July 5, 2016 USL Toronto FC II--Toronto FC II vs Bethlehem Steel FC (from bethlehemsteelfc.com)
Steel FC look to end five game road streak on a high note By Mihir Pandya, 07/05/16, 03:15PM EDT Bethlehem Steel FC close out their five game road trip against Toronto FC II at the Ontario Soccer Centre on Wednesday, July 6, at 7:30 p.m. It will be broadcast live on the USL YouTube Channel. Steel FC (4-5-5) are coming off a tough loss at Nippert Stadium against FC Cincinnati. They fell 1-0 despite a seven-save match for goalkeeper Samir Badr. The match winner came in the 70th minute through former Philadelphia Union player Jimmy McLaughlin. The goal came off a corner where McLaughlin broke off from the crowd at the far post and just squeezed the ball into the goal. “Yeah I think they guys were certainly up for it,” head coach Brendan Burke said. “We were organized, we were very difficult to break down in the first half and really, we opened the game in the second half and had some good looks. You would like to have one of those two chances back, really late in the game. But really I didn’t think we were going to concede unless it was from long range, up until that set piece.” Bethlehem will look to continue their strong defensive play and hope to pick up more points from the last of this five game road stretch. “I think we have done a good job of being stingy, you know we have conceded two goals in four road games on this stretch,” Burke said. “Which is, I think, very impressive.” Burke later added, “we are doing our jobs on the defensive half of the field. To go into four different away environments and only concede twice, it doesn’t get too much better than that.” Toronto FC II (3-11-4) come into this game with a five game winless streak, losing four out of those five. The team has struggled to get wins as of late, being able to win just one game in the last 11 games. Raheem Edwards is the top scorer for Toronto with five goals on the season. “But it will be a turnaround from Toronto because we have been a little leg weary, you know we’ve been on the road and Toronto; the team they put out in Wilmington was half a team,” Burke said. “After going through the film, it was not a full strength Toronto team so we’re going to get, we are just catching teams at the wrong time right now. We are going to get the best of them, when Wilmington got about half of them I would say.” Bethlehem fell down to 10th place on the Eastern Conference table after the loss to FC Cincinnati, as they remained at 18 points. Toronto FC II with 13 points, sit in the 12th spot in the Eastern Conference. Saturday’s match will be available via live stream on bethlehemsteelfc.com. Fans can also follow @BSteelFC on Twitter for minute-by-minute updates of the action as it develops on the pitch.
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