Now the biggest challenge awaits Reds
TFC looks ahead after Round of 16 victory
The “best squad” in MLS history has plenty to prove.
Not within MLS, necessarily.
Toronto FC’s 69-point season could stand for decades.
Within CONCACAF, though, MLS sides still are viewed as kid brothers to Mexican clubs that have dominated Champions League throughout the tournament’s history.
There have been nine CCL finals since 2009. Seven have pitted two Liga MX sides.
Nine of those finals have ended with Mexican clubs winning CONCACAF’s top trophy.
For everything Toronto FC has accomplished — a points record, a wins record, a Supporters’ Shield, Canadian crowns, an MLS title — this could be infinitely bigger.
The chance to go toe- totoe with CONCACAF’s upper echelon has been an obsession since TFC’s top boss, president Bill Manning, took the reins from patriarch Tim Leiweke.
Needless to say, the bar has been raised. And Tuesday’s 2- 0 aggregate Round of 16 win over Colorado served as a prequel to a bigger test that awaits: Tigres UANL.
The Mexican giants sport twice the payroll and many more times the pedigree.
Tigres boast an attacking trio — Ecuadoran Enner Valencia, Frenchman AndrePierre Gignac and Chilean Eduardo Vargas — with enough talent to feature anywhere in the world.
For the first time in a long time the Reds won’t be unanimous favourites to win at BMO Field. They’ll be expected to lose at the iconic Estadio Universitario seven days later.
But they’re where they wanted to be, with a chance to compete, to show they’re bigger than simply Major League Soccer’s all-time best team.
It will be a true measure of exactly how good this TFC side is after tens of millions in investments saw it transition from a bad club to an unbeatable one within MLS.
The Reds altered their entire pre-season to prepare for these next two weeks, training in Mexico City in preparation for an environment they’ve anticipated since the CCL draw late last year in Miami.
The ambition to win this tournament has been there since Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore and Sebastian Giovinco arrived on scene. Competing in Champions League became an obsession with the addition of Victor Vazquez.
Last year’s run, coupled with $ 5 million more in off- season player signings, birthed whispers the Reds could be Major League Soccer’s best hope to finally earn real respect within CONCACAF, a region long dominated lby Liga MX.
A weekend league home opener seems minuscule in comparison.
Toronto FC has accomplished everything there is to accomplish in MLS.
With a potential return to MLS Cup still 10 months away, everything should be geared toward next week’s showdown with arguably the best team in the Americas.
The “best ever” in MLS is about to meet the best Mexico has to offer.