The rest of the season begins now.
It’s a big period for Toronto FC. The side will play two away matches this week – at Inter Miami CF on Wednesday and then Saturday against the old enemy, CF Montréal at Stade Saputo, the 2024 Leagues Cup kicks off next weekend away to the New York Red Bulls, and when the dust settles come late August the final eight matches of the MLS regular season and the second leg of the Canadian Championship semifinal against Forge FC at BMO Field await.
They do so with some key pieces back in the squad as Jonathan Osorio and Richie Laryea have returned from their Copa América exploits with Canada.
“With Jonathan and Richie back, it's one of the first times in a few weeks where you’re looking at your squad and you can start to see a bit of depth, you can start to see the opportunities to start a game or to finish a game, and you can start looking at two games ahead,” said John Herdman on Monday. “Miami is always going to be a tough game on the road, but we've got a six-point match on the Saturday against Montréal – that's a massive game given where both teams are on the standings.”
“We're excited,” he continued. “There's a lot of energy in the building, particularly with the two Canadian lads returning, and returning with a bit of glory and some records that they've been able to make, bringing that energy in, but the team are pretty upbeat after the weekend as well, so we'll go in upbeat.”
“[Miami] have had 10 days rest coming into this, sometimes that works for or against you. My daughter woke us up, must have been about 10:50 last night, to tell us Messi got injured, which I wasn't too happy about to be honest, I was fast asleep,” smiled Herdman. “There's going to be an interesting opportunity in Miami to really have a go and then also keep one eye on the Montréal game.”
Saturday’s win over Philadelphia Union was the perfect way to start getting back on track.
“It was a really big one for us,” said Sean Johnson. “As a group, we’ve been putting in the work, everybody was committed to getting it right. We went out with the right mentality, we stuck together, we did all the things that were getting us results to start the year and now adding Richie and Oso into the mix.”
“Coming off of a big performance on the weekend, the focus is resting, getting everybody recovered to repeat again on Wednesday. It’s a big stretch for us,” he added. “It was big to get off on the right foot with a win against Philly.”
24 matches into the season, it is wild to think that Herdman has never been able to field his strongest XI.
Laryea has made just one appearance, the first match of the campaign away to FC Cincinnati.
“We made a big push at the beginning of the season to bring Richie home, not only because of his quality, but just how much he cares about the club, the city,” said Herdman. “We need men like that in the team. You need a core of players that are willing to do that bit extra for the fans, for the city, and he's one of those – Osorio, very similar.”
“Richie, I've always said this to him, whatever level he goes to, he is able to find that next level. You've seen that in Copa América, we've seen that in the World Cup, World Cup qualifying,” he continued. “He has this real competitive spirit and when he's dialed in, he’s, on both ends, defending and attacking, top, top level.”
Canada turned some heads with their performances at Copa. Osorio and Richie will look to bring that same spirit back to the club as the playoff push ramps up.
“It's good to have those guys back,” said Johnson. “Proud of what they did with Canada, it was inspiring, admirable to see those two perform at such a high level for their country and have them coming back off of something like that.”
“We're now going into a busy stretch, a busy week,” he added. “To add that quality to the team, it’s great to have those guys back in the locker room.”
It gives Herdman something he hasn’t had in some time: options.
“We knew that May to June, June particularly, was going to be a tough period for us with Richie, Johnson, and Oso away, and then Lorenzo [Insigne] away for a little period,” laid out the coach. “And then we had in all those injuries to [Tyrese] Spicer, [Alonso] Coello, all of those factors have played in. It has for other teams as well.”
“We knew that there was going to be light at the end of the tunnel, whether that’s some transfers we can make in the summer, some players coming back, and, I keep saying this, Lorenzo's starting to come back to some fitness as well. His physical numbers are starting to look more like what we want them to look like,” Herdman assessed. “Things are starting to come into play, but we do have to call out that there are some guys that have just been overused as well in this last four or five weeks and they're hanging in by fingernails, so those new guys coming in will give us the energy, but more importantly the ability to rotate players and not lose the level of quality.”
“Think of [Federico] Bernardeschi not being rested, the guy's been pushing 90 minutes, 90 minutes, 90 minutes, 80 minutes for the last I don't know how long,” he added. “Richie coming back gives us that proposition of being able to rotate, start strong and be able to finish strong, similar to what we did on Saturday with Lorenzo and Deybi [Flores].”
Toronto will look to bring that momentum to Florida on Wednesday when they square off against Tata Martino’s Inter Miami. Alas, Lionel Messi is listed as ‘Out’ having suffered an injury that forced him off in the final of Copa América with Argentina.
Herdman has matched wits with Martino before.
“I’ve played against Tata a few times in my career, against Mexico, we always enjoyed those battles, [2021] Gold Cup semifinal, what was it, 99th minute, they scored a winner to knock us out and obviously the home and away [in qualification for 2022], game at the Azteca and the Iceteca [in Edmonton],” recalled Herdman. “So we know a little bit about Tata and how he plays.”
“He's a smart coach, a real top tactician. He always has something up his sleeve. He has a way of getting the best out of players as well,” he continued. “[Miami] have the highest open play xG in the league at home, they have the highest goals tally at home, we know they'll score goals at home, regardless of who goes there, so this is a tough match.”
“Even without their DPs they've been able to show a cutting edge in their home matches. We know it tends to be a low tempo build with a lot of short passes, progressing to those areas where they change tempo with their quality,” Herdman anticipated. “And then you also know that they'll tend to hold a lower line, lull you into thinking you’re secure, and then you think about the transitional threat they have in the quality players they have on their front lines. Tactically, it's a tough match; it'll be tough conditions, but we've got a group of players that are excited for that opportunity.”
Messi’s 12 goals and 13 assists lead the way for Miami, but they are replete with attacking options. Luis Suárez, who broke Canadian hearts with his late equalizer and penalty kick for Uruguay in the third-place match on Saturday, has 12 goals and Julian Gressel has 10 assists. Never mind Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets, seven and five helpers, respectively.
Miami sit second in the Eastern Conference and come into the midweek clash off a battering away to Cincinnati on July 6, where they lost 5-1, ending a four-game winning streak.
“Miami's been a strong team this year. Where they sit in the standings shows exactly the quality,” said Johnson. “We've been really focused on ourselves and what we have to do to continue moving forward, continue getting results. We're looking to go into Miami improving on the last performance.”
“There's a humility within this group. We had a rough stretch before the Philly game. We've known what it’s felt like to be above that line, below it, and through the good moments, bad moments, this group's grown in a tremendous way. We'll look to use that beginning in Miami,” he closed. “We expect it to be a tough match, but the lads are up for it.”
