Winners of the MLS Cup in 2017 and runners-up last year, Chris Armas’ side has also won the Canadian Championship in six of the previous ten seasons and even reached the final of the CONCACAF Champions League in 2018.
But 2021? Well, it’s fair to say that things have not gone to plan.
More than a quarter of the way through the campaign, at the time of writing, only goal difference is preventing Toronto from propping up the rest of the teams in the Eastern Conference, and in the Supporters Shield standings, they sit at 26th of the 27 competing teams.
That is an extraordinarily large fall from grace. While there is still time for Armas and his players to rectify the dismal start, one win out of ten games – with an average of two goals conceded per outing – it is not the ideal foundation from which to build.
So, what has happened to Toronto FC in 2021, and where do they go from here?
All change at the top
Canadians are no strangers to trying their luck, with online casinos in Canada remaining ever popular.
Card and table games have a stated house edge, while slot games even have a Return to Player rate – that is, what an individual can expect to win in a theoretical gaming session.
However, choosing head coaches in soccer is almost a zero-sum game. Toronto are expected to do well, so the man in charge never truly gets the credit they deserve – hence why Greg Vanney’s resignation was accepted at the tail end of 2020, despite all the successes he had led his team to. Yes, the prior campaign was disappointing, but it would have been better for all parties if Vanney had stayed to try and redefine this roster and get back to silverware-winning days.
Why was his resignation letter accepted?
In the midst of his departure has come Armas, who has enjoyed glory of his own at New York Red Bulls in the past. However, he ‘parted company’ with the club, it was said euphemistically, after a dire 2020 campaign in which NYRB had a derisory lack of attacking edge – something that is already leaking into Toronto’s game.
This is not a hatchet job – Armas must be given time to turn things around – but the omens are not great with a sizable chunk of the season already played.
For your thighs only
It’s likely that most of us get through the day without thinking too much about the state of our thighs.
However, that particular muscle, and the complimentary hamstring, has been a major pain in the neck for Toronto this season.
A hamstring injury has deprived Armas of the services of Alejandro Pozuelo, a player so good he was named the MLS MVP in 2020. He top-scored for the side last season and made more assists than any other player. This leaves 19 goal contributions that Toronto have not been able to call upon with any regularity this term.
A thigh problem has also kept Nick DeLeon, the reliable veteran, from being a regular starter for the Canadians. While the ever-impressive Jonathan Osorio has also been side-lined with a combination of injuries and international duty.
Yeferson Soteldo, the flying Venezuelan winger who joined Toronto on Designated Player terms in the offseason, has also been unable to sink his teeth into life at his new employer. A spell away at the Copa America and, you guessed it, a thigh injury have kept him to just three starts in the red shirt at the time of writing.
The good news, of course, is that injuries heal, so it won’t be too long before patrons at BMO Field get to see Pozuelo, Osorio and Soteldo strutting their stuff together at the same time.
That is a mouth-watering prospect, but will Toronto still have a chance of reaching the playoffs at that point?
A case for the defense
There was an interesting press conference with Armas following the 0-2 defeat to FC Cincinnati.
“It's a disaster. I'm embarrassed”, he said. “I’m tasked to do a job here. And yeah, we all know it's been hard. You play without your DPs, you can go down the list.”
In the poker-faced world of soccer media, calling your team’s situation a ‘disaster’ is not the smartest move on the head coach’s part, and by blaming the absence of his Designated Players he is, wrongfully, trying to relinquish some of the responsibility.
Toronto’s DPs include Pozuelo, Soteldo and Jozy Altidore. The first two are creative players, and the third is a veteran striker that isn’t even playing right now due to a spat with Armas about his tactics.
With this in mind, unless the coach intends on winning every game 4-3, the absence of this trio of big-money names is not the root cause of Toronto’s problems.
Toronto shipped two or more goals in each of their first three games of the season – a trend that has largely been sustained since. There’s little that Pozuelo and company would be able to do to right that situation.
Some of the blame can be attributed to the fact that they are playing their home matches in Florida due to the cross-border travel restrictions that are currently in place. Even so, the basic processes and organization that goes into a solid defensive line have been woefully absent, regardless of geography.
Armas has swapped Quentin Westberg for Alex Bono in goal – the jury is still out on that. While the likes of Auro, Chris Mavinga and Omar Gonzalez have looked like shadows of their former selves at times. With Michael Bradley less effective as their midfield shield, Toronto have simply been there for the taking.
Right now, Armas has many issues to resolve – and getting Pozuelo and Soteldo off the treatment table and onto the pitch will help, but without sound defensive principles, the 2021 season could be a write-off for Toronto.
