The conclusion of every season, no matter how it ends, is bittersweet.
It is the end of a journey.
Whether that comes with a championship trophy or not shifts that flavour towards one pole or the other.
The dressing room after Toronto FC II’s Decision Day defeat away to New York Red Bulls II was no exception.
“It was a lot of ‘I love yous,’” recalled midfielder Michael Sullivan when he spoke a week later. “A lot of guys that said, whether it was September, October, or March, everyone falls short at some point in the season. Everyone said, ‘Hey, part is on me, part is on you, but all of it comes together and it's all on us that we fell short.’”
“It sucks that we did,” he continued. “But at the same time really grateful that we got to experience a great season with the group of guys that we had.”
A 2-1 loss to New York, an emotional rollercoaster of an afternoon where Toronto was in the playoffs then out, in then out, in for two minutes and then back out until the start of the 2026 MLS NEXT Pro season.
“It's not how we thought the season was going to end,” admitted the 22-year-old. “I was hoping to be playing in the playoffs, but that's how life goes sometimes, it doesn't go as you envision it.”
“We were very close, but, at the same time, you start looking at games throughout the season. We let a few things slip away,” he balanced. “We had chances against teams early in the year, middle of the year, even late in the year to get results, get one point and get us into the playoffs. It's been tough to look at that, but it's life, you’ve got to keep moving.”
A single point proved the difference between above the line and below it.
“It's difficult that we miss it by one point, but then when you look at the season, how many of those one points did we pass up, you know?” echoed TFC II head coach Gianni Cimini. “It's a good lesson for our players: throughout the course of the year that you’ve got to take the points you're supposed to take.”
It was a year of lessons, both physical and mental – that’s what MLS NEXT Pro is about, preparing the new generation of professionals for the road ahead.
Sullivan pointed to the longevity of a full season in his first year out of college.
“It's really hard for first year pros to understand just how much it takes to keep your body fit from January 10 until October,” he said. “It's not really one moment where it's a lesson, but going through the grind of it for ten-straight months is definitely something I'm going to take with me going into the rest of my career.”
His teammate, Reid Fisher, honed in on a different aspect he took from his first year with the club.
“Cherishing every single day and every single moment,” said the 21-year-old defender. “I had a lot of friends on the first team that got traded and aren't here anymore, so not only cherishing relationships, but cherishing the moment you have on the field, whether it's a game or practice.”
“Our season ended abruptly, at least that's how it felt to me and the rest of the locker room, so just enjoying every single day. Even the days where you're a little tired and training isn't as fun as you want it to be, just enjoying what we do for a job.”
Even those final two matches, where Toronto had to play the two best teams in the Eastern Conference – Philadelphia Union II at home and New York away – were valuable experiences.
“A really good opportunity for the whole team to know what it's like to make a playoff push,” highlighted Fisher. “Late in the year, guys are struggling with injuries, not feeling 100%, how can you deal with that against top opponents in a tough league, away from home, travelling.”
“It was really beneficial for me,” he added. “But also for the team as a whole.”
This is a league where the competition tests a player, week in and week out.
“A lot of parity,” noted Fisher. “Any given weekend the last place team could beat the first placeteam and nobody would really be that surprised. Every single game was a challenge, no matter who you're playing against.”
Said Sullivan: “Top to bottom there wasn't an easy game in the league.”
“You could be playing Columbus at home, they're going to come out and they're still going to play the way they're going to play, they're not going to pack it in, they're still going to try and possess the ball and they were 14th in the table at that point,” he recalled. “A very good league, a very deep league, and there's a lot of players on teams that can get wins for them.”
The demands from the coach are high.
“It was awesome, I loved it,” said Sullivan. “Me and him had a really good relationship, obviously he challenged me a lot.”
“I always told him, from the beginning of the year, I appreciate honesty. I don't really need sugar coating,” he relished. “And so I loved playing for someone who was really direct and gave it to me how I wanted it.”
The demands on the coach are even higher.
“Oh man, I think I've aged a lot over the last four years,” joked Cimini. “This year was difficult at times where some games you should be up three or four, you end up tying, you end up losing.”
“The Chicago game here, the New England game here, the Red Bull game here, where you should be coming out with wins and you just don't,” he continued. “But that's part of it, right? You don't win, you don’t win, but we have to keep the bird's eye view and understand what the main objective is.”
“You try to keep that in context,” Cimini relayed. “Why? Because the players need that in order to continue to improve. If you make it too much about that, it becomes a little bit too heavy and they're still in the growth stage.”
That is the role of a coach, specifically at this level, to put as much on themselves as possible so the players can focus on what they need to accomplish.
In the grind of a season (or four) it can be difficult to pause and catch the breath, to mark the milestones. And so the ceremony prematch on the day of Cimini’s 100th game, a 3-0 victory over NYCFC II on August 31, was extra special.
“I’m not really a big guy with any of that stuff, but to have my family on the field – my wife and my kids, my parents, my dad, a football fanatic – just to be able to feel that was really special,” he recalled. “And then we performed so well.”
“There's always something to criticize in my mind and I had nothing to criticize,” said Cimini, still awestruck. “I told the guys after, ‘I'm just really happy’ – I was happy for four or five days after that. That was a special moment. I'm really grateful that the club did that for me. It was a special moment for me, my family.”
There are smaller moments that stick as well: a 2-1 result earlier that month was one.
“The win in Chattanooga,” highlighted the coach. “The first half was difficult, the turf was terrible to play on, and then we responded to win a big game.”
“Just the mood in the team, the togetherness of the group, and the change room after, that was special,” Cimini reflected. “This game is: you have to be able to withstand the lows to be able to really enjoy the highs. I've learned this year that to keep the balance is really, really important.”
Lessons left and right.
Following the conclusion of the season, the team continued to train for a few weeks before going their separate ways.
The 2025 season over, 2026 comes into view, but first a bit of downtime.
“Head back home, Huntington Beach, San Diego area, see a bunch of friends, try and take some time off,” said Fisher of his plans. “I've never been a big fan of that, but probably take a week off and then get right back into it. Lifting, speed work, getting fit, all that kind of stuff. And just being around family, enjoying being back.”
“A lot of fishing,” said Sullivan. “Go this weekend with my family in New York, do some salmon fishing and then the first weekend back is booked up with a lot of fishing with the family. Take a few weeks to decompress and then start getting ready.”
Restoring that balance is key, according to Cimini.
“Everybody needs the time to decompress,” he said. “You see the demands, a lot of emotions, a lot of effort, a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of work that you're doing, it's important that they have the chance to, number one, recover physically, but also recover mentally.”
“And then there will be a period where we'll leave them with their offseason programs,” Cimini elaborated. “There will be little check-ins here and there, but we want to make sure that we do give them the space to decompress and recover, to be ready for the following year.”
TFC II announced their roster decisions on Thursday.
“It's a case-by-case basis,” explained Cimini of the process. “Some players, it's probably in both parties' interest to part ways, for players to continue their path somewhere else. We always say, ‘the second team is not a final destination,’ so we want to make sure we're always getting players closer to their final destination.”
“[It’s also] about the circumstances,” he continued. “What players are coming up from the academy? What players can we get from outside? How do they feel about their experience? Do they feel it's the right place for them?”
“We meet regularly with [Technical Director] Sean [Rubio] and [General Manager] Jason [Hernandez] to discuss the performances of players, players coming up from the academy that could be of interest for next year's roster, and then we formulate our opinions openly together from that standpoint,” closed Cimini. “We have a pretty strong hold on what the roster is starting next year, what players of interest from the academy could be coming up, and then where we need to fill those holes for next year.”
