Match Preview: Huntsville City FC vs Toronto FC II

Image Credit: Huntsville City FC

After a disappointing home loss to top of the table Chattanooga FC, Huntsville City will look to regain confidence and momentum as they head to the Great White North to take on Toronto FC II.

Huntsville has fallen back to third in the East at time of writing, two points behind New York Red Bulls II in second, and could be overtaken by New York City FC II if they win their matchup against Chicago Fire FC II, though the Rocket Men would hold three games in hand on the Pigeons.

Toronto currently sits in 10th in the East, having picked up 11 points thus far, having finished with zero or one point in each of their last three games.

Let’s dive in.

Match Details

Date: Friday, May 23rd, 2025

Time: 7:00PM EST (local) 6:00PM CST (Huntsville)

Location: York Lions Stadium, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Watch: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+

Head Coaches: Chris O’Neal (HNT), Gianni Cimini (TOR)

Lineup Prediction

At this point it seems like Xavier Valdez has done enough to lock down the goalkeeper spot for now, so I’ll stick with him (and probably be wrong at this rate).

In front of him, Canadian Jordan Knight gets a nice homecoming alongside Kevin Carmichael, Zach Barrett and captain Blake Bowen.

Ethan O’Brien and Pep Casas retain their places in midfield behind a front four of Gio Miglietti, Alan Carleton, Christian Koffi and Damien Barker John.

You might be wondering why Koffi and O’Brien are here after featuring in the first team squad on Wednesday, and that’s because both the first team and Huntsville are in Toronto this week, so there’s no reason to suspect any different.

Analysis & Prediction

Huntsville aren’t as healthy as they could be, Gunnar Studenhofft is likely still out, and Real Gill appeared to pick up an injury of some kind against Chattanooga as well.

However, the Rocket Men are buoyed by the return of Christian Koffi from suspension, and the attack should roughly even out. Toronto has scored just nine goals, and three of those came in one game. Huntsville, by comparison, has only allowed nine goals, scoring 19 of their own, good for the fourth best attack in the conference.

That profiles as a Huntsville win, but maybe the long flight changes things. I’m gonna stick with my gut however, and predict a 2-0 Huntsville win with goals from Carleton and Barker John.