“When we went behind, we pushed back both at 1-0 and at 2-1 to push back into the game, but that also makes it even more disappointing where you can't then take advantage of that momentum and push the game and take the lead,” laid out Bradley. “And then quickly with a mistake, you’re behind.”
Much like with Jiménez’s goal against the LA Galaxy, Akinola ended his long dry spell in the league – he bagged a brace in the Canadian Championship against CF Montreal in June – scoring his first in MLS since May, but again, it wasn’t enough.
“In the first half, Ayo was not able to find good enough ways to move and find the right spaces, but the second half he worked very hard, happy to see him get a goal,” said Bradley. “There's still a lot of work to do, to sharpen him up, to get his ideas – both in terms of movement with the ball, in terms of some of his defending ideas: when to step up, how sometimes you close the centre-back down, but do it in a way that they can't play it directly to the Six on the other team – I keep working through that with him, but it was very good to see how much he put into the second half and to get a goal.”
Post-match, the locker room was quiet.
“Very quiet, quiet. A cemetery,” said Westberg. “There wasn't a lot to say. Disappointment. Some shame. Just, yeah, not a good feeling; not a good feeling.”
With the defeat, TFC’s chances of reaching the post-season become that much further diminished. The final berth is seven points away and just three games remain.
“As long as the points are manageable, then there's hope, right?” said Westberg. “But then it's in the content and what really brings us on the field and how we want to get into games and our production and everything.”
“I believe soccer gives you what you give it,” he continued. “On a night like tonight, we hoped, of course, because it's still manageable, but also we need to do a lot better and we need to take ownership of the level of play and what we do and how much we want it.”
“On the one side there's mentality, on the other side there's skills and everything that you do with the ball. It’s not being a magician. It's not hiding from certain plays. It's always being open. It's wanting the ball even when, yes, it's a difficult situation,” Westberg added. “Right now we're not where we want to be and the standards of this club are way higher. There's a lot of things that go into consideration, but as long as there’s hope – it's a French saying – as long as there's hope, there’s life.”
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