The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly — Toronto FC 0-2 Orlando City SC
It’s over. Thank the maker. Time to tie a soaking wet, mildewed bow on the single worst campaign in club history, by every conceivable metric. Truly one for the record books.
And now we move, directly into the most important off-season in club history. The Emperor, he has no clothes. This club now has to work under the Omni and Ever present microscope of a fractured fanbase to basically rebuild itself from the sub-basement to the top-floor rotating restaurant, while strangled with far too many albatross contracts and general flotsam to even hope that a single off-season under the myriad and draconan MLS roster rules will be enough.
The dark times ain’t over. In many ways, they’ve just begun.
Good times.
THE GOOD
Season’s over. It’s over. Exhale…
The club at least attempted a proper send-off for MB4, points for trying, I guess (More on that later)… For the first 15-20 minutes, we looked decent out there… Kobe Franklin; Baller… Alonso Coello; taking all the notes from MB4 and really starting to look like his successor (because you simply cannot replace Michael Bradley, you can only succeed him)… Sean Johnson, back between the sticks… The fact that we, the fans, got the chance to say goodbye to the greatest to wear the badge:
THE BAD
MB4 got 15-20 minutes in the midfield, on his last game, and was forced to play CB for the majority, because the “lower body injury” fairy is actually a gremlin and chaos is always on the menu… 15-20 minutes of decent quality means bunk in a 90+ minute game… It’s “BITCHY” the Hawk, not “PITCHY”, you cowards! (and it’s “Nutmeg” the squirrel, while we’re here)… No Toques!!!! (I understand Kia is no longer a title sponsor and that was their thing, I guess, but come on! Get Unico to step up or something, it’s not like a car company has the exclusive on free touques)… 75% off, and I still don’t want the half-and-half harlequin kit.
THE UGLY
MB4’s official game-day send-off. WTF happened? It was rushed and patchy before kick-off and then at 15′ into the game (EDIT – I stand corrected. It was actually at 4’ in. 4 for MB4? Get it? Get it?! Please tell us you got it!) we got an unceremonious dump of his ‘special highlight reel’ on mute while the game went on. MY GAWD, MAN, OF ALL THE THINGS TO EFF UP…
That’s the coldest I’ve ever been at BMO ever, and it’s completely my fault. I dressed/layered up for the sweaty rock concert right after the game, so this boy was shuddering out there in the breeze off the lake… Aime Mabika is useless. Sorry, not sorry… At least one CB on the bench and the answer is moving MB4 back to cover? On his last game? OF COURSE HE WAS GOING TO GET TORCHED BY THE SUPER-SUB and then be on the hook for both goals. HE’S. NOT. A. CENTRE. BACK. Why remind us of this on his way out the effing door? Show the man the respect he deserves!!!… No DP’s on the field to celebrate the fans and MB4 after the final whistle – now there is a world where MB4 told them specifically to stay away from his team photo, and I maybe would do the same in his shoes – but the optics. OMFG, the optics.
Not sure I’m feeling the Herdman era at this club if he’s going to follow in Terry’s footsteps of useless platitudes like “They put in a shift” and “There were positives”. Mr. Herdman, with respect, none of those things happened. We all have eyes. Sure, we looked “decent” for 15-20 minutes, but that’s nothing to celebrate. I hope that’s the last time we see this insane “everyone gets a participation sticker” logic at this club.
We suck. Everyone can see it, Stop insulting everyone’s intelligence, please. Take the training wheels off if you are here to reset the culture. Missing out on the playoffs in this era of MLS is laughable. EVERY TEAM GETS IN UNLESS YOU ARE BEYOND AWFUL. WE ARE BEYOND AWFUL. It’s time to be honest here. Brutal, even. No more kid gloves.
Every time I read these articles, it makes me think that Franklin and Coello are good quality young players. Then I watch the games and realize they are both USL standard and don’t start for any other team in MLS. “Franklin” and “baller” do not go in any sentence together ever.
For me, both positions, especially the 6 (Coello/MB4) are very unglamorous positions/roles where the goal is to play so well that it’s all but ignored for the “bigger moments” that you take comfort in contributing to, score sheets be damned.
Kobe has come out of nowhere and climbed the rung to at least pencilled in starter at RB on a very disfunctional team. That is pretty awesome. He won’t make a ton of highlight reels but he’s a smart two way player that FOR SURE would be a starter around MLS. Fullbacks and Wingbacks are like unicorns. I call him a “baller” because, despite playing in an unglamorous position, the kid has skills. At least once a game he shows his close control and technique with a wonderfully unexpected dummy or feint or a perfectly timed tackle. He’s electric.
