Saturday night’s match is a certain homecoming for Orlando City defender Donny Toia. Toia spent two successful seasons with Montreal, making it to the playoffs in 2015 and 2016 with the Impact.
“It’ll be interesting,” Toia said with a laugh when talking about his to return to Montreal. “Obviously I played there for two years and got to know some of the guys pretty well, so it’ll be good to see them and hopefully get a result there too.”
Toia has played and started 18 matches for Orlando City in 2017, and recently earned MLS Team of the Week honors for his standout performance against Atlanta. Orlando City acquired the left back in a trade after he was picked up by Atlanta United in the 2016 Expansion Draft from the Impact. Toia brought experience and tremendous work ethic to an Orlando defense that was looking to rebuild in the offseason.
The Tucson, AZ native knows what it takes to make the MLS playoffs; he proved that during his time with Montreal. Toia is confident that Orlando City has the makeup of a playoff caliber team:
“It (City’s playoff form) showed in the first part of the season,” Toia explained in an interview after training yesterday. “We’re in a little bit of a slump, but we can get out of it easily. We’re right there, we just have to finish out games and get wins, get three points.”
Orlando City sprinted out to a 6-1-0 record to start the 2017 MLS campaign, but since then have dropped out of the top six in the East. Toia and the Lions have their sights set on playoff qualification and, with a win against Montreal, will be right back in the picture.
