The Black & Gold are headed north to take on Toronto FC on Friday, May 26, at BMO Field for a 7 p.m. ET kickoff and for the third and final meeting between the sides in the 2017 Major League Soccer regular season. Entering the match after splitting the first two meetings this year, the 2017 Trillium Cup is on the line.
“We will watch a bunch of tape and prepare to go up there and to play a good game," Columbus Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter said. "They are a good team with only one loss — but that loss is from us. So we know that we can hurt them. Now we just need to come up with the game plan to do that.”
The Great Lakes rivals split the season series — Columbus won 2-1 at MAPFRE Stadium on April 15 and Toronto won 2-1 on May 10 at MAPFRE Stadium — both sides are even on goals scored and goals allowed. The winner on Friday will win the Trillium Cup. If there is no winner and the scoreline ends even, a set of tie breakers will decide who raises the trophy.
The Black & Gold, who hold an overall 13-7-10 all-time regular-season record over the Reds, are the only team to have beat Toronto this year. However, Toronto FC is unbeaten in its last seven matches.
In the last meeting between the two Eastern Conference heavyweights, Crew SC came into the match off a quick three-day turnaround against the New England Revolution. Despite finding the back of the net first — off a Federico Higuain penalty kick— and Zack Steffen's denial of a Jozy Altidore penalty kick, the Black & Gold fell short via an unlucky pair of goals by Tosaint Ricketts in the closing minutes.
Toronto's top two goal scorers will be out for Friday’s match — Sebastian Giovinco due to injury and Jozy Altidore due to yellow card accumulation. This could play in the Black & Gold’s favor, but Toronto is unbeaten in their last seven home games and will still have plenty of capable replacements for the 2017 Trillium Cup finale.
Crew SC will next travel north for the final leg of the Trillium Cup against Toronto FC on Friday, May 26 at 7 p.m. ET.
The Black & Gold return to MAPFRE Stadium in Columbus to host the defending MLS Cup champion Seattle Sounders on May 31.
