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Despite heartbreaking loss, TFC determined to return to MLS Cup Final

Photo by Geoff Burke/USA TODAY Sports
Photo by Geoff Burke/USA TODAY Sports

TORONTO — As Toronto FC head coach Greg Vanney arrived for the post-game press conference, he was on the verge of tears.

It was an understandable reaction. Vanney’s side lost 5-4 to the Seattle Sounders in a penalty shootout in the MLS Cup final on Saturday night after a scoreless draw through 120 minutes. It is always crushing to fall at the last hurdle, which explains Vanney’s deflated demeanor in the post-match conference.

“We missed a lot of chances,” said Vanney. “I was kind of disappointed that it came down to PKs and that such a hard-fought season was going to come down to PKs. That’s just not the way you want to finish a game like that, or a season. I’m sure it will hit me and I will break down at some point, but right now, I’m just a little bit numb.”

TFC had a chance to make history as the first Canadian team to win MLS Cup. For a city that has been deprived of major sporting success since the 1990s, it would have been a huge relief for a franchise owned by Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment to win a championship.

“It’s going to take some time to swallow this one,” said midfielder Jonathan Osorio. “I don’t know how long, but it’ll take time. After that, if you look back, it was a really, really good season to see something that we deserved. I felt like we deserved to be champions, but unfortunately in sports, that’s not how it works all the time so we just have to keep going forward.

“I feel when you’re the most down, that’s when you have to rally and show your character. That’s how true champions succeed in life. When they are kicked down, they keep going.”

Osorio’s attitude seems to be shared in the TFC locker room. The Reds can take many positives out of the season. Following a disappointing end to 2015, they defeated the likes of New York City FC, who scored a league-high 62 goals in the regular season. Toronto ended up shutting out NYCFC in both legs of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Then there was the epic conference final with the Montreal Impact, who knocked out Toronto last year.

“I already appreciate [the season],” said TFC striker Jozy Altidore. “I already said to the guys after that I’m proud of everybody. We put a lot into it this year. We got a taste of what it’s like to be a club in MLS that competes for trophies, so now it’s all about bottling up this feeling, getting back here in January and getting ready for another long season. Hopefully we can end it and be in this position again, but to win obviously.”

The Sounders may have won their first MLS Cup, but they have been a playoff stalwart since they entered the league in 2009. TFC has been anything but, apart from the last two seasons.

It seems like it was just yesterday when “Trader Mo” Johnston, the club’s first head coach and eventual director of soccer, was trading players as if they were baseball cards. Then there was the infamous “Massacre at the Meadowlands” in 2009 when TFC was crushed 5-0 by the New York Red Bulls in a match it needed to win in order to qualify for the playoffs.

The Aron Winter “Total Football” era from 2011 to 2012 brought CONCACAF Champions League success, but nine straight losses to begin the 2012 MLS season had former striker Danny Koevermans labeling the club “the worst team in the world.”

That same franchise became an MLS Cup finalist thanks to stable management under president Bill Manning and general manager Tim Bezbatchenko. Vanney has brought stability to the squad. He also has one of the deepest rosters in MLS, which helped carry the team through a small injury crisis in the summer.

Bezbatchenko himself learned some valuable lessons with the “Bloody Big Deal” campaign involving Jermain Defoe. That led to Altidore and Sebastian Giovinco becoming the club’s second and third Designated Players after Michael Bradley. The defense conceded a joint league-high 58 goals in 2015, so the club acquired Drew Moor, Steven Beitashour and Clint Irwin last winter. The backline surrendered just 39 goals this time year.

However, in a salary-cap league, there will be departures, especially with two expansion franchises entering MLS next year. Vanney is aware of the ramifications, but he’s already looking ahead to a busy offseason.

“We will look to try and make one or two moves, three moves at the most, that really strengthen our team,” said Vanney. “We’ll continue to try to add some depth with some young guys that you get through the draft and through your academy and what not. We’re going to build with this core and keep getting stronger. That’s our objective. We’re just getting started.

“Over the last offseason, we’ve been able to add pieces to grow and be stronger on the defensive side, to give us more depth. We’ve got a very deep team, probably deeper than some people actually really know, and we’ve got some young players that are coming through.”

Even though Giovinco and Altidore were held off the scoresheet, they were clearly influential to TFC’s success in 2016. Bradley was also impressive during the campaign and he arguably Toronto’s best player in the final despite his missed effort in the penalty shootout.

Barring any major sales in the January transfer window, the Canadian side should have all three players back for another year and another run at a title.

“I think one of our key moves in the last couple of years is that we picked up Designated Players who are in their prime, not Designated Players who are at the end of their game,” said Vanney. “We can build and work around those guys as a foundation.”

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