Toronto FC to host Cruz Azul at the Raymond James stadium

Last week Toronto FC defeated Club León in the round of 16 of the CONCACAF Champions League to advance to the quarterfinal and face Cruz Azul on 27 April. The MLS side received the approval from authorities to host tomorrow’s game at the Raymond James stadium, but behind closed doors. The second leg is scheduled for 4 May at the historic Azteca stadium.

This is the stadium where Tom Brady led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to their second Super Bowl in their history and hosted its first NFL game in 1998. The stadium was named after Raymond James Financial and the Toronto FC president Bill Manning served as president and GM of the MLS’ Tampa Bay Mutiny in 1999.

Toronto had to move to Orlando, Florida due to the covid-19 travel restrictions between the United States and Canada. They played their first two MLS home games at the Exploria stadium and they lost 4-2 against Montréal and tied 2-2 on Saturday against Vancouver.

Alligators invaded their practice

On Monday Toronto resumed practice ahead of their clash against Cruz Azul for the first leg of the quarterfinals of the Concachampions and they had a surprise visit. Alligators crashed their practice this morning in Florida and the club posted a video of this incident.

"All I can tell you is this — there was an alligator, a massive alligator," Toronto coach Chris Armas said. "And my players are running towards the alligator as I went the other way. Listen we talk about fearless and aggressive rounds here, but I thought we would not think about that at that moment."