jonathan Osorio, Derrick Etienne Jr. and Kerr. Insigne also ruled out another start in the first four games of the season.

Insigne starts from Kerr in front.

Vancouver’s uninjured Captain Ryan Gauld and defenders Sam Adekugbe and Bjorn Inge Utvik, who made five changes to White and Ali Ahmed, returned to the attack along with former Toronto player Jayden Nelson.

The Whites lost 3-1 to Chicago after winning the Portland Timber, Los Angeles Galaxy, Montreal and Dallas Football Club.

Toronto was late to lose 2-1 to New York Red Bull, which added to Orlando City, Cincinnati and Chicago’s failures.

Earlier on Saturday, the TFC announced that it would lend 20-year-old forward Hugo Mbongue to United Football League (USL) champion Lexington SC for the rest of the 2025 season.

Toronto will visit Miami on April 6.

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