Mwanga, Union Head North, Face Struggling Toronto
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The Philadelphia Union travel north of the border this weekend to take on struggling Toronto FC.
Struggling is actually putting it mildly. Toronto is 0-9 and in those nine games they have been outscored 21-7. While that's bad, it's hardly been all unicorns and rainbows for the boys from Chester as they sit at 2-6-2. Despite the less than stellar ledger, forward Danny Mwanga thinks they are close to turning the corner.
"I think everything is coming together now. We had some tough games. We played New York at home, we got a little unfortunate went a man down, lost that game (3-2 on 5/13). Went to Dallas, we didn't maybe start it the right way, but I think in the second half we got much better (1-1 draw on 5/19). We're just trying to put those two games together and trying to go to Toronto and put a better show than what we did at home and what we did against Dallas."
This trip to Toronto really could be just what Philadelphia needs. Aside from Toronto's woeful record, Philadelphia had a ton of success up there last season - setting a franchise record with 6 goals in a 6-2 win. Mwanga, who is still looking to find the back of the net for the first time in 2012, had two of those tallies a year ago and he says they hope to follow the blueprint that worked so well in that game.
"Last year we had a really good game there, we did a lot of good things there. And this year, they've been struggling a little bit, they've added a new couple players on their roster, but I think we're still going to look at what we did last year and try to go back there and try to improve the way we've been playing this year."
Mwanga expects Toronto to throw it all against the wall in this one.
"I think they're going to come out really hard. I think they're going to bring whatever they can, the intensity's going to be there from the get-go. So I think the most important thing for us is just match up the intensity and trying to establish our will from the get-go. So I think once we do that, and get their strength away and now we can impose our game and hopefully we're going to come out with a good result at the end of the game."
First kick in Toronto is set for 4:30pm.
Listen to Matt Leon's interview with Danny Mwanga:
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You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.
