Short-handed Reds look for clues
Coach fears injury wave could lead to more pain if club doesn’t play it safe
When Victor Vazquez left Toronto FC’s loss to the Seattle Sounders at halftime on Wednesday night, the injured midfielder was far from alone on the sidelines.
“We’ll deal with it,” coach Greg Vanney said post-game. “Put it on the list of guys.”
He wasn’t being dismissive. Dealing with it is all the Reds can do.
At the moment, they’re without striker Jozy Altidore, defenders Drew Moor, Eriq Zavaleta, Chris Mavinga, Justin Morrow and Nick Hagglund, and midfielder Nicolas Hasler because of injuries. That’s almost a quarter of the 30-man roster. At least five of them would be regulars in the starting 11, and the others muchused substitutes.
Fortunately for them, Vazquez was feeling better Thursday despite taking a knock to his knee, and Vanney wouldn’t rule him out for Saturday’s road game against the New England Revolution.
While the defending champions are struggling at 2-5-1 in Major League Soccer play so far this season, Vanney said he has enough good players to deal with it. He does, however, worry that the injuries could continue.
“My concern isn’t our performances and guys stepping up and playing,” Vanney said. “My concern is, we’re running the guys that we have into the ground because we don’t have depth … and games are coming fast and furious, and games are intense, and we’re trying to chase our way back up (the standings). We’re asking a lot of guys physically right now.”
The key, he said, is to be diligent — not pushing too hard between games, and identifying the difference between a player who is just a little bit tired and one at risk of injury.
“It’s tricky, for sure,” the coach said. “We have to choose how we get the guys their rest. You’d love, at some point, to give a guy potentially a weekend off and give somebody else an opportunity, but that’s not really the space we’re in right now.”
One of the players affected most by the spate of injuries is captain Michael Bradley, who has been moved from his normal spot as defensive midfielder to centre back, with the bulk of the losses affecting the back line.
While Bradley has performed admirably in the role, cracks showed at BMO Field on Wednesday night when Sounders striker Will Bruin played a ball between Bradley and centre back Gregory van der Wiel, setting up Seattle’s winning goal. In TFC’s best configuration, Bruin would likely have been tracked down by Bradley ahead of the back four.
“It’s a trickle down because as Michael drops back, then Marky (Delgado) drops back and then we lose a little bit, at times, of Marky’s dynamic running and efficient playing on the attacking end,” Vanney said.
The start of this season has been complicated for the Reds, with their CONCACAF Champions League run adding eight games in the first 10 weeks. For now, it’s all about making do to with what they’ve got — which Bradley thinks is enough.
“We’ve dealt with a lot,” Bradley said. “The mentality has to continue to be strong. We’ve got to continue to find different ways to win games.”