TORONTO — Toronto FC used Saturday night's friendly against Pachuca of Mexico as a test for some of the players, mostly young, who don't get much chance to show what they can do against top competition.

And they put on a good show as the teams finished regulation time 1-1 with Pachuca winning on penalty kicks 4-3 before an announced attendance of 18,079 at BMO Field.

Pachuca showed Toronto a style of game that is not seen much in Major League Soccer, using short passes and maintaining possession for long stretches.

The product was an entertaining match for a friendly. Pachuca, which substituted liberally in the second half with the three-sub rule waived for the match, took the lead in the 60th minute on a nifty give and go.

Christian Correa, just into the game as a substitute, scored after working nicely with Christian Gimenez.

But Toronto had the answer nine minutes later when first-year player Julius James, a defender of immense promise and an impressive vertical leap, headed home the tying goal from Laurent Robert's corner kick.

Toronto had an excellent chance to go ahead in the 83rd minute but substitute Jeff Cunningham failed to convert on a wide-open chance set up by Tyler Hemming's lovely pass.

That set up the penalty kicks to determine a winner, TFC did not dress several regulars for the match as it looked ahead to a Canadian championship round-robin away match against the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday.

Jim Brennan, who will miss the game in Vancouver because of yellow cards earlier in that tournament, played the whole game against Pachuca. Other players who usually start regular games for TFC, Rohan Ricketts and Robert, also played the whole game.

Greg Sutton played the first half in goal with Brian Edwards playing the second half.

But mostly it was players who see most of their action in reserve games or as substitutes in MLS games who were given the chance on Saturday.

Abdus Ibrahim is only 16 but he showed a lot of promise in his 60 minutes before Cunningham replaced him.

Hemming, James, Tyler Rosenlund and Nana Attakora-Gyan also were given the full 90 minutes.

Jarrod Smith, usually a substitute in league games, put in 90 minutes as well and had a good match.

"He gives us so much energy and enthusiasm," assistant coach Chris Cummins said. "He had a decent game tonight. He got himself in good areas, he worked tirelessly." Overall, it was a better effort from TFC than last Tuesday's 1-0 loss to Vancouver at BMO Field.

"The effort, the commitment, the enthusiasm throughout the team was fantastic," said Cummins who also handles the reserve team. "We've just played a top team, we got a 1-1 result, which I'm not sure many people would have thought we would get that." Cummins felt that playing a team like Pachuca was a learning experience for TFC and would be helpful if the team wins the Canadian championship and advances to the CONCACAF Champions League.

"It's all about development, it's all about learning," he said. "We're glad this game came around to give us an idea of what we're going to play against. They played a different formation with the movement up front that causes all sorts of problems." He said that young defenders Attakora-Gyan and James had a chance to learn from dealing with that style. "There was lots and lots of movement up there and I thought they coped with it very well. That's part of their development," Cummins said.

In another development, forward Andrea Lombardo has been released by Toronto.