Sober Second Thoughts: ****ing (ok) team

Pumping the breaks but that's ok

Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash

In the huddle following Toronto FC’s 1-0 win in New England, Jonathan Osorio went there. The new captain said that the Reds were a “fucking good team,” echoing the famous words of Alejandro Pozeulo in 2019.

There was an element of I Told You So about Poz’ proclamation back then. After all, he was making the claim as the team was booking a trip back to another MLS Cup, its third in four years. There was little doubt that they were a FGT. They had earned that title. Although the game in Seattle didn’t turn out quite the way they wanted, the boast was deserved.

The claim Sunday, however…well, let’s just say the jury is out still.

Four points from two road games — two road games against the defending Shield winners and their MVP midfielder and against a very good New England team playing in a stadium that has been a wasteland for Toronto over the years— is about four more points than anyone expected them to have at this point, but the stain of 2023 is going to take a little longer to go away.

So Osorio might want to pump the breaks a little. It was a good effort on Sunday, but one could easily see the result going another way on another day. TFC is far from 2019 good now.

If the first two games are anything to go off of they are far from 2023 bad too though and at this point that’s enough to give TFC fans hope and excitement. Things are looking far better heading into the home opener than anyone would have thought they would be.

However, as was said a few weeks ago, Toronto doesn’t have to be a FGT in 2024. It just has to be a MLS team again and I think there we can all feel safe in thinking that on that front two games might be enough time to safely say they are back to being that.

There was some pride and drive in their play and, you know, self-belief (see: FGT remark).

Who knows, maybe Oso will be proven correct and TFC will be one of those MLS teams that vastly out performs their predicted finish. There’s at least one that does every year. That’s just how MLS rolls.

Or, more likely, this will be a season of ups and downs and one that sees TFC fighting to be part of the story all season. We said that would be fine at the start of the year and we are sticking to it now.