Canadian teams home, future unclear
Back home training following quarantine in the wake of the MLS is Back Tournament, Canada’s three teams await word on where and when they will play next.
It’s just the latest step in a stop-start Major League Soccer season, with the U.S. border looming large during the global pandemic.
But it looks like the Montreal Impact, Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps could see a lot of each other in the near future.
“I think there’ll be a time period where we will play the Canadian teams, hoping that that will get us farther along — that there’s some solution where we can get some games in against the Eastern Conference teams that are in the States,” said Toronto coach Greg Vanney. “And that somehow that will put enough games together to then get us to some form of a playoff scenario. How we manage that, I’m not sure yet, in terms of does that mean we have to relocate? Does that mean we can fly down and fly back?
“There’s so many variables and governments involved and issues that no conclusion has been determined or made,” Vanney said. “And so right now what we’re preparing for is to play the Canadian teams and I’m just waiting for finalized dates of when those games will happen so we know what days we’re going to be going.”
On Saturday, MLS released a series of dates for U.S. teams in what it dubbed the first phase of return to play in home markets.
The pandemic halted play March 12, some two weeks into the season. Play resumed July 8 with the MLS is Back Tournament, which wrapped up Tuesday with Portland’s 2-1 win over Orlando City SC.
For Vanney, the goal is to avoid thinking about the uncertainty.
“We talk about this a lot with the guys — that we just have to focus on the things that we can control and understand that in our minds we have to be ready to adapt in any scenario.”
One possibility, raised by Montreal Impact president Kevin Gilmore, could see Canadian teams playing “home” games at a U.S. venue.
“If there’s a scenario that has us moving, that’s obviously something that guys are going to have in the back of their minds and ( be) concerned about,” said Vanney.