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Hall makes debut in Toronto defeat

Photo by Toronto FC

Freddy Hall could not prevent Toronto FC from suffering a “heartbreaking” 2-1 defeat against Columbus Crew on his debut for the Canadian side.The Bermuda goalkeeper was barely on the pitch for more than four minutes when he was picking the ball out of the net after a goal by Eddie Gaven.Hall had no chance with Gaven's shot from the edge of the box, which took a wicked deflection off the Toronto defender before nestling in the bottom right hand corner.The 27-year-old said he was disappointed Toronto came away from the Crew Stadium empty-handed.“I'm just gutted that we didn't get the victory,” said Hall, who is expected to be named in Bermuda coach Andrew Bascome's Digicel Cup squad. “The second half, we played so well. We controlled it and dictated the pace of the game. It's heartbreaking.”Toronto boss Paul Mariner admitted he was dismayed with his team's poor defending. “It was the opposite of what I asked for in the dressing room,” he said. “If you're not going to close people down, you're going to get punished.“Whatever you call it, but it's just not being ready to play and we've done everything to get the lads ready to play.”Hall, who had a trial at Plymouth Argyle when Mariner was the club's assistant coach, signed for Toronto earlier this month to provide an experienced backup to Milos Kocic, a role made all the more important given Stefan Frei's long-term absence through injury.Before Wednesday, Kocic had played every minute of every league game for Toronto and had missed only one game in all competitions this year, before Frei broke his leg.“Milos has been absolutely fantastic for us,” Mariner said. “He was thrown into the firing line after losing Stefan Frei, our number one. He's come in and done everything we wanted him to do.“For various reasons, professional reasons and other reasons, he just needed to rest mentally for maybe a game or so. But he's been spectacular for us and Freddy is a guy I've known for a long, long time and I knew that he would do perfectly fine.”Federico Higuain added Crew's second in the 58th minute, before Luis Silva pulled a goal back for Toronto in the 71st minute.