Summer is nearly over, it’s crunch time.
The MLS regular season returns from the 2024 Leagues Cup pause this weekend. For Toronto FC it begins with a tricky away date in Texas as the Reds will face the Houston Dynamo at Shell Energy Stadium on Saturday night.
The path ahead promises a dramatic conclusion. Eight games in the league plus one (or two) more Canadian Championship matches. It’s all to play for as August comes to an end.
Toronto will host Forge FC at BMO Field on Tuesday in the second leg of their Voyageurs Cup semifinal – the visitors hold a 2-1 lead from the first encounter – and then welcome D.C. United to town next Saturday.
The September international break will offer one final respite before closing the year with a run of fixtures beginning on September 14: a pair of triple game weeks with the potential of a Canadian Championship final sitting in between.
Seven teams are separated by just five points in the battle for the final two post-season berths in the Eastern Conference. With a firm grasp on one of those spots, TFC are relishing the challenge of seeing it out.
“It's balancing these blocks,” said John Herdman of the task ahead. “We've got a block of three games, an international break, and then we're into blocks of more back-to-back games.”
“You've got to look at these blocks,” he continued. “We've got three matches, one in Houston, which is extreme conditions, then we have a two-day turnaround to a big home match, a cup semifinal, which everyone's excited for, and then a quick turnaround to a home game against D.C. You're looking at rotation, trying to balance minutes, but at the same time, you've got to look at one game at a time to win football matches.”
“Going into Houston we've got a clear vision on how we want to approach that with the squad and how we can turn a group around, which players can come in fresher for a game against Forge, and then ultimately going all in for the D.C. match given that the players will have some time off in that turnaround,” Herdman added. “It's tight. It's right against the wire, but this is what we're wired for, this is what we want in our football lives: to be competing, right there, under pressure, and ready to perform.”
Times like this test a side.
Short turnarounds, distant travel (namely Houston and Colorado), the unique challenges of each environment.
The Texan sun is just one of the many trials ahead.
“I experienced Houston in the summer in the Gold Cup last year against Guatemala,” recalled Herdman. “It was a tough experience – the heat, the humidity – it's an oppressive sporting environment.”
“Mentally you've got to be ready to go,” he continued. “I was speaking to Fede [Federico Bernardeschi] about it, he hasn't experienced Houston. He was trying to get a comparison with Miami and I said, ‘You’ve just got to turn it up quite a few notches.’”
“It's an exciting experience because, for the players, we're on a playoff run now, these matches are going to be important,” he underlined. “We've got Houston in the heat, we’ll have Colorado at altitude. We've got to take it one game at a time and then be ready to adapt to those conditions.”
“For Houston, you have to be pretty smart and pick your battles,” Herdman highlighted. “The stories you'll hear from players who have played there is after 10 minutes, it's hard to get your breath – in the Gold Cup we were experiencing that for sure. At least I've felt it and I've seen the impact on players.”
“Tactically, you've just got to manage the game,” he added. “They might be able to control the game more, but when they're controlling the game, we have got to have a clear plan of how we're going to attack and the opportunities that we're going to exploit in that moment.”
The Dynamo too are battling for playoff positioning in the Western Conference. Ben Olsen’s side sit in a group of four teams separated by two points competing for the three automatic places in the West.
Ibrahim Aliyu is their top scorer with six goals on the season, French midfielder Amine Bassi leads the side with six assists, and a pair of former Reds – Latif Blessing and Griffin Dorsey – may feature, Blessing has five goals and Dorsey three assists.
Over the two-plus weeks since being knocked out of the Leagues Cup in the Round of 32 by Inter Miami CF, Toronto have been preparing themselves for the task ahead, balancing some downtime with a focus on rising to the challenge.
Shane O’Neill and Sean Johnson got in some fishing, a group of players hit the racetrack, but the anticipation of the important stretch ahead has been front and centre.
“It's good they did that, that's important, connecting that brotherhood off the pitch,” said Herdman of the time spent together away from the BMO Training Ground. “It's something that we need to keep fostering in the group as the pressure comes on and players feel the anxiety, and the excitement, of wanting to do something for the club.”
“That brotherhood is tested,” he continued. “People are competing; every inch, every yard now matters. You've definitely felt that there's an anxiety in the group, born out of the desire to want to push for this club, to get the team into the playoffs, and bring some silverware. That's normal.”
“The last two weeks, we felt a bit of that. Our leaders have been pushing the group, the staff have been pushing the group. At times it's bordered on being a bit too much and at other times we've been able to take the pressure off,” Herdman balanced. “This week we started to take the pressure off so players could be a little bit more creative and relaxed around what we're doing, but not in a place where they're going to go into the Houston match and be behind the eight ball.”
“We've been working on all the details on our tactical blueprint – to a fault to some degree, it's been heavily tactical the last two weeks – but at the same time the players have shown a real commitment to work,” he closed. “They'll be ready – I don't know if you can get ready for Houston in terms of the heat – but in terms of mentality the players know getting a result there will be massive for the club.”
