Out to further extend their in-country dominance, Toronto FC goes for a sweep of their home-and-home series versus the Montreal Impact on Tuesday night while trying to match the MLS record for longest regular-season unbeaten streak.
The Reds (5-0-3), who are the only MLS team without a regular-season loss, have taken the maximum nine points from their first three matches in Phase One of the reconfigured league schedule. In the case of TFC, Montreal (3-3-1) and Vancouver, the three sides are essentially in their own bubble and playing each other three times to accrue their six matches.
Toronto FC has yet to concede a goal in this portion of the schedule and edged Montreal 1-0 on Friday night. Alejandro Pozuelo, normally the Reds' playmaker, took care of the offense on this occasion as he slotted home a penalty on 50 minutes after a handball by Impact midfielder Emanuel Maciel. It was the first match since players boycotted two days worth of matches to promote social justice reform, and the emotional exhaustion carried to the pitch to a degree.
"I think exhausted is the right word," TFC defender Justin Morrow, who is the executive director of the Black Players Coalition of MLS, told the Toronto Sun. "I think the thing that lifts me up is knowing how many allies we have. But for me and the players, the most important thing is on Wednesday night (professional players' boycott) something positive came out of it.
"The reason why we do any of these things and use our platform is so that we can affect real change. So that we can use MLS, which is our platform, as a vehicle for change."
Pozuelo's penalty extended TFC's unbeaten streak in the regular season to 18 matches (9-0-9), one shy of the league standard established by the Columbus Crew bridging the 2004-05 seasons and matched by FC Dallas from May 27-Oct. 19, 2010. The Crew recorded nine wins during their unbeaten stretch while the Hoops went 10-0-9 in their run.
First-year coach Thierry Henry had a difficult challenge Friday night given his team was on a quick turnaround after defeating Vancouver on Tuesday and were without top playmaker Saphir Taider and Samuel Piette for family reasons - Taider's wife gave birth and Piette's girlfriend entered the hospital for the same reason.
The Impact thought they had tied the match in the 78th minute, but Romell Quioto was offside. Like some Toronto FC players, the minds of some Montreal players were clearly elsewhere given everything that took place last week.
"None of us wanted to play," defender Luis Binks told the Montreal Gazette. "There's a lot of boys in the changing room, if not everyone, who felt the right decision was to support what's going on and try and make a stand against what's going on in the U.S. Racism happens everywhere. Although (the shooting of Jacob Blake) didn't directly happen in Canada, we felt it would be good for us to show our support."
It is uncertain if either Taider or Piette will be available for this match, while Toronto FC likely will be without Patrick Mullins, who was forced off in the first half with an injury. It is also uncertain if Jozy Altidore will play after sitting out Friday due to personal reasons.