What/When Toronto FC will pay a visit to Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey to take on the New York Red Bulls in the first leg of an MLS Eastern Conference semifinal on either Monday, October 30, 2017 at 7:00 pm EDT. TV/Video This match will be shown live on TSN (http://www.tsn.ca/, English) and TVA Sports (http://www.tvasports.ca/, French) in Canada, Fox Sports 1 (http://www.foxsports.com/watch/fs1, English) in the U.S., MLS Direct Kick and MLS Live (http://live.mlssoccer.com/, U.S. only). Radio/Audio CHUM AM 1050 (http://www.tsn.ca/radio/toronto-1050, English) in Toronto and the Red Bulls Radio Network (http://www.newyorkredbulls.com/matchday/radio, English and Spanish) in New York.
Please note: the TFC logos on the other side of the graphic are placeholders until we find out who their opponents in the semifinal will be.
Regardless of how these playoffs turn out, this has been a fun season to be a TFC fan. With the record setting number of points it is possible that we could see future TFC teams win Supporters' Shields and MLS Cups and still never have a season quite so good as this one was. It was great to be able to go into every game as a fan with a good chance for a win, feeling like a tie was settling even on the road, and getting to view losses as unpleasant aberrations. The playoffs always come down to an element of luck and TFC could be entering in slightly better form but they're still one of the teams with the best chance at the Cup. Vancouver is doing well out west setting up the potential for an all Canada final and Montreal is watching the entire playoffs of TV. Could it be any better at this point?
I'm cheering for the game to be on the 30th to avoid the constant ringing of the doorbell with trick-or-treaters. Perhaps, I may end up just leaving a bunch of candy at the door with an "honour system" so those first few kids after kickoff would be very happy indeed.
I hope TFC comes out aggressively for this one and bags some away goals. A win (2-0, say) and they can put this series away early.
Just out of curiosity, is there a stat regarding how often the team that wins the Supporters Shield also wins the MLS Cup?
From Wiki So, last team to win both was 2011 LAG. Looks like 6 of the last 21 Supporter's Shield winners have won the MLS Cup...so about 29% of the time (on a small sample size of 21). Interestingly, if add the "runner up" in the shield the number of MLS Cup Champs only increases to 9.....so you are still at less than half (43%) of MLS cup champs coming from the winner or runner up in the shield.
What's interesting from above is that only once did the Supporters Shield winner make the final and lose. That said, I don't like our odds... unless we make it to the final, then our odds get pretty good.
We always knew it would be tough, but a win in jersey is a great result. Hopefully injuries to Moor, Vasquez not serious.