TORONTO – In the 48th minute of a match against Columbus during Toronto FC’s inaugural MLS season in 2007, Toronto native Jim Brennan sent a sweeping free kick at goal from just more than 30 yards out. Over the wall, a slight deflection and into the top corner it went to tie the game 2-2.
It might have been Brennan’s best moment during his three-year playing career in Toronto, but it wasn’t his last, on or off the pitch.
TFC has endured a steady turnover of coaches, players and management officials during their seven tumultuous seasons. And through it all, Brennan has remained.
He was the first player and captain in team history, the first Canadian to score for TFC and is one of only two players to be enshrined into the team’s Wall of Honour at BMO Field. After retiring in 2010, he was named assistant general manager, working alongside Mo Johnston, and later took over TFC academy’s U-17 side, his first coaching position. The following year he was promoted to assistant coach of the senior team under former manager Aron Winter, a position he still holds.
In short, what hasn’t Jim Brennan done for Toronto FC?
Well, with coach Ryan Nelsen suspended for Saturday’s home game against D.C. United, Brennan will take charge of the Reds from the sidelines, marking his head coaching debut in MLS. Nelsen and Fran O’Leary, another assistant coach, were tossed from last week’s 2-1 home loss to Sporting Kansas City for arguing with the fourth official, thus earning automatic one-game suspensions. Nelsen is contrite.
“I should have not reacted the way I did, and I’ll take my medicine for that,” the coach said.
Brennan, 36, is excited for his debut and honoured to lead his hometown side, but he sees it as an eventual stepping stone, not a one-off.
“Down the line, absolutely – I’d probably like to be a head coach one day,” he said Friday.
Nelsen, a big believer in empowering his assistants with responsibilities, believes Brennan will one day be an MLS coach, and thinks Saturday will be a good opportunity for Brennan to test his coaching chops, although he’ll stay the course.
“Jimmy has been at this club for a long time. He knows everything, he knows what I want and he knows how we do things,” said Nelsen, who will decide on his club’s starting 11 from a private box at BMO.
Brennan’s debut isn’t a marquee matchup. Saturday’s match pits the two worst teams in the league against one another. Toronto is 4-15-11 and riding an eight-game winless skid (with five losses), while rock bottom D.C. is 3-20-6 and winless in seven matches.
Both teams will also be missing important players. Leading scorer Robert Earnshaw and designated players Matias Laba and Danny Koevermans have been ruled out for Toronto because of injury, while midfielder Jonathan Osorio and captain Steven Caldwell are suspended.
D.C., meanwhile, is scheduled to play Real Salt Lake on Tuesday in the final of the U.S. Open Cup. With nothing left to play for in MLS, the expectation is that coach Ben Olsen will rest most of his key players, including former TFC star Dwayne De Rosario, and field a “B” team.
Caldwell’s suspension means that Nelsen will likely start Doneil Henry and Gale Agbossoumonde in the centre of defence. It’s a young and relatively inexperienced pairing, one that D.C. will try to exploit.
“It’ll be a really good game for (Henry and Agbossoumonde) to both prove they can handle the experience as young players in this league,” Nelsen offered.
And a good game for (interim) head coach Jim Brennan to add to his already-storied TFC resume.
NOTES: After Saturday’s game, TFC plays the Philadelphia Union (Oct. 5) and Chicago Fire (Oct. 19) on the road before closing out the season at home versus the Montreal Impact on Oct. 26.