April 16, 2015 Toronto FC II--Match Preview: Toronto FC II vs. Whitecaps FC 2 (from torontofc.ca)

  
Match Preview: Toronto FC II vs. Whitecaps FC 2 
Baby Reds look to rebound following bye week 
April 16, 2015 
Kamal Hylton 
torontofc.ca 

With a week off to regroup and prepare, Toronto FC II continue its travels with a trip out west against 
a fellow Canadian rival. Head coach Jason Bent and the boys seek to spoil another home opener, like they 
did against FC Montreal, when they take on Whitecaps FC 2 at UBC Thunderbird Stadium.

Having this rare time off early in the season looks to have been helpful for the young squad, with the 
coaching staff able to take stock of the season thus far and reinforce what has been going well and 
what hasn’t.

“We’ve been looking at tape to see the areas where we’ve been letting ourselves down,” said Bent. 
“Particularly defensively, where we’ve been adjusting our speed of play and working on things both 
individually and collectively.”

“We got some good work in last week, working quite hard, but it’s also important to have the guys 
relax for the weekend, get away from the travel and have them fresh and reenergized.”

As much as the coaches and players look at this as “just another game”, we know derby matches such 
as this really never are ‘just another game.’

“I view this as a rivalry game 1000%,” said Bent. “We approached the Montreal game the exact same way. 
We want to be known as the best Canadian franchise in developing the best Canadian players, so this 
is a good opportunity for us to put a stamp on that.”

The Opposition

The Whitecaps have been seen for quite a while as the top Canadian development system in the professional 
ranks, having helped produce quite a few national team players through its residency program. With TFC 
Academy coming on in recent years, a natural competition has developed between the two clubs.

Forward Caleb Clarke, Kianz Froese and fellow midfielder Ben McKendry are WFC2 players to keep an eye on. 
The play of McKendry could decide who wins the midfield battle. His skills as a playmaker, being able 
to set up the forwards with through balls or crosses might come into play. He’s also a player that Bent 
is very familiar with.

“McKendry is a central midfielder with a good range of passing,” said Bent. “I remember scouting him when 
he was playing for University of New Mexico, he’s got a lot of potential.”

Individual Battle to Watch

One of the interesting 1v1 battles will be WFC 2 defender Jackson Farmer vs. TFC II forward Mark-Anthony 
Kaye, both when Kaye has the ball at his feet and even more so when he’s pressing the action from 
a defensive position. Vancouver, under head coach Alan Koch, are a team that thrives on playing the 
ball out of the back, with their central defenders looking to switch the point of attack rather than 
punt the ball up field.

Farmer and his central defensive partner Tim Parker have big frames, however neither are your typical 
punishing defenders. This plays into the advantage of a player like Kaye, who can use his speed and 
relentless attacking playing style to pin Vancouver deep. This is an underrated part of his game, 
and something Kaye recognizes is vital to his development.

“In order to be a good soccer player you have to be strong on both sides of the ball,” said Kaye. “A lot 
of us are good attacking players, but we need to learn to defend. JB [Jason Bent] is helping us with this, 
he’s very high on defence winning games."

Even in games where they’ve given up goals, like the 3-2 loss to Charleston Battery or the 4-1 loss 
to New York Red Bulls II, the good moments in those games were predicated on applying pressure to the 
backline, getting in their faces and keeping the ball in the attacking third.

“That’s modern day football,” said Bent. “Strikers can’t be relied upon just to score goals anymore, 
they have to set the tone defensively as the first line of defence.”

”We want that sort of mentality from all our strikers because it also gives confident to the rest 
of the players behind them, letting the midfielders, defenders and goalkeeper know that this is the 
mentality we’re playing with and that we all need to be on the same page. ”

You can catch the match Sunday April 19 at 6:00PM ET. Follow along with live updates via 
twitter @TorontoFCII and watch it at torontofc.ca/live.

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