TORONTO – The best team in Major League Soccer will be without their top two scorers this weekend.
Toronto FC coach Greg Vanney confirmed Wednesday that forwards Sebastian Giovinco and Jozy Altidore have been ruled out for this Saturday’s road match against the LA Galaxy due to minor injuries.
TFC hosts the Montreal Impact next Wednesday and three days later they travel to Boston to take on New England. The hope is that both forwards can overcome their injury issues and be available for those matches.
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Giovinco was subbed out at the start of the second half of Saturday’s 4-0 home win over the San Jose Earthquakes as a precautionary move due to quad tightness. Jozy Altidore also came out later in the second half with a lower-body injury.
“They’re not going to travel with us. We’re not going to take them across the country at this point. We’ll give them a few days to continue to progress, and reassess when we get back for Wednesday,” Vanney said.
He later added: “It’s more precautionary than anything else. Just a risk-reward evaluation on our end.”
Giovinco leads the Reds in scoring this season with 15 goals, while Altidore’s goals are good enough for second on the team.
With both of their top guns sidelined for the L.A. game, look for Tosaint Ricketts to start up front, with fellow Canadian Jordan Hamilton also possibly seeing some action.
Toronto (17-3-8, 59 points) is cruising and sits comfortably atop the overall league standings, and is unbeaten in 10 games (with seven wins).
L.A. (7-14-6, 27 points) sits ninth in the Western Conference, 10 points and three spots out of a playoff berth. The Galaxy are coming off a 1-1 draw against the Seattle Sounders and have just one win in their last 12 matches, with nine losses.
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