The MLS SuperDraft may not be what it used to be in the earlier days of the league’s existence when a first round pick was a sure thing and a top ten pick a future club legend, but every once in a while it can turn up a gem.

Undoubtedly that was the case with Toronto FC’s first pick, sixth overall, in the 2015 SuperDraft: Alex Bono.

On Wednesday night, Bones, as he is affectionately known, made his 100th start for the club in a hard-fought 1-0 win over the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium.

“I want to start off by thanking this organization, thanking Toronto FC, thanking the front office and my coaches for allowing me to have the opportunity to play as many games for such an awesome club,” began Bono post-match. “This is all I know from a professional standpoint and I've learned so much along the way.”

“I've been here six years now – if you told me that six years down the road I would have started 100 games when I first walked into the training facility, I probably would have thought you were crazy,” he joked. “And that’s.... I'm so honoured, I'm so blessed to be a part of this organization and so grateful for the opportunity they've given me.”

Bono spent his first season on loan to TFC II in USL, but an injury to Clint Irwin midway through the 2016 season saw him thrust into the starting position, one he grasped with both hands as time went on and the team embarked on a nearly two-year-long tear.

The arrival of Quentin Westberg at the beginning of last season has seen the now 26-year-old Bono take on a different role, but it is one he has met with an even keel.

“It has been a different role for me,” he allowed. “All I've been focusing on is going in day in and day out, training as hard as I can, try to put myself in the best position so that when I do get these opportunities I take them with my full ability, because – I've lived it as much as anyone – you don't know when the next one's going to come, so take them one at a time.”

“100 games is 100 games, whether you get it in three years, four years, six years,” he added. “It's 100 games, and, obviously, I'm very proud and very honoured.”

In three appearances this season, Bono has yet to allow a goal.

Greg Vanney pointed to an off-season training stint with Barnsley FC as part of his continued maturation.

“Alex went and gained some experience,” began the TFC coach. “He also gained some perspective and he came back talking about how happy he is to be here. He came back ready to work every single day.”

“What I've seen him get back is that full level of confidence that he has; certainty. He's really confident and really believes again in where he's at,” Vanney continued. “Everybody had a tough stretch in 2018 and over the course of this time and a bit of the end of last year, he's really found some peace and some confidence again.”

“He looks solid back there, looks really assured out there and has three shutouts. All three of them were great performances, so he can continues to compete,” he added. “We've got two good goalkeepers right now, two goalkeepers that I believe are in-form and we're going to try to keep it that way and see where we go.”

Barnsley were battling to stay in the EFL Championship last season while Bono was there- they did, eventually, it was eye-opening to see what life elsewhere was like.

“I came back and the first day I went back into the training grounds, I walked in the doors and I said, ‘Man, we're so blessed to be a part of this Toronto FC organization,’” recounted the keeper. “The way that this club treats the players, the facilities that we have, all the people that surround us, all the resources that we have as a club, as an organization, are simply unmatched.”

“Granted, it was a Championship club that I was training at and they were fighting to stay [up], but it's a high level of soccer,” he continued. “I enjoyed it. I learned a lot in the couple of weeks that I was there, but at the end of the day I walked back into the training facility and I said, ‘Man, this is really really special.’”

“It's the one thing I tell the young guys, and one thing that was told to me when I came in: ‘Listen. It doesn't get much better than this across the league.’ And that really is the truth,” stressed Bono. “You can't say enough good things about this organization and the opportunities that they provide for us.”

Over the six years there have been plenty of highlight moments. Aside from the obvious 2017 MLS Cup Final, where he started and TFC lifted the trophy, it was the Concacaf Champions League run at the start of 2018 that Bono cherishes most.

“Fondest memory other than MLS Cup? I'd have to say it really was Champions League,” he explained. “To be able to play in that and be able to play the teams, the calibre of the teams that we played against, in the stadiums that we played, are memories that you never forget.”

“I'll never forget playing at Tigres,” Bono continued. “We lost that one 3-2 – that’s a game where you walk into the stadium and you're underneath the bleachers and you’re like Harry Potter under the staircase when you walk into the locker room. The atmospheres of the games and the quality of the opponents all the way through, for all three of the games we played in Mexico, those are moments I'll never forget. Going down to a foreign country with my teammates and battling, battling, making it all the way to the finals there was something I’ll never forget.”

With his 29th clean-sheet, Bono also moved above Stefan Frei for the all-time record at TFC.

“I played against him a few times and in the limited conversation, he seems like an awesome guy,” said Bono. “He was before my time here; he's a fantastic goalkeeper.”

He was quick to share the credit, though.

“I can't say enough that it is the guys around me that make my job easy,” Bono pinpointed. “You've seen these last few games that I've been playing in have been really scrappy games, dog fights from minute one to minute 90, and you can't keep zeros on the board if all 11 guys aren’t on the same page.”

“And I can say that for every single shutout that we've accumulated that I've been in net for,” he continued. “I'm not really too focused on the individual records, I just want to play games, I want to have fun, and I want to win. That's all that matters to me. So as long as I keep getting opportunities to do that, I'm a happy man.”