September 8, 2015 Toronto FC II--match preview Charlotte Independence vs Toronto FC II (from charlotteindependence.com)
Independence Look To Close Home Season With Win Over Toronto Jillian Fay Blog, News Article CHARLOTTE, NC (Sept. 8, 2015) — The Charlotte Independence’s 2015 home campaign will come to a close on Wednesday night against Toronto FC II. With a 2-2 draw against Wilmington Hammerheads at Ramblewood Stadium on Saturday night, the Independence’s unbeaten streak moved to 11 matches and the club held on to the sixth and final playoff spot in the USL’s Eastern Conference. Only two teams in the East have secured their playoff spots — the Rochester Rhinos and Louisville City FC. There are six clubs fighting for the remaining four spots, as third and seventh place are separated by just seven points. With only three games left in its inaugural season, each outcome will play a crucial role in the Independence’s postseason hopes. A win against Toronto could move the Independence as high as fourth place in the standings, but a loss could drop them out of playoff contention (pending the results of other Eastern Conference clashes this week). “On August 15th I think we were eight points out of the playoffs and we’ve worked very hard to get ourselves into a spot now where we at least control how the season ends for us and whether we get into the playoffs,” Independence Head Coach Mike Jeffries said. “Without a doubt the next three games are vital for us and I feel like we’ve worked hard to get to this point and want to make sure we’re ready to push ourselves through it.” These two clubs first met on Aug. 30 at the Ontario Soccer Centre. Toronto was given the early advantage off an unfortunate own-goal by the Independence’s Patrick Slogic in the 14th minute. But the defender kept his composure and after Enzo Martinez forced a corner out of Toronto’s goalkeeper Quillan Roberts, Slogic leveled the score with a header from point-blank range. Jay Chapman pulled the home side back in front in the 58th minute thanks to some smooth passing between Mark Anthony Kaye and Raheem Edwards. However, the Independence earned a penalty kick in the 88th minute and Ryan Finley made no mistake with his finish to rescue a 2-2 draw. “Toronto is very good at possessing and moving the ball and gave us some trouble with that,” Jeffries said. “I felt like it was a hard match for us, just the length of the road trip and everything else, we didn’t seem to have our legs. We weren’t sharp in our passing, our movement, we weren’t able to pressure as well as we normally like. For us to walk away with something on an afternoon when it wasn’t really our best soccer was important. So I think that, even though I know we go into that game and each game trying to win, I think at the end of that game we felt good about getting something out of it on a night when it could have gone the other way.” TFCII is coming off an impressive 3-2 victory over its rival, FC Montreal. Seconds into the match, defender Wesley Charpie made an erroneous back pass that resulted in the opening goal for Montreal. The club bounced back quickly though, as Reshon Phillip scored his first professional goal for TFC II to level the score three minutes later. The home side took the lead in the 28th minute through Skylar Thomas and continued to dominate possession. Five minutes into the second half Phillip’s second goal extended Toronto’s lead to 3-1. Montreal pushed the attack towards the end and managed to pull one back in the 87th minute, but Toronto walked away with all three points. For the Independence, Wednesday’s match will be its sixth in 18 days. Jeffries has been clever with the way he has rotated the starting lineups and his substitutions the past three weeks. “We’ve gotten a stretch of our schedule in which we really haven’t necessarily had a real-type training and sometimes just because of the schedule — play a game, recover and travel and so forth — so it’s been, for this game, it’s more trying to do what we can to get our legs underneath us and feel good trying to maintain the confidence. Obviously we’ve prepared for Toronto in terms of our shape and how we want to get at them. But it’s a game in which we feel like playing at home we want to start on the front foot and be able to beat a team that pushes the game and is good on the ball and creates chances.” Charlotte will look to close out its home season with a win on Wednesday night, while Toronto comes into town hoping to play the spoiler. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00pm ET at Ramblewood Stadium. The match will be available live via YouTube.
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