Same applies to Coello in terms of at least one moment per game where you’re reminded of his Silky Spanish pedigree. Considering he wasn’t even signed to the first team at the start of the season, his ascent has also been pretty remarkable.
I suppose I just don’t reserve “Baller” for goal scoring attacking players. I see enough mastery and technique per game (and I don’t think I mention them every game?) to deserve a nod. Also. I’m clearly reaching for stuff to put in THE GOOD every week, lol.
Agreed for the most part coello isn’t a starter on a playoff MLS team he loses the ball way way too much has he done well for himself moving up from tfc 2 and penciled himself on the first team roster sure. As for franklin excellent work rate provides good support and does mark fairly well however his first touch isn’t MLS level, should he be on the squad next year absolutely, is he a baller so to speak absolutely not. Small sample size but I am far more high on gavran and Stefanovic as solid MLS starters in the future than coello and franklin. Because the flaws in Stefanovic and gavran are very minor and can be corrected with coaching and as for coello and franklin I think they are close to their ceiling.
Coello is still inexperienced at this level, although 24 he was essentially a rookie. As far as ‘rookies’ go, he showed enough while playing on a disastrous club to merit a good look next year. Certainly provides depth to the position if nothing else.
Franklin, is still very young and showed improvement over the course of the year. Again I’d like to see more of him next year. Too soon to tell if he’s hit his ceiling, especially considering the team his past season.
I do agree that Stefanovic shows much promise, but for a CB he’s still too young to throw to the wolves just yet. I’m glad he wasn’t overplayed this year.
Gavran limited audition showed that he deserves, at minimum, to be Johnson’s back up next year.
I think all your points are valid and make sense to what I saw (Franklin’s ceiling is debatable that’s a fair point) where I disagree is I think Stefanovic should of played more sure it was a shit show, but he looked better than o neill and MB4 at CB why not let the kid make his mistakes his dad played at a high level so I’m sure he knows enough that this isn’t gonna effect him that negatively and u let him make the mistakes, in games that meant nothing. What’s the point of trotting out MB4 at CB when all of us even the most staunch MB4 supporters knew that he’s an awful CB and o neill has proven over time he’s nowhere near mls level only bob thought he was, this is my problem we should let our own young players play get experience, especially when the season is lost.
I really like Stefanovic, but I think keeping him out was the right thing this season, especially when the club house is in shambles and we are getting blown out.
We don’t want any of the failures this season to stick to him mentally or from the media. Give him a fresh start along with the rest of the team and develop him in an enviroment where he is set up for success.
Imagine being a teenager and starting in MLS as a CB and all you have to show for in your career is 3 and 4 goal losses. Doesn’t matter who your father is/was, you will be shell shocked and your confidence will be at a low.
I think for the very same reason Cassius Mailula may have not seen many minutes either.
Coello has skills and he is not in Spain based on having a technical flaw. Question is, can he hide it or overcome it?Laryea was no defender and did ok covering that. I want him around and working with Herdman as I generally default to the quality of Spanish football.
He was quality and sharp when breaking in to the roster. His sloppy habits emerged as the team started to suck as a group. I see that as great team piece, not the leader to guide them.
I had zero confidence in Kobe so see his upside more clearly after his play. A starter until the rest of the team is fixed then not sure.
Perhaps I am a little harsh on Franklin, I will give him credit for his effort and work rate, and he did improve as the season went on. However I think going forward he provides very little, and defensively he did nothing special. I think he started all those games because there was literally nobody else, because our embarrassing squad assembling by Bob left us with 1 permanent full back at the club (Petretta) who was also garbage. He was not better than Kosi Thompson in 2022 when he played RB most of the season.
Absolutely agree about the relative potentials here. Franklin plays hard, but really not sure about his skill in the final 3rd. I’d have to go back and watch the game again, but it definitely felt at the time like he didn’t make a successful cross all game. Gavran and Stefanovic though, I’d like to see more of. Hopefully not a small-sample-size error like when we thought for 2 games like Mabika could play.
Also, any idea why Herdman wouldn’t give Mailula some minutes to see what he’s about? It’s not like we were winning that game after leaving our most immobile player all alone on CB Island by himself…
I think Stefanovic and Mailula were not given minutes to protect them from this losing mentality we have been going through. Both and young and probably viewed as development projects who will be given some time.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention, in the Good, that Insigne had an Insta story on Saturday saying “One Last Time”. One can hope Jeffrey.
