TFC captain unloads on frustrating season
MLS champions are ‘not even close’ to playing at the level needed to win again
TORONTO — On first viewing, the opening goal conceded by Toronto FC in Saturday’s 4-2 loss to Los Angeles FC seemed typical of a Major League Soccer campaign gone awry.
Diego Rossi’s speculative shot from outside the penalty box hit defender Justin Morrow’s leg and then LAFC forward Carlos Vela’s arm before eluding a diving Clint Irwin. Another bad break for the star-crossed MLS champions.
But watch the goal closer and its reflection on a dismal 7-14-6 league campaign runs even deeper.
An aimless goal kick by Irwin. First, Marky Delgado and then Eriq Zavaleta are beaten to headers by LAFC players. Captain Michael Bradley is too slow off the mark to catch Rossi.
It is a 14-second sequence of ineptitude — 14 seconds of another team wanting it more.
After the game, a measured Bradley unloaded on a season that has seen his side go from record-breaking champions to disappointing also-rans.
Rather than point his finger, the captain wielded a wide-ranging brush. “(CONCACAF) Champions League aside this year, we have not had enough people in this club from the top all the way down to the bottom — and everybody’s included — we have not had enough people who have understood how hard it was going to be, what it was going to take to navigate through another season where we had to play every week like our lives depended on it,” Bradley said.
“Last year, that was the mentality. Last year, that was what we were able to do. But when you win, when you win everything like we did, then you have to understand that to come back and do it again, it’s going to be even harder,” he added.
“And through 27 league games this year, it’s not even been close. Not even close.”
Observing Toronto FC this year has been like watching a bridge collapse. There has been a new crack every week.
In 2017, when TFC won the treble of Supporters’ Shield, Canadian Championship and MLS Cup, Bradley said the team was “relentless” from start to finish.
“We weren’t going to let anything stop us. And we knew it was going to be hard, but we were ready to be harder. And this year ... you have to know that the next year it’s going to be exponentially more difficult. And across the board every single person, every single person in this club has come up short in understanding what those challenges were going to be. So that part is disappointing.”
It was a scathing indictment of a franchise that, thanks to deeppocketed owner Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, wants for nothing.
The team reached the CONCACAF Champions League final and won the Canadian Championship. But over the long MLS season, it has failed to deliver the goods.
Bradley’s words shouldn’t surprise his teammates. They’ve seen the same message on the wall outside their north Toronto training centre locker-room every day.
Underneath a giant photo of the team celebrating its 2017 MLS Cup win is a quote from legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden: “Winning takes talent. Repeating takes character.’’
The injury hangover of the Champions League campaign was brutal, with a subsequent toll on the healthy forced to pick up the slack.
“Maybe that has an impact on our continuity over 90 minutes,” coach Greg Vanney said of the constant lineup changes. “But for me, it still comes down to us just making mistakes that we shouldn’t make as professional players.”