Altidore to put ‘right foot forward’
Vanney doesn’t expect ankle injury to slow striker in Saturday’s MLS Cup
Jozy Altidore has gone through long periods without playing during Toronto FC’s playoff run, and he’s not interested in another rest until he has lifted a trophy.
The American striker is used to taking part in the international break that prolongs Major League Soccer’s post-season schedule, but with the United States out of next summer’s World Cup, Altidore wasn’t called to the national team’s camp last month.
Then he was suspended for the first leg of the Eastern Conference final, keeping him out for 23 days.
The time off made these playoffs feel longer than they did in 2016, the striker said during a conference call on Tuesday.
While Altidore said he is hungrier than ever ahead of Saturday’s MLS Cup match against the Seattle Sounders, he is also struggling. He rolled his ankle in a “freak accident” during the second leg of the conference final last Wednesday, collapsing after Columbus Crew defender Harrison Afful slipped and collided into the back of his legs.
It took almost a week before the 28year-old was back on the field for practice; he participated in the warm up portion of training with his teammates Tuesday.
“I felt OK,” Altidore said. “Obviously it won’t be perfect but, like I said on Wednesday night, this is a game that, it’s a one-off . . . I’m going to put every right foot forward that I can to make sure I’m in the team and playing that game.”
TFC coach Greg Vanney wasn’t sure Altidore was 100 per cent, but he said the striker wasn’t necessarily limited by pain, either.
“Hopefully that will continue to progress over the next few days,” Vanney said.
“He just has to be in a position come Saturday that he can play comfortably enough to get after it . . . “It doesn’t really matter where he’s at on Tuesday or Wednesday. We’ll take our time and work him through that process.”
Bumps and bruises are the nature of the game, Vanney said, especially at the end of a nine-month season. What the team is working on now is guarding against fatigue. The nineday break between the conference final and the Cup helps. And, physically and mentally, the coach is taking care not to drive his players into the ground.
“In the grand scheme of things, between the excitement of the game and the adrenalin, I think a lot of the physical things will take care of themselves, it just become an execution game,” Vanney said.
The Reds will hope that’s the case for Altidore
“He will be there Saturday,” Vanney said, “and he will be there 100 per cent and laying it all out there.”
Altidore scored the lone goal when the Reds beat Seattle in early May, their only match of the regular sea-
“At this point, it doesn’t matter how we win, it just matters that we win.” JOZY ALTIDORE ON SATURDAY’S MLS CUP
son. And he scored the deciding goal in the last round against Columbus. But he doesn’t care who comes up with such a moment this weekend, as long as it’s a player in red.
“At this point, it doesn’t matter how we win, it just matters that we win,” Altidore said.
“I don’t care if it comes from me, if it comes from Seba, from Drew Moor; it doesn’t matter to me. All that matters is that we give everything that we have, put everything into it and we try to become champions. That’s it.”
Seattle was far from dominant in last year’s final, not putting a shot on target until the penalty shootout. But Altidore reminded the run of play doesn’t always make a winner.
“You have to be honest here and say, ‘Seattle, they’re the reigning champions.’ You have to respect that. At the end of the day, we’re looking to take the title from them.”