That point of Michael being moved to CB, not his position, when a young and capable defender was in the bench is not something that belongs in GBU. Herdman had his hands tied as he was following the team preference this season, under Michael as captain. They all believe it is the required solution, play Michael back there and not kids. His uncle wrote on X that Michael “took one for the team” in playing there after controlling the game for 15 minutes. Absolutely unbelievable to read that and it reveals the layers of insanity Herdman inherited.
For me, the bad is down to simply “nobody showed they belong here next year”. Fede was oddly the exception with is hustle.
Fingers, Toes, and soul crossed.
“MB4 told them specifically to stay away from his team photo” But But Jeffery where is Michael Bradley’s very good friend Victor Vazquez? I do not see him in that photo, Did Mike tell Victor to stay away also??? And no mention of how the DP’s linked up pretty good all game which Caldwell mentioned, Insigne by far TFC’s best player on the pitch, but par for the course for you here Jeff, just keep hating the teams only 2 players with any quality.
I see you’ve played Knifey Spooney before.
If only the Italians could link up with the rest of the team and not just each other…
That same Caldwell also call Michael Bradley “the most dominant and influential player in TFC history”
So if he’s correct about the Italians, then he’s also correct about MB4.
Michael Bradley has looked about as ugly on the pitch this year as any player in World soccer, all in all his last 3 years have been a waste , never did anything on the world stage !Took the easy MLSE money because no team on earth would even come close to paying him what TFC did. As I have said many times he along with his dad got it all wrong by thinking he could play on this team in any kind of role, guy has been “retired” for three years now.
WHO SCORED website final player performance rankings 2023, Michael Bradley rated #383 of 465 , Lorenzo Insigne #40 of 465 thats better then top 9 percentile, oh and in 2021 Michael Bradley tanked to get Armas fired! WHO SCORED ranking that year for Michael #340 of 424, guys been an unmitigated disaster as team leader and player. How did Bob even consider building his midfield around this guy.
Well using your WHO SCORED numbers we are paying the top 0.5% of wages in MLS for the 40th ranked player. Show me a player in MLS delivering worse value than that!
Tell me if your line of “Took the easy MLSE money because no team on earth would even come close to paying him what TFC did” doesn’t apply to Insigne.
Did we pay Insigne the wage’s he is getting to be the 40th best player in MLS? Did Insigne make the best MLS XI this season?
And if we refer to your WHO SCORED website, why don’t you mention that MAK rates higher than FEDE in terms of overall score and had the same number of MOTM awards this season even though he played less games then FEDE?
How about FEDE coming in at #144 out of 465. Wow he’s in the top 31 percentile and only getting paid top 1 percentile wages. Oh wait that’s worse than Insigne (see I found someone for you in the league worse then Insigne).
Our Italians delivered the worse value in MLS based on WHO SCORED. Thanks for pointing me to a site with data you trust Jack 🙂
FAN GUY Out!!!
“dominant and influential” Yes Michael was so loved that there wasn’t even 20 k spectators at BMO for his farewell game! and the ovation he got when subbed off was nothing to write home about, HAHAHA I’m sure FAN GUY you will tell me soon what the “announced ” attendance was,
Can you please share the the official attendence numbers for WK 31 at BMO field? Were they higher than the average attendance during the season? Why would more people go to such a meaningless game than to most games?
Oh here’s a link for you in case WHO SCORED doesn’t have this info for you:
https://soccerstadiumdigest.com/2023-mls-attendance/
Yup there wasn’t even 20K fans based on Jack Math.
The Good: The first 20 minutes.
The Bad: Everything else.
The Ugly: Everything else.
What does it actually take to get rid of the architect of this disastrous team? Can’t the fan clubs ally to start a petition calling for Manning’s resignation? I guarantee virtually every season ticket holder would sign, along with anyone to whom this club matters.
Here’s the thing. As far as the MSLE board (consisting of financial folks from Bell and Rogers), Manning has ensured that TFC is profitable, the SSH list was full with a waiting list and our attendance was the sixth highest in MLS even though there are more then six teams with bigger stadiums then us. For context, Montreal drew 131K less fans and Vancouver 146K less fans (If you consider that the average fan brings in $100 of revenue/game, Toronto FC generated $43M just on ticket sales this year. Throw in expensive beer and food and you have a very profitable business.
And if that wasn’t enough consider this, Toronto FC is the 5th most valueable soccer Franchise in MLS (after MLSE paid $10M for it 18 yrs ago).
Add to that Mannings success with the Argo’s and you have a situation where the MLSE brass just don’t have a reason to turf him. Hell MLSE is operating without a proper CEO for a long time now. I bet you don’t even know who the last ceo was. Because they simply don’t hire sports people in that role. Tim Leiweke was the first and only real sports guy in a CEO role and he was pushed out even though all MLSE franchises started improving and winning.