MONTREAL—So now what?
Where does Toronto FC go from here? How will they respond after last night’s mauling at the hands of the Montreal Impact? There were plenty of questions asked after the Reds’ 3-0 loss to the Impact in the first round of the MLS playoffs. Not too many answers were provided.
“On nights like this it’s not easy to find answers. Talking doesn’t do a whole lot of good,” captain Michael Bradley offered. “It’s not the night to sit here and talk, to make excuses, to act like anybody’s got all the answers.”
You can hardly blame Bradley for cutting such a sombre figure in the dressing room afterwards. Who on TFC in their right mind would want to talk about that game? Still, we’ve seen this before from Bradley, an unwillingness to call a spade a spade, an aversion towards honest introspection.
After the loss to Columbus earlier this month, this correspondent asked the Toronto captain about the team’s ongoing defensive issues. His answer? “I don’t think there are defensive issues still going on,” Bradley deadpanned.
Really? None at all? It was a strange response considering Toronto has been leaking goals since the start of the campaign, and finished the regular season tied for the worst defensive record in the league, with 58 goals against in 34 games.
Soccer Central podcast: SPORTSNET.CA’s Soccer Central podcast, hosted by John Molinaro and James Sharman, takes an in-depth look at the beautiful game and offers timely and thoughtful analysis on the sport’s biggest issues. To listen and subscribe to the podcast, CLICK HERE.
You have to think Bradley knows deep down in his heart that all is not well, that Toronto is more than a few tweaks away from becoming a legitimate playoff contender. If he was trying to put a brave face on things and publically protect his team with that delusional “Problems? What problems?” answer then fair enough.
One hopes, though, that Bradley, coach Greg Vanney, general manager Tim Bezbatchenko and new club president Bill Manning aren’t so naive to actually believe that, and that behind the scenes they will have some blunt conversations this off-season.
That’s what’s needed here—brutally frank self-evaluation, of everything and everybody involved with Toronto FC, from the top down.
When he took over a few weeks ago, Manning told reporters that Vanney and Bezbatchenko were safe in their jobs, and that he didn’t plan on making changes once the season was over. He explained how there was far too much turnover at TFC over the past nine years, and how he sold himself to the MLSE board as the “stability guy” while interviewing for the president’s position.
Manning effectively painted himself into a corner. It’s tough to flip flop now, but he has to at least rethink his stance, and take a long, hard look at whether Bezbatchenko and Vanney are the men to lead this team forward.
Should he keep the faith with a GM who has built a top-heavy side featuring three attacking designated players while failing to shore up the back line? Who handed veteran defenders Damien Perquis and Ahmed Kantari exorbitant contracts (by MLS standards) and proved to be liabilities, rather than players who could be relied upon? Who didn’t properly address the glaring problem at right fullback? Who instead of bringing in defensive reinforcements at the trade deadline added another forward in Herculez Gomez?
Is Vanney a good coach? Why did he use the same formation and tactics in Thursday’s playoff game when they didn’t work in the regular season finale just four days earlier in the same stadium against the same team? Do the players respect Vanney? Would they go through a brick wall for him? Would another coach have been able to get more out of this collection of players?
These are the questions Manning must ask himself. He has to determine whether or not Bezbatchenko really is an astute judge of player talent and can build a more balanced side, and if Vanney has anything more substantial to offer.
If the answers are no, then he has to replace them forthwith, regardless of the promises he made to stay the course regardless of optics. Better to look bad for a brief moment than actually be bad in the long-term.
And what about Bradley? What’s his role in this team? Have we determined that yet? He’s been deployed a number of different ways during his time in Toronto, but what best suits his skill set? You trying asking him what position he’d like to play or how he’d like to be used and you get a boiler-plate answer about it being the coach’s decision. Ask him about the team’s struggles to defend both individually and collectively, and he insists there are no problems, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Leadership comes in many forms. Bradley isn’t the vocal type. He’s a lead-by-example kind of guy. There’s nothing wrong with that. He comes across as a bit of a loner, an island onto himself, though. That’s not to suggest he’s not committed, or a team player. Of course he is. He’s one of the most focused athletes I have ever encountered. He’s intense.
But Bradley’s is a quiet intensity. He’s calculated in everything he does—from the way he trains and plays, to how he deals with reporters who regularly cover the team. He shows little emotion.
And that’s fine if you’re some brooding anti-hero in a modern Hollywood blockbuster, not so much when you’re the captain of a club that after nine seasons still hasn’t forged an identity. This club is in desperate need of personality. Bradley seems unwilling or unable to provide any.
Is Bradley capable of giving more of himself, of letting his guard down a bit? Can he give this team a much-needed injection of life? Like Manning, TFC’s captain has to ask himself some hard questions. If he can’t be the type of leader this team needs him to be then it’s time for him to move on.
It all makes for an intriguing and one of the most important off-seasons in Toronto FC history.