No soccer Saturday column yesterday as it was a busy day with the family tradition of being at the Toronto FC home opener in the afternoon followed by a night game for my son’s team.

Since it’s the evening on Sunday and I’m still confused at how the Reds managed to lose 2-1 to Chicago, here are some thoughts about the event.

After calling for bursts of rain all week, the sun was shining and warm from beginning to end. It was a pleasant surprise that we didn’t need our ponchos.

Loving the afternoon start. It just makes sense in the spring to have early kick-off times in Toronto.

A lot of fans booed the U.S. national anthem. It was disheartening. We should be better and lead by example, not stoop to lower levels. Many of us have family and friends south of the border, it’s an insult to them when we boo their national anthem. Show more class.

I love the tifos from the Supporters Section and my mission this year is to take more pictures of them than I did in 2024, check out the first of 2025 in the gallery below. Check out their Instagram for more awesome tifos and songs.

Liking the new kits with the various shades of red. I noticed they also match nicely with AFC Toronto’s inaugural kits and colours – not exactly the same, but complementary.

I never tire of singing The Legend TFC before a match. It would be nice if everyone who attended learned the lyrics and sang it together.

The match started off really well, and Federico Bernadeschi’s deft cross that Deandre Kerr headed strongly into the Chicago net was fantastic – it also happened right in front of us, so that was brilliant.

The match-tying goal was partly the aforementioned duo not being on the same page. Bernadeschi kept waiting for Kerr to move to an open area to pass him the ball, but it didn’t transpire.

Bernadeschi was fouled seconds before a fair tackle stole the ball in TFC’s third and the tying goal was scored. He wasn’t fouled on the play where he was knocked down, but just before that and it should have been called.

The ref’s poor decision on that play that led to a Chicago goal was a sign of things to come for the rest of the game. A very “mid” performance.

Chicago’s second goal was inexcusable and a complete defensive breakdown from all involved. Never should have happened, espcially with only minutes to go until halftime.

Was happy with the TFC response in the second half. They were the better team in the half. In fact, they were probably overall the better team based on the eye test and deserved at least a draw, if not the full three points on Saturday.

Really wish Bernadeschi’s shot that went wide found a way in, it would have made for a decent day and lifted a lot of spirits in the stadium.

Though World Cup seating construction on the north end of the stadium means everyone for the foreseeable future will be entering through the south end gates, it was nice that they opened the north exit gates to make it easier on fans after the match.

Those are some of my observations, hoping the boys in red can pull out a result in New York next week before their March 29 home game against Vancouver.

A few photos from the game (all pre-game or early on)