TFC looking ahead to even bigger prize

Tin Toronto he best team in MLS history isn’t content.

The Reds repeated Tuesday their intent to chase down a bigger prize in February.

Toronto FC will learn its CONCACAF Champions League opponent on Dec. 18.

The MLS Cup champs will make their CCL return when the tournament opens in late February.

“I want to win more,” Sebastian Giovinco said. “This Cup is a good test for us to see our level.”

When you’re told day in, day out you’re the best team in MLS history, you start to believe it.

What that means, though, is up for debate. Can the Reds be better than MLS? Can they be better than what’s on offer in Mexico?

“We’ll see who we get,” Victor Vazquez said. “We have to come back ready for it because we want to win it also.”

Situated in Pot 1 as the Canadian Champion, the Reds know they’ll be drawn against one of eight teams to open the competition.

The Colorado Rapids are in Pot 2 with heavy-hitting Costa Rican sides Saprissa and Herediano. Honduran sides Motagua and Olimpia offer stiff competition away from BMO Field, followed by Panama’s Tauro, El Salvador’s Santa Tecla and Dominican club Cibao. The Reds won’t meet a Mexican side until the quarter-finals.

“We’ve set ourselves up very well to compete in that tournament,” Drew Moor said. “We’re going to take it very, very seriously. I know pre-season has been catered towards getting ready for Champions League.”

The Reds will split pre-season time between Los Angeles and Mexico in preparation.

“It’s a different feeling,” Justin Morrow added. “You relish playing Mexican teams and Central American teams.”

There’s something extra in it for Vazquez. Toronto’s Spanish playmaker was run out of Mexico City’s Cruz Azul before being scooped up by Toronto FC.

Toronto’s top newcomer has reiterated how Mexico wasn’t safe for him and his family.

“I had a really bad period there, but now I’ve shown here in MLS that I’m the same player (I was earlier in my career),” Vazquez said. “I can do the same things that I did in Spain and (Belgium).

“Here I think it was my best season in my career. I have to show them I’m Victor Vazquez.”

The Reds expect to enter that tournament with an almost identical roster that started MLS Cup — the same lineup that saw them add a Supporters’ Shield and another Canadian Championship to their trophy case. “We are the best team in MLS history,” Vazquez said.

“We have to enjoy and be happy. It happens maybe one time in life ... Now everyone wants to beat us.” That is, everyone in MLS. While the Reds are going to be hunted when next season opens, they’ll be doing the hunting when they re-enter inter-confederation play and look to assert themselves within CONCACAF.

“We’re going to look back and realize this was a special group, a special season,” Moor said. “With pre-season coming so fast I think it’s going to be the same mentality. We’re not satisfied. We want to continue to push forward.”

Meanwhile, a promising Canadian is on his way to expansion side Los Angeles FC.

The MLS newbies selected Toronto FC winger Raheem Edwards in the Expansion Draft on Tuesday before trading him to the Montreal Impact in a package deal that included veteran centre back Laurent Ciman going to La La Land.

LAFC coach Bob Bradley — Michael Bradley’s father — surely was familiar with a player who has played alongside his son all season.

But family ties didn’t prevent the elder Bradley from stealing an asset from the MLS Cup champs.

The 22-year-old Edwards heads to Montreal after starting 10 games for the Reds in 2017, scoring once and collecting six assists in the process.

Along with Edwards, LAFC also selected goalkeeper Tyler Miller from Seattle, forward Latif Blessing from Kansas City, forward Marco Urena from San Jose and defender Jukka Raitala from Columbus, who also ended the day in Montreal.