TORONTO – With the calendar flipping to October and the playoff stakes raised, Toronto FC have finally found their form in 2015.
The team rode to a third-straight victory on Saturday evening with a 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Union at BMO Field, inching closer to a postseason berth for the first time in club history.
Head coach Greg Vanney, sporting what he called a "winning-streak beard," said he wasn't surprised by the current run. “We always circled this part of the season as 'moving day,'" he said. “This is the time where we have to continue to take steps forward, in our individual and collective performances, but also in points. This is why we can be a very dangerous team at the end of the year, because we have an opportunity, now, at home, to build on all of those things.
“Everybody who was a part of the game had a solid game,” he continued. “My only complaint is I wish we would have put few away earlier, then we could have all enjoyed and relaxed, in terms of our heart rates, towards the end.”
Sebastian Giovinco, the team's talisman and a leading league MVP candidate, opened the score to lead the way to victory, but other players earned plaudits, too.
Vanney felt that forward Jozy Altidore, who scored his 12th goal of the season – a new career-high in MLS – was "outstanding." Altidore himself remarked, “There's more of an understanding of how everybody, myself included, is finding their role and playing to their abilities. That's important.”
Jonathan Osorio, who dazzled on the ball all match long, was "in a great rhythm" and "very confident" according to Vanney.
“[Osorio] has a lot of ability,” explained Vanney. “We saw him put on a show today. When everybody is playing well, he thrives in that environment.”
And as for Jackson, who stepped into the problem right back position, Vanney thought he was "very good."
“He gives us a little something different," Vanney said, "his ability to attack and come up the line, to dribble out of pressure. Both on the attacking side, and defensively. He's a very good one-on-one defender, he's tough to beat, he's rangy and fast, and today he was a little bit feisty, which is good.”
Michael Bradley didn't want to look too far beyond the result, but even he, albeit with a healthy dollop of caution, was buoyed.
“We feel good about the way we've played at home this year," he said. "Doesn't mean that we've not let a few games slip away, but by and large when you look at the way we've played here, the results, it's certainly something to be proud of."
Still, Bradley quickly and characteristically returned back to level ground. “We're going to continue to work, to improve," he said, "because we don't want today to be the highlight of our season.”
