The next game comes quickly in professional sports.
Toronto FC, fresh off a shootout defeat in the final of the 2024 TELUS Canadian Championship midweek, are back on the pitch Saturday night away to the Chicago Fire at Soldier Field.
John Herdman allowed his side the night to feel that sting, but come Thursday morning it was back to work.
“They were disappointed, really disappointed,” said the TFC coach on Friday afternoon. “You never want to lose finals, but what they can take from it is they did give their best. There's games that you can come out and you look yourself in the mirror and you know you left something on the table. The lads give it everything and they did well.”
“From a confidence perspective it was good for the players to feel that sort of rhythm in what's usually a really tough place to go,” Herdman continued. “They know they were very close to bringing a trophy home for the fans and giving our fan base something to celebrate, but at the same time there was a bit of pride in the effort and how we lost. We lost the right way. If you're going to lose, you've got to lose the right way and those boys did. That makes it an easier transition.”
“It's never easy to lose the final, you can see the bags under my eyes, it was a bit of a sleepless night, but we've had to turn around,” he underlined. “Today they got out there in windy conditions here in Chicago and were dialed in in the training session. It was a light training, a tactical training, sometimes tough ones to do, but the guys were really well dialed in so expecting them to turn around quick.”
There are three big games ahead.
The race for the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs in the Eastern Conference is tight. Toronto sit in eighth, one of the play-in spots, tied with the Philadelphia Union on 36 points. Passage to the first rounds sits five points ahead, while four other teams – CF Montréal, Atlanta United, Nashville SC, and D.C. United – are hot on their heels, all within three points.
After Chicago, Toronto’s long road trip ends and the side will return to BMO Field for the final two matches of the regular season, hosting the New York Red Bulls on Wednesday and then Inter Miami CF on Saturday. They will then have to wait and watch, having done all they can do, as the rest of the league closes on October 19, following the international break.
“Life or death; cup final time again,” described Herdman of the gauntlet ahead. “The Colorado game we did some rotation to manage for the cup final, but this next three games we've got to get the best lineup out there.”
“Guys who are absolutely locked in, committed, feeling hungry, and try to keep some consistency while paying [the scheduling gods] some respect as well,” he continued. “We've got players that are getting close to red-line minutes, we've got guys who've just come off turf, and guys that are coming out of altitude. All of these factors are at play, but this is MLS. There's no excuses. You've just got to get on with it and be resilient and get excited for a tough test in Chicago.”
“This Chicago team have got a lot of pride to play for at home and maybe a little bit of freedom in their psychology,” Herdman balanced – the Fire face elimination with anything but a victory. “We've got everything to play for. We're in the playoff spots. Our purpose is going to be strong going into this match.”
As Toronto showed on Wednesday in Vancouver, on their day, even when the odds are stacked against them, they can hang with anybody in the league.
What has proved elusive, according to Herdman, is “consistency.”
“You've seen whether it's the Miami game where you’re nil-all at halftime and they've created their lowest xG, or our game against D.C. – [Christian] Benteke hadn't had a touch in the box, they barely got out their own half in the first half. You think of the Nashville game at home, where you're up at halftime, etc, etc,” he listed. “We've just not been a team that's been able to consistently put it together for 90 minutes.”
“The Columbus game [at home], the first half, we have seven shots and to their one. It's been a consistent theme, we get to 55, 60 minutes and we seem to hit a wall and that gives our opponents control of the game and by the time we find our rhythm again, it's usually too late,” Herdman continued. “It's been about 90-minute performances.”
“What was good about the Whitecaps game is we started strong and we finished strong. We were the better team in the last 15 minutes of the game and certainly had a lot more control,” he highlighted. “That's the commitment. Players, they have to show up for 90 minutes. The coaches, we have to show up for 90 minutes. The players coming in off the bench have to show up for the minutes that they're given. That period of the game, we just don't look like ourselves. We're not pressing, our attacks just seem to peter out. We looked a lot more ruthless, intentional for longer in that game against the ‘Caps.”
“Chicago is a different beast. We are dealing with those accumulated minutes now, that's a reality. So lads coming in off the bench are going to be crucial,” Herdman added. “I've got to be really mindful of that given that we have a game against Red Bulls in four days and after that as well, a three-day turnaround against Miami.”
Frank Klopas’ Chicago return home on the back of two away losses – to Nashville and Montréal – but with extra rest in their legs. The Fire stung TFC in the previous meeting, winning 4-1 at BMO Field in June. The Reds will be eager to return the favour.
“Very similar in how they've been setting up,” anticipated Herdman of their opponent’s structure. “Frank shifted to a back five close to the time that we played them and they started getting some success in that system, so we're anticipating he'll continue in that space.”
“He might change, but the amount of different templates we've played against in the last three, four weeks, we’ll be ready to adapt to whatever is out there. They have a really good midfield in [Kellyn] Acosta and, obviously, [Brian] Gutiérrez, who's had a bit of a breakout season.”
Belgian DP forward Hugo Cuypers leads the side with 10 goals, while Gutiérrez has six. Maren Haile-Selassie tops the assist chart with eight helpers.
“They're really direct when they need to be,” observed Herdman. “And they're very good at being direct, very good at getting in behind you quick, and bringing those midfield two underneath. But if you give that direct player too much respect, they shift into another mode: they can play, they can dominate the ball as well.”
“We know this is a well organized team, and similar to us, they've just struggled in big moments, scoring goals and being able to kill games off,” he continued. “We know we have to be clean in and around the box. If we're clean around our box, similar to the Whitecaps game, this is a game where we can put a lot more attention on finding the back of the net.”
“It's been a while since we did that, the Austin game. We've been putting some attention to that,” Herdman closed. “There will be a big focus on that in my team talk tomorrow as well. If we keep the habits from the other night and our habits from Colorado – we were very resolute in that game – we've got to find a way to score. That's the big mission.”
