TORONTO – To merely say Toronto FC “have been here before” would not quite do full justice to the levels of commitment, focus and performance the Reds have demonstrated on their path to three MLS Cup finals in the past four years, five trophy hoists since 2016 and the closest any Major League Soccer team has ever come to winning the Concacaf Champions League.
But for a group that’s made chasing hardware a habit, transforming their club from a long-running punch line into a serial contender, weeks like this one – which is building up to Sunday’s MLS Cup clash (3 pm ET | ABC, Univision, TUDN, TSN, TVAS) vs. the Seattle Sounders at CenturyLink Field with the requisite pressure, hoopla and extra media attention – have become familiar. And fun.
“Yeah, winning is fun, for sure,” captain Michael Bradley told a throng of reporters at BMO Training Ground Wednesday afternoon. “When you’re in it with a group of guys who ultimately share the same values, who come in every day ready to work, ready to compete, ready to give to the team, then yeah, that makes it fun as well.”
After hosting 2016 and 2017 cup clashes with Seattle at BMO Field, TFC are the visitors this time around and they’ve elected to prepare in their home environs for as long as possible before descending into the hype of the venue city.
The Reds will train at their own place one more time Thursday morning before boarding a charter flight to Puget Sound. It’s a different sort of leadup to the big game – “being able to concentrate and tune out all the distractions,” in Bradley’s words – and one that’s helped maintain focus on their everyday tasks, even if it may not have whipped their home city into quite the same furor as those past runs.
“I think when you are the host market there’s a lot of buildup and hoopla and hype that goes around with the setup, and people coming into town. I think it’s a little more peaceful in terms of our environment,” head coach Greg Vanney said Wednesday. “I don’t live downtown so I don’t know all of it, but I feel like its been a little more peaceful. The group has been able to focus a little bit more just on ourselves.”
This squad has encountered some memorable occasions over the past few years, from league title bouts on home turf to postseason Canadian Classique derby epics in Montreal to CCL knockout matches at famous Mexican cauldrons like Estadio Azteca and Estadio Universitario. They have tasted glory in some and heartbreak in others, and moved on to chase some more. Perhaps that’s why one local reporter described the vibe around the team as one of “looseness,” though Bradley demurred on that just a bit.
“I’m not even sure I’d use the word ‘looseness,’ I think there’s the right amount of focus, the right amount of concentration; I think we have a group that’s been here before,” Bradley said. “We understand what it’s like to play in big games, we understand what these weeks are like. We’re not fazed.”
Given the opportunity to play up their underdog credentials, both Vanney and Bradley kept the term at arm’s length, the coach noting, in this case, it’s a matter of venue site more than anything else. They say they expect to win on Sunday, not because of any perceived superiority or external factors, but simply because that’s their collective identity by now.
“The group is very confident in themselves, in each other,” said Vanney. And if anyone on board got to taking these big occasions for granted, the sudden woes of last season remain bracingly fresh in the memory, driving them on through a 2019 that’s been rocky at times, but is concluding on a 13-game undefeated run across league and postseason play.
“[We aim to] prove to ourselves that the second half of last season was a blip, to have a relentless mentality and approach that says there isn’t anything that can put us off. We use the phrase ‘having a knife between your teeth’ sometimes,” said Bradley. “And obviously the idea is that now every game, every day you’re going for it. I think it’s only natural that when you have a few years of relatively big success, that gets challenged a little bit and if anything last year was a reminder that has to be the starting point for everything.”
