Toronto FC v D.C. United: Fraser confident results will come despite poor start

Fraser watched on as his team were beaten 2-0 by the New England Revolution, bringing up their sixth loss of the regular season and leaving them 14th in the Eastern Conference.

Their latest defeat saw Toronto supporters boo the squad off the pitch, and though Fraser acknowledged results needed to change, he was not disappointed with how his team looked.

"For us to be at our best, I think our engagement level needs to be extremely high, which it was for the last month or so," Fraser said.

"It's interesting because I feel like we try. I never really questioned their effort, but the margins are so fine in this league anyway and just to compete we needed to be really engaged from the beginning.

"This is a group that works, they try, they give you everything. We talked early on, after the first five games, about the moments that are killing us, and we have to eliminate those moments.

"When we do that, this is a group that can compete with anyone... When we were engaged we keep ourselves in games... and we've not been as sharp in front of goal as we need to be. It will get better. We know it will get better."

Final from BMO Field pic.twitter.com/P1OyDpRbzq

— Toronto FC (@TorontoFC) May 3, 2025

For D.C. United, meanwhile, their upturn in form continued in midweek as they beat the Charleston Battery in the U.S. Open Cup to put back-to-back wins together for the first time this season.

After starting their regular season with four consecutive losses, D.C. have got results at a crucial stage of their campaign as they eye a spot in the playoffs this campaign.

And though their latest win was against lower opposition, head coach Troy Lesesne did not understate the importance of the victory as they look to build momentum moving forward.

"It was a tough match, and we knew it was going to be," Lesesne said. "You look at this competition, and inevitably, a team from a lower division is probably going to knock off an MLS team. This happens every single year.

"We needed this. That it was I tried to reiterate after the match to the players. We need to start to build momentum so the win in midweek was very important for us. When you look at three out of the last four matches, we want to start to talk about our ability that way.

"We need to put wins together and I can't stress that enough. Saturday is another test, and we are in a period of time, now we have progressed in this competition, we are going to see Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday throughout the month of May.

"Any player wants that. It’s the best. We're looking forward to being able to turn the page in Toronto this weekend."

Toronto hit the target with just two of their 17 shots against New England, including Bernardeschi missing the target with all eight of his attempts.

He is the fourth player since 2019 to attempt at least eight shots in a match and not hit the target once and will want to put that right this time around.

Benteke scored his 29th regular-season goal since the start of the 2024 season on Saturday, five more than any other player.

Twelve of those goals have been headers, including one last time out, three more than any other player since the start of last year.

D.C. United have lost only three of their last 18 matches against Toronto (incl. playoffs) dating back to August 2017. Both teams have found the net at least once in each of the last 13 meetings.

Lesesne's team have won two of their last three matches (L1) after winning only one of their first eight league games of 2025 (D3 L4). D.C. have collected 11 points in the five matches in which they scored more than once (W3 D2 L0) and just one in the other six matches (W0 D1 L5).

Toronto, meanwhile, are winless in nine straight home matches in all competitions (D3 L6) following a 2-0 loss to New England at BMO Field on Saturday. This equals the longest winless run at home in the club's history (two other times, most recently 2011-12).

Toronto FC – 40.5%

Draw – 26.6%