Come Tuesday night, a few missing suitcases and some delayed soccer boots may seem like the good old days to Toronto FC.

The club left home on Friday for a two-game road trip, stopping in Kansas City to play the Wizards the next night before heading off to Honduras for the return leg of a Champions League preliminary set with CD Motagua.

The journey got off to a rough start as the airline lost TFC’s bags en route to Kansas City and the players’ boots arrived just a couple of hours before kickoff. The Reds then went out and lost the game to the Wizards on a hot night.

But the players expect the real adversity to come Tuesday at Estadio Nacional in Tegucigalpa. From heat and altitude to concerns over biased officiating and hostile fans who are known to do all they can to intimidate visitors, including hurling bags filled with urine, the Reds are steeling themselves for anything.

“It’s going to be pretty much like BMO (Field) but with no rules,” midfielder Julian de Guzman, a member of Canada’s national team, said of his expectations for the atmosphere in the stadium. “They (the fans) will try all types of things to distract us and help their side get the result they want.”

TFC won the opening leg of the preliminary round 1-0 at BMO Field a week ago. It was a game the Reds dominated and should have captured by a wider margin, which would have given them some breathing room for the return.

The winner on aggregate of the two matches will advance to the CONCACAF Champions League, which is for the top club teams in North and Central America as well as the Caribbean.

If the two teams are tied on aggregate at the end of 90 minutes Tuesday night, the first tiebreaker is away goals. Since Motagua was shut out in Toronto, a goal by the Reds in Tegucigalpa would mean the Hondurans would have to win the match by two goals in order to advance.

The second tiebreaker is 30 minutes of extra time. If there’s still no winner at that point, the teams would then settle it on penalties.

TFC, which has reached this stage by virtue of successfully defending its Canadian championship, lost in last year’s preliminary round to the Puerto Rico Islanders. They dropped the first game 1-0 at BMO Field before playing to a 0-0 draw in the return leg to be eliminated.

“It’s an intense atmosphere,” TFC captain and Canadian international Dwayne De Rosario said of playing in Central America or Mexico.

“It will be a good experience for a lot of guys. But it’s a very difficult environment to play in and we look forward to the challenge.”

TFC took the play to Motagua in the first game, frequently opening up the Central Americans’ shaky defence but lacking finish to widen the lead.

The Motagua players, who are still getting in shape for the upcoming domestic season, are likely to be much tougher playing at home. And, with a roster that includes five members of the Honduran side that competed in the recent World Cup, it’s clear TFC faces a tough challenge.

But defender Adrian Cann, who made a mistake on a header that led to the Kansas City goal in Saturday’s 1-0 loss to the Wizards, said the Reds are going to Honduras “on a mission” to do what’s needed to advance.

“Regardless of what’s going on around us, there’s still two nets, two teams of 11 players,” Cann said before TFC left Toronto. “We’re both competing.”

Second-year goalkeeper Stefan Frei said that as a young player, he’s looking forward to going into “hostile territory” to face Motagua and their fans.

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“I don’t know what they’ll be throwing at me but it’ll definitely be a good experience,” he said. “Hopefully we can pull through.

“I’ll just be focusing on the game and on the ball and whatever happens happens,” said Frei, who had two saves in the first-game shutout. “Hopefully we can zone everything out around us and know what’s at hand and take care of the task.”