Still bubbling from Saturday’s big win over CF Montréal, Toronto FC are back in action midweek as CS Saint-Laurent come to BMO Field for the second leg of their Canadian Championship quarterfinal.
The 5-1 win over their fiercest rivals earned the squad an extra day off in the midst of an extended busy period.
Tuesday’s clash with Saint-Laurent will be Toronto’s ninth game since April 20. Ahead lies an Eastern Conference gauntlet of FC Cincinnati at home on Saturday followed by the first of two away matches at the Philadelphia Union next Wednesday before wrapping up this gruelling six-week spell at D.C. United on June 1.
The time was used wisely.
“Nothing special to be honest,” said Aimé Mabika on Monday. “With all the games that we have coming up it’s just about trying to recover as much as possible. Nothing too crazy, just a day to recharge and rest.”
“Some players like playing every couple days because you get in that rhythm,” he continued. “It can be demanding, physically and mentally, but some players do like that. And then for the players that maybe take a little bit longer to recover, it's just about best practices in terms of how you sleep, how you eat, how you drink, how you recover all those things.”
Even John Herdman partook of some rare time away from the BMO Training Ground.
“I did. This was the first one,” said the TFC Head Coach. “My wife and daughter are up this weekend, so we watched the Newcastle game together. I watched my son's Whitecaps [FC 2] game.”
“I don't know if that's a break or not,” he continued with a laugh. “But we watched a little bit of football together and then managed to get out for a bite to eat, which was nice.”
No matter how many days off can be managed, squad rotation is essential in times like these. Toronto embarked on this marathon with a plan.
“We came into this phase with a clear idea of which players would take the cup minutes,” outlined Herdman. “Always, as a coach, your commitment is to start the best lineup – that's part of that respect to your training and the commitment to players who are performing. Players that have been waiting for minutes in this competition will be given that opportunity.”
But there must always be room to adapt to the unexpected and built into what lies ahead as well.
“There are things that we're dealing with, circumstantial, like [Federico] Bernardeschi’s suspension [for Saturday against Cincinnati due to yellow card accumulation],” balanced the coach. “We need to keep him moving, so you'll see him in the roster tomorrow.”
“Part of the process as well [is] Lorenzo [Insigne] returning back to play, so there's a high chance he's on the roster tomorrow,” Herdman continued. “And then ultimately, there will be some TFC II call-ups. We'll continue giving some of the young players opportunity – that can ensure we mix in the rest and recovery, as well as fill the gaps for some of our injuries.”
That 3-0 scoreline from the first leg at Claude-Robillard Sports Complex belies the action on the field.
A hard-fought first half saw neither side take the lead. Toronto would find the breakthrough in the 50th minute through Matty Longstaff, but the turning point came nine minutes later with a denied penalty shout at one end and Deandre Kerr adding TFC’s second in a blink.
Bernardeschi’s cheeky, quickly taken free-kick padded the final result, but Toronto were tested in a hostile cup atmosphere in Quebec.
Saint-Laurent will have taken much from that experience.
“They can play with no fear,” anticipated Herdman of their opponent in the second leg. “I said last time going into that home match, I felt it would have been difficult [for us], but it would have also been challenging for them, they would have played with that expectation. That’s not always easy when you play those matches and everyone is turning up to see you. I feel like they’ll play a lot freer. Maybe the opportunities they had and they didn’t quite take, they’ll not be as tight.”
“They’ve experienced it once before, they know we’re only human and they’ve seen that in the first leg, so I imagine they’ll come in with some confidence and that pressure off, just to go and – not enjoy the occasion,” he continued. “They’ll genuinely believe that if they can score one, they can score two.”
“That’s the dream that I know I’d be trying to create with my players,” Herdman added.
“I expect them to come in excited and full of confidence with no real weight of expectations, which maybe they had in that first game.”
Tactically Mabika expects Saint-Laurent to pose the same questions.
“Similar to last game,” he anticipated. “Obviously the variables are a little bit different with us playing at home. They don't have that atmosphere that they had at home, so hopefully we're able to take that energy they started the game with out of the equation, but similar.”
“They'll sit and look to transition,” Mabika continued. “They have some very good players in transition, as you saw in the first game, they were able to get into some dangerous areas. They will look to do the same thing tomorrow.”
“For us, it's just about making sure we take care of the ball,” he added. “And we're concentrated and good in defensive transition, that's their biggest strength.”
Three away goals isn’t quite a mountain, but it is a significant obstacle.
The only way back for Saint-Laurent is one goal at a time, as such, the first goal on the night will be key.
“The first goal is going to be really important,” agreed Mabika.
“Obviously, we want to be the ones that score that goal. One of the biggest things that we do is keeping clean-sheets in the Canadian Championship.”
“Over the course of the cup run so far, the two games, we've been able to keep clean-sheets. We've scored a good amount of goals, but for us, at home especially, we don't want to give up any goals,” he continued. “The biggest thing is advancing, of course, but having that lead doesn't change too much. We have certain standards that we want to drive, with the ball, without the ball, that you'll see on full display tomorrow, no matter what the score is.”
“We have a pretty good lead on aggregate, but the biggest thing is staying professional, driving our standards. We're continuing to get better week-to-week, players are improving individually, the team is improving as a whole,” outlined Mabika. “As we continue to work on certain things, we don't want to drop off at all. We don't want to drop off in any way just because we have a lead.”
Herdman disagreed, slightly.
“It's really important for them,” he said of the opener. “If they're able to get that goal first, it will buoy them I'm sure. For us, as I've said to the players coming into this one, we're at home, fans will turn up, we have an identity at home, we've been building consistency, our stats are starting to show a great level of consistency across our home matches, and it's a commitment to our identity – that's the process.”
“The occasion is a cup match, as many would see it it’s that [potential] banana skin or a chance for those players from Saint-Laurent to make a name for themselves, but for us we’re starting to build a lot more consistency in the identity that we’ve promised our fans,” Herdman detailed. “It’s sticking to that, regardless if they score first.”
Leaving aside the truncated and much-delayed 2020 lifting of the Voyageur’s Cup in 2022, Toronto FC has not won the Canadian Championship in its proper form since 2018.
As the most successful club with eight titles since the competition began in 2008, TFC are eager to correct that record.
“It's always nice to lift a trophy,” said Mabika. “As you've seen so far with how we've handled the cup run, scoring five goals the first game and then going away at a tough place to play – I’ll be honest – and getting a clean-sheet, winning 3-0, it's easier said than done, but you've seen how we've approached that.”
“That's our goal,” he underlined.
“Our standard and our goal, especially at a club like TFC, is to win every single trophy in front of us.”
“The Canadian Championship is something that we put on our list of things that we want to accomplish at the beginning of the season,” Mabika closed. “And as we've gotten a taste of it, we want it even more.”
