Who: Toronto FC II (3-10-4, 13pts) vs. Wilmington Hammerheads (4-5-5, 17 pts)

When: Saturday July 1st, 7:00pm

Where: Legion Stadium, Wilmington, NC

Livestream: tfc2.ca

Toronto FC II will look to supply their own fireworks on the field ahead of the planned July 4th celebration when they visit Wilmington, NC to take on the Hammerheads.

Despite the losing streak the Young Reds are currently in, they have shown enough potential to start turning around narrow results and convert losses to draws and draws to wins. They will likely be without Raheem Edwards, Quillan Roberts, or Alex Bono, all of whom played a role in the Amway Canadian Championship victory in Vancouver on Wednesday night.

Phil Di Bennardo will be the favourite to start in goal, and head coach Jason Bent will be confident that his continued solid play will be able to make up for the loss of Skylar Thomas through suspension. Sal Bernal and Malik Johnson will fill in for Edwards on the wings, both of them hungry to make an impression and get the march to the playoffs underway.

Wilmington won 3-1 the last time these two teams met but are coming off the back of a 4-0 defeat to the New York Red Bulls II. Their leading scorer remains the towering centre-back Bruno Perone who has four goals on the season, two of them being penalties. 

New York City FC affiliate Wilmington will also be missing full back Tom Parrat for this game, after he collected two yellow cards in the loss to NYRB II. 

Players to watch:

Mael Corboz: The crafty midfielder scored the winning goal against TFC II last time out, but is more dangerous for his creativity. The New York Red Bulls Academy graduate leads the team with four assists on the season. His father played semi-professionally for Grenoble, in France, and that has rubbed on both him and his sister, Daphne, who plays for Manchester City in the FAWSL.

Liam Miller: The well traveled Irishman is another on the Wilmington roster with experience of playing at the highest level. He started his career at Glasgow Celtic, before a move to Manchester United and time at Sunderland and Queen's Park Rangers. After time in Australia and back in his native Cork, he signed for Wilmington in 2016 and will bring the experience of 21 international caps to the middle of the park.