TFC shooting for all-time greatness
Toronto FC is unabashed when it comes to stating intentions.
Major League Soccer’s top team isn’t just chasing a return to MLS Cup later this year. The Reds are on a mission to complete the greatest season in league history.
“It’s something we’ve talked about in the last couple of weeks,” coach Greg Vanney told the
this week. “We had a quick get-together to look at where we’ve positioned ourselves and identify the opportunities out in front of us.”
Ahead of Saturday’s anticipated trip to the Windy City, Toronto FC (13-3-8, 47 points) sits four points clear of New York City FC atop the MLS table.
The 1998 L.A. Galaxy’s record 68-point season is well within reach. The Reds would need to win seven of their final 10 regular-season games to match the Galaxy’s historic total.
Not that points tell the entire story.
Vanney started 27 games for the ’98 Galaxy and remembers playing for a team that wasn’t nearly as complete as TFC is two decades later.
“The 1998 team was a very freeflowing and attack-minded group with a lot of weapons in the attack and a lot of confidence in the attack,” Vanney added this week.
“If teams weren’t good on the day or weren’t one of the better teams in the league, we could unbalance them and we could score four or five or six or seven goals on the day.
“But when we ran into opposition that was organized and difficult to break down, our freeflowing nature got the best of us. I think we had a below-.500 record against top teams.”
By comparison, TFC is 7-2-4 this season against teams currently occupying a playoff position. That stat, though, is only a piece of the remarkable run that dates back to the beginning of last season.
Toronto FC has lost just five of its previous 39 regular-season games dating back to last year. The club hasn’t dropped back-to-back games in 16 months.
“We’ve reassessed our goals to hopefully position ourselves as Supporters’ Shield winners and be in the discussion as one of the best teams ever to play in the league,” Vanney said.
“Every day is a new step in terms of training and every game is a new step in terms of trying to accumulate the points and perform at the level we have to in building towards the playoffs — the ultimate measure of things.”
Toronto FC also has a chance to eclipse — or at least match — the all-time MLS record for fewest losses (four) in a season, a feat most recently accomplished by FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake in 2010 (in a 30-game season).
“The group is aware of (those records),” Vanney said. “We don’t talk about it every day. What we talk about is trying to be the best version of us.”
What that means is up for discussion. Vanney thinks his Reds could — and maybe should — be in an even better position than they’re in.
Looking back, early season home draws against Atlanta and Sporting Kansas City were disappointing. A missed penalty in New York midseason saw the Reds leave two more points behind at Red Bull Arena.
Though they’re unbeaten since a Canada Day defeat in Dallas, the Reds also left points on the board in recent draws against Colorado and D.C. United — two of the league’s worst teams.
“It’s at least eight or nine points we’ve left out there in various ways,” Vanney said. “I think we’ve left more than a handful out there. We could potentially be in a better place.
“Of the games we’ve lost, maybe one or two of them we deserved to lose. Maybe a tie here or there we had to fight to get the points. But, by and large, we’ve been in every game.”
And that, Vanney says, is something the ’98 Galaxy couldn’t claim.
“What’s different about (TFC now compared to the Galaxy then) is we have better balance between our attack and our defence,” Vanney explained.
“We’re more organized and have a better collective idea on both sides of the ball what we’re trying to do. Our roster is deeper.”
Vanney claimed earlier this year his side is the deepest team in the league’s 22-year history — a statement fewer and fewer pundits are finding ways to disagree with.
While the Reds are one of four teams that haven’t lost at home this season, they’re the only MLS team with a winning road record in 2017.
“Our team now has proven we can get results and beat anyone on any day and tend to do so more times than not,” Vanney said.
Toronto FC doesn’t just want to win everything left in front of them this season.
It wants to put together one of the best 34-game seasons the league has seen.