It’s been a busy week for Toronto FC.

Domenico Criscito was formally introduced and is available this weekend, Lorenzo Insigne’s debut has been pushed back, Alejandro Pozuelo was traded to Inter Miami CF, and Mark-Anthony Kaye is set to arrive from the Colorado Rapids with Ralph Priso headed the other direction.

And the summer transfer window just opened.

“If you look at everything that went on in January and February, we knew there was a lot of work to be done,” said Bob Bradley on Friday. “When you start this stuff, you’re never able to do it in one period. It always takes two – you'll hear people in Europe talking about three transfer windows, but when there's a lot of work to be done you do everything you can.”

“The first half of the season was always going to be an opportunity for young players, which has been the case. We've seen some good things, we've seen some things that still need improvement, that's normal,” he continued. “And then from there, we assess and look at options and figure out how we want to move forward.” 

There may well be other shoes waiting to drop.

A productive week off the pitch followed the busiest spell yet on it.

Toronto have played matches every three or four days since the return from the international break on June 18. Finally this week, the team was able to take a breath and regroup.

It was a mixed spell. 

Beginning with a loss away to the New York Red Bulls, Toronto were pleased with the number of chances created, but too often the best chances were reserved for the opponent.

Wins over Atlanta United and CF Montreal in the Canadian Championship semifinal, setting up a chance at lifting another Voyageurs Cup later this month, followed, but losses in the last two – against the Columbus Crew and the Seattle Sounders, both at home – slowed the forward progress.

Even in both those matches, TFC were right there, but fell a tad short.

“Winning ways are a product of many things every game,” opened Bradley. “How good are you with the ball when you create chances? How many good chances do you create? How do you take your chances? In the games of late we've had, generally speaking, a fair amount of control. For the most part we've not given away too many chances, we have created more chances in most games, but we still have also not been able to handle a situation off of a loose ball, off of a 50/50 ball.”

“Our ability to put out some fires if it gets to that or not even let it get to that point and then our pure ability when we create some opportunities to be a little bit better,” highlighted the Toronto coach. “The margin for us throughout the year has been really small. We haven't yet been a team where we create so many chances and are so dangerous throughout the game and have so many guys that every time they get a chance, you can bet on the fact that they're going to make the right pass or finish the opportunity.”

“So that's part of the work,” Bradley continued. “If we continue to improve, if we add some guys, then maybe we have more games where we're not only in control, but we're creating that many more chances and our ability to deal with a mistake is going to be greater. But right now, in certain games, if all of a sudden we get behind and now we're trying to push to see if we can get back, if you have opportunities to equalize and you don't, you leave the door open and if you slip up a little bit next thing you know you're scrambling again.”

“We've had a couple of games like that lately,” he added.

The only solution is to keep going.

“We have to keep going,” urged Jonathan Osorio. “Minus the last game – we were disappointed in ourselves – but apart from that the team has been coming along well, playing well.”

“We need to take the next step now and make sure we're getting results, especially at home,” he continued. “We're focused on that. We've had a good week of training and we're going to take that into the game.”

A full week of rest will have helped in that regard.

“Yeah, yeah for sure,” replied Osorio. “It was good, especially for me, it's really my first full week of normal training in a very long time.”

“I feel really good,” he continued. “And I know the rest of the guys feel good to get their legs back under them and get a full week of preparation for the game on the weekend.”

This next phase of the season kicks off on Saturday with the visit of the San Jose Earthquakes. 

San Jose come to town on the back of a 2-1 win over the Chicago Fire last weekend, snapping a four-game winless slide.

The departure of Argentine coach Matías Almeyda in April after a winless start through seven matches, has seen Alex Covelo take the reins, assisted by a pair of familiar names in Chris Wondolowski and Steve Ralston, on an interim basis. 

The Earthquakes would win their first game post-Almeyda and take points from four of the next five, but the former coach’s impact on the side is still evident.

“When Matías left, they changed slightly,” noted Bradley. “They go from being a man-to-man, [Marcelo] Bielsa-style team to a team that defensively is not as one-to-one oriented. That changes some parts of the game.”

“Other parts of what he instilled in them, in terms of just their energy, their running, their willingness to go forward, run hard, diagonal balls,” he compared. “They still end up in games that are often wide open. They have some good attacking players, so there's similarities and there's a carryover from the things that he brought for the years that he was in charge. And then you can see some differences in terms of the approach defensively.”

Jeremy Ebobisse leads the side with nine goals through 17 matches, while Cristian Espinoza’s seven assists have him slightly ahead of Jan Gregus and Jamiro Monteiro for the team lead – they have six each.

“They’re a team that works very hard, they bring a real high intensity into games,” anticipated Osorio. “Anytime you have a coaching change, players are trying to prove to the new coach that they should be on the field. They're a motivated group; it's going to be a tough game.”