



Toronto FC hosted upstarts Atlanta United in a highly entertaining but ultimately disappointing draw. While Giovinco and Morrow seemed to return to their 2016 forms, Mavinga and Bono seemed unable to handle Atlanta's Villalba. East Side Stand Up Podcast: Glass half full or winless at home? Subscribe | iTunes | MP3 The Opening 45



The first half proved highly entertaining thanks to both teams leaving plenty of space on the pitch and the teams seeming to take turns with the ball. But this style also meant there was plenty of sloppiness and it that sloppiness resulted in goals.



Héctor Villalba opened the scoring when he was able to sneak passed Toronto's defence (mainly Chris Mavinga) and beat Alex Bono, to give Atlanta the lead. But Toronto answered quickly with a goal from Sebastian Giovinco (with some amazing help from Jozy Altidore).



Soon after, Toronto mounted a high level of pressure on Atlanta's defence and Alec Kann. But despite having a high number of shots, Toronto were unable to get another goal on Kann and co. who maintained their composure. Toronto finally got the edge when Justin Morrow tipped a pass from Steven Beitashour in just before the end of the half.





Pretty cool that #TFC drew around 27,000 on a night when Leafs were in town and playing against Crosby and Pens in an important game. — John Molinaro (@JohnMolinaro) April 9, 2017

The Second Half



The excitement continued in the second half. After a minute of Toronto looking like they were on the edge of 3-1, Villalba tied it and made Mavinga look very bad in his debut start (Mavinga would be subbed out less than 5 minutes later). Toronto continued to apply maximum pressure on Atlanta but were unable to crack their armour.



In the 75th minute, Yamil Asad was shown a red for a fierce elbow on Eriq Zavaleta. In the ensuing chaos, Atlanta's assistant coach Jorge Theiler was sent off the pitch.



With the man advantage, Toronto came at the expansion side hard but Atlanta held on for the tie. Toronto remain undefeated but still in search of that second win.



Man of the Match



Sebastian Giovinco While Altidore deserves a great deal of credit for his part in the goal, Giovinco scored it and appeared to have returned to his 2016 form.