Toronto FC vs New York City FC Odds & Pick: MLS Week 2

• It’s Week 2 of the new MLS season with NYCFC visiting Toronto
• Toronto kicked the season off with a draw but NYC suffered a loss
• Get the preview, odds and best bets for this game below

It’s Matchday 2 of the MLS this weekend and, among several big games, two teams among the favorites to lift the MLS trophy meet in Toronto, where New York City FC are the visitors.

It’s too early to draw any conclusions as to how the season is going to pan out for these teams, but it does offer the punters some good value bets with teams still finding their rhythm.

Toronto FC vs New York City FC Odds

All odds taken  Mar.6

Two-Goal Lead Thrown Away by Toronto

Toronto’s opening day draw in San Jose looked, on paper, a good solid start but it was a game they should have won after leading it 2-0.

It looked as if it was going to be a comfortable away win when Richie Laryea scored their second goal on 51 minutes – Alejandro Pozuelo had put them 1-0 up on 40 minutes from the penalty spot – but they were only 2-0 up for two minutes before the Earthquakes pulled one back. They so nearly hung on for the win, but San Jose’s pressure continued and they pulled level in the fifth minute of injury time.

Vanney Sets up Toronto to Attack

Greg Vanney set his side up in an attacking  4-4-1-1, which allowed Pozuelo to slot into the ’10’ role just behind Jozy Altidore and, for the most part, this worked with the team looking threatening going forward. Vanney will be hoping the concession of the two goals will just be down to early-season rustiness and he can strike a balance between being solid at the back and free-flowing going forward.

With Michael Bradley and Pablo Piatti still to come back into his starting eleven, Vanney looks to have put together another competitive team for this season.

Toronto FC vs New York City FC Head-to-Head Stats

Poor Start to Season for City

For New York City, it wasn’t the start to the 2020 season they were looking for. A 1-0 away defeat by Columbus Crew was disappointing in its own right but more concerning was the performance level, with Ronny Delia’s team only creating seven chances all game and having less than 40% of possession.

Their plight wasn’t helped by center-back Maxime Chanot being sent off as early as the third minute, though they did hold their own for much of the match despite playing basically the whole game down a man. The goal came in the 58th minute and from there on in it was too comfortable for the Crew.

Delia will be looking for a response on Saturday but it will be tough against one of the strongest teams in the Eastern Conference and runners-up in last’s season MLS Cup final.

The NYCFC squad for 2020 has seen only a few changes from the one that won the Eastern Conference in 2019, with Delia hoping that continuity rather than new faces will help his team to hit the ground running in this campaign. While the early signs weren’t overly promising in Columbus, they were an exceptional set of circumstances and it’s early days.

Ready for Toronto? 📶 #FridayFeeling pic.twitter.com/YgwuKCoVJt

— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) March 6, 2020

Expect a Close One

If Week 1 results alone were the guide for this game, then Toronto would be nailed-on winners – especially on home turf – but soccer is never clear cut in that way and NYCFC will be sore after their disappointing afternoon in Ohio. NYCFC will also have revenge on their mind as it was Toronto who eliminated them from the playoffs last season 2-1 in the conference semifinal. Delia will be expecting a much-improved performance from his players and will set them up to be solid and not concede early in Toronto. While he would love to win the game, he’d also be content with a point.

With Toronto starting as odds-on favorites, there is little value in betting on the straight home win here and, equally, there is scope for it being much tighter than the bookies are predicting. These two teams are well-matched and both will be keen not to slip to defeat, possibly at the expense of being too gung-ho and losing the game. Therefore, for me, the value here is with the draw, either a 1-1 or even a 0-0.

Pick: Toronto and NYCFC to draw (+255)