TFC Republic Weekly: July 15-21

Welcome to the latest edition of TFC Republic Weekly, an email newsletter that will land in the inbox of both paid subscribers and free members of TFC Republic every Monday. 

This newsletter will look at what's in store over the next seven days for Toronto FC and offer a glimpse of what to expect at TFC Republic in the coming days. 

So, without further ado... 

TFC snap losing skid with much-needed home win

There appears to be some life within Toronto FC after all.

With his team on the brink of extending its terrible slump, Deandre Kerr came off the bench in the second half to lift TFC to a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Union on Saturday at BMO Field. Kerr had a hand in forcing the own-goal that tied the game before netting the winner four minutes later.

Toronto (8-13-3) snapped a seven-match losing streak and a 10-game winless skid in all competitions with the win. TFC needed this one badly, especially after dropping the first leg of their Canadian Championship series to CPL champions Forge FC earlier in the week. A loss against the Union would've continued the Reds' downward spiral into oblivion. This victory gives them a little bit of momentum, and the belief they can rescue things and avoid missing the playoffs for a fourth straight campaign.

“We just keep our feet on the ground. Stay focused. It's one win. Well deserved for the fans. And I thank the fans. They've been brilliant with us tonight. And it just kept us going. It's just the start. It's the start of a playoff push,” coach John Herdman told reporters after the match.

Reds close to signing non-MLS defender

Speaking to TFC Republic and Neil Davidson of the Canadian Press last Friday, GM Jason Hernandez revealed he is close to signing a defender from outside of Major League Soccer who is expected to be TFC's first roster addition during the summer transfer window. 

“At the moment, we feel pretty confident that we're at the finish line with a defender that we hope to formalize, finalize and announce early next week, fingers crossed. So, we look forward to that because we do feel the player we’re looking to secure will give us a big boost,” Hernandez said.  

It doesn’t sound like the defender from outside of MLS will be the only new face coming in, either.  Hernandez hopes to use the summer transfer window to further strengthen his roster. But Hernandez admitted he has little salary cap space available, so bringing in new recruits will depend on him being able to first move players out.   

“Unfortunately, in our evolution as we're still in, who's going out determines who's coming in. And that's just the state of play of the team. And that's reality,” Hernandez stated.  

TFC’s GM explained that all options are on the table when it comes to shedding members from his current roster, whether it’s via trades, transfers, waiving players or mutually terminating their contracts.  

“We're gonna do a lot of work in the summer. A lot of it really is going hand in hand, both incoming and outgoing [players], but there's gonna be a lot of time and energy spent in this space. I think the reality is even though the starting 11 that we rolled out at times this year has had a lot of new faces, we still need to evolve and they're still some fresh blood that needs to come into the group to add quality. But also, really to change things up and make sure we have new personalities and new leaders,” Hernandez said. 

New era begins at TFC without Bill Manning

MLSE announced last Thursday that the organization and club president Bill Manning mutually agreed to part company effective immediately.

In the interim, Jason Hernandez will report directly to MLSE President & CEO Keith Pelley.

Manning, a 59-year-old native of Massapequa, N.Y, signed a five-year contract extension through the 2025 MLS season with MLSE in 2021. He was first named president of Toronto FC in October, 2015.

During Manning’s tenure, Toronto famously won an MLS Cup, Supporters’ Shield and Canadian Championship treble in 2017, and set the league record for the most points in a single MLS season (69). The Reds also won three more Canadian Championships and reached the finals of the 2018 Concacaf Champions League. But the club has since fallen on hard times under his leadership, having not made the playoffs since 2020 when it lost in the first round.

His hiring of former GM Ali Curtis and coach Bob Bradley turned out to be bad moves that set the team back even further. Venerable GM Greg Vanney also left for Los Angeles Galaxy during Manning's time in charge after the two sides couldn't come to terms on a contract extension.

Manning was also the one responsible for bringing in Italian DPs Federico Bernardeschi and Lorenzo Insigne who, it has to be said, have underperformed since coming to MLS in 2022.

2 games in 4 days for the Reds this week

It's another busy week for Toronto FC as it has a pair of important road games against Eastern Conference rivals during a four-day span.

TFC visits Inter Miami on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET/Apple TV) and then travels to Quebec to face CF Montreal on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET/Apple TV & TSN).

Last Saturday’s win over Philadelphia moved TFC from ninth to eighth in the Eastern Conference with 10 matches left in the regular season. But the Reds aren't out of the woods just yet. The six teams directly below them in the standings are all within five points and five of them have games in hand. That makes these next two games huge contests for TFC as they can ill afford to drop any points with things so tight in the East at the moment.

The good news for Toronto is that it'll get back captain Jonathan Osorio and wingback Richie Laryea this week after they were away on international duty with Canada at Copa América.

Toronto earned a 5-1 home win over Montreal on May 18. Wednesday's game is the first meeting of the season between TFC and Miami.

RELATED READING: Newsletter | Features | Match reports | Opinion | Q&As | Videos | News | Roster moves | TFC 2 | Podcast

Stories to look out for at TFC Republic

Toronto FC defender Shane O'Neill was off to a great start in 2024, helping the Reds register four clean sheets in their first five games of the season. O'Neill was playing some of his best football with TFC and looked revitalized under John Herdman after an inconsistent 2023 campaign. But then he suffered a hamstring injury in a 4-0 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps on April 6 that sidelined him for close to three months. But now the MLS veteran is back and playing regular minutes again for the Reds. Look for my feature story on O'Neill's injury comeback in the coming days.  

Other stories that will be published later this week include:                

• My piece looking at the key storylines to watch from TFC this week.      
• Regular "TFC Tidbits" stories throughout the week.  
• A new instalment in our "MLS Rules explained" series
• A new audio interview piece with Alex Windley of The Heron's Nest looking ahead to Wednesday's game vs. Inter Miami. 
• In-depth pre- and post-game coverage of Toronto's road game vs. Inter Miami.   
• A new audio interview piece with Elias Grigoriadis of the Canadian Press looking ahead to Saturday's game vs. CF Montreal. 
• In-depth pre- and post-game coverage of Toronto's road game vs. CF Montreal.   
• And much more! 

TFC Republic mailbag

TFC Republic will feature a regular reader mailbag column where I answer questions from subscribers about Toronto FC and Canadian soccer in general.

I'll answer the best questions submitted to me by TFC Republic readers, so feel free to drop me an email at jmo1897@gmail.com. You can also reach out to me via Twitter.

(Top photo courtesy of Andy Truong/Toronto FC)

TFC Republic has a comments section! At the very bottom of every story, there is a feature where you can post your comments, so be sure to share your thoughts and views.