COLUMBUS, OHIO – Toronto FC trained under hazy, humid skies here late in the afternoon in advance of Saturday evening’s match with the Columbus Crew, but if it stays this way for the game the weather shouldn’t be too much of a concern. The cloud cover on this day combined with a gentle breeze made for summery but quite tolerable conditions.
Not tolerable, however, from TFC’s point of view would be allowing the Crew’s Ethan Finlay and Kei Kamara to run roughshod over the Reds’ defence. They’re good at that. Columbus has 31 goals this season—tops in the Eastern Conference, and second overall in Major League Soccer.
Kamara leads MLS in scoring with 14 goals, while Finlay has half a dozen goals, along with a league-leading 11 assists.
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Kamara is also one of the best in the league in the air—TFC head coach Greg Vanney says he might be the absolute best in the air. He is an all star, of course, and deserves to be. The same applies to Sebastian Giovinco obviously. This sets up as a battle between the top two goal scorers in MLS.
Kamara has made no bones about the fact he wants to finish the season as top scorer. But is there anyone who is more productive offensively than Giovinco? The Toronto all star is also smarting just a little bit over not being originally voted onto the all-star team. He’s motivated. Look out.
Toronto continues to be hampered by injuries, especially on the defensive end. Defenders Mark Bloom, Nick Hagglund, Clement Simonin are all out injured, as is forward Luke Moore. But there is help on the way with the signing of Moroccan international Ahmed Kantari. Vanney had been saying for a while that the team was in constant search of some help at the centre back position. Perhaps they’ve found it in Kantari.
He arrived in Toronto just Thursday, and was with the team in Columbus when they trained Friday. He won’t play Saturday, but could be eligible for next weekend’s road game in New England,, although it’s unlikely he would be match fit.
Vanney says he’s one of several players the club had been looking at for the past several weeks. Of those on the short list, Kantari’s personality was a key factor in the club signing him. He is left footed, which counts for a lot, but Vanney says he’s a strong leader, vocal on the pitch and speaks several different languages so communication won’t be an issue.
He won’t be able to help Saturday, so the rest had better stand up and be counted. The full three points, or even a well played draw, will give us an indication of the progress this team is making.