National Post (National Edition)
‘Buzz is really high right now’
TORONTO FC HAS SOMETHING TO PROVE IN CITY DOMINATED BY LEAFS, RAPTORS AND BLUE JAYS
Having grown up 40 kilometres outside this city, in Brampton, Jonathan Osorio can vividly recall the infancy of Major League Soccer in Toronto.
When Toronto FC began play in 2007, interest was so high that just getting through the gates at BMO Field was a tough task. Often, just claiming a place inside the stadium required a search on the secondary ticket market.
“The first year was crazy, even the second year, too,” recalled Osorio, a 24-year-old midfielder in his fourth season with the club. “It was hard to get a ticket.”
The problem then was that the results on the field rarely merited the interest. Toronto finished in last place in its inaugural season in the MLS, then spent much of its early existence uncomfortably close to that position. In fact, the Reds failed to make the playoffs in their first eight seasons, an ignominious achievement in a league in which, more often than not, more teams make the post-season than miss out.
At last, though, it seems Toronto is getting the formula right. A management shakeup purged those responsible for a series of past mistakes, and a big bump in spending has not hurt, either. In the past three years, Toronto has added a series of high-profile signings, and while not all worked out, three that remain — midfielder Michael Bradley and forwards Jozy Altidore and Sebastian Giovinco — have driven the team’s turnaround.
Last season, Toronto ended the league’s longest playoff drought, even if its post-season experience came and went in just over 90 minutes as it was shut out in a knockout-round game. This year, the ending has yet to be written.
In its second straight post-season, Toronto defeated Philadelphia in the knockout round, then thrashed New York City FC over two legs in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
On Wednesday night, Toronto went into the second leg of the conference finals looking to clinch a berth against Seattle in the MLS Cup final on Dec. 10 — and the right to host the game.
Toronto FC still lags behind the basketball Raptors and the Blue Jays for fan attention here. (All three rank far behind the Maple Leafs.) The Raptors won their third-consecutive Atlantic Division crown last season and made it to the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals for the first time. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays have clinched post-season berths in back-to-back seasons after enduring their own two-decade-long playoff drought.
Still, for Toronto FC stars like Giovinco, the league’s Most Valuable Player in 2015, and Altidore, who has scored in all four of Toronto’s playoff games, only postseason success will bring the team to the next level.
For locals like Osorio and defender Ashtone Morgan, who grew up in the city, the excitement of the recent playoff runs by the Raptors and the Blue Jays has been a powerful motivator.
“We see them doing their thing in playoffs and creating that whole buzz — we want to create that for ourselves as well,” Morgan said.
“We have been feeding off of that and trying to create our own buzz.
“We want to say: ‘It’s not only about them. We are here, too.’ And we are showing what we can do.”
If the television numbers are any indication, Canadian soccer fans have taken notice. For the first leg of the Eastern Conference finals, a record 1 million viewers tuned in on the Canadian sports network TSN and its French-language affiliate, RDS.
The television numbers nearly doubled the previous record of 587,000, set on TSN and RDS for the playoff match between Toronto and the Montreal Impact in October, 2015. The numbers on Wednesday — or for what could be the first MLS Cup final involving a Canadian team — might be even better.
But in a city dominated first and foremost by the Maple Leafs, and hockey in general, Toronto FC’s players understand what a title run could do for soccer in a sports market hungry to celebrate ... something.
“The buzz is really high right now,” Osorio said.
“Obviously, the Raptors and Blue Jays have been around much longer, and their buzz is a little bit higher because of the culture in North America, but I think TFC — we’re making the sport grow and have given it a lot more exposure. So this playoff run is huge for that.
“If we could be successful, we could make things way bigger for us.”
WE’RE MAKING THE SPORT GROW AND HAVE GIVEN IT A LOT MORE EXPOSURE.