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TFC Republic Weekly: October 7-13

One of the most important off-seasons in Toronto FC history begins this week after the club was eliminated from the playoff race.

John Molinaro

Oct 7, 2024 — 7 min read

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 misses out on playoffs for 4th straight year

The playoff drought continues. Fighting to stay alive in an ultra-tight playoff race, Toronto FC came up short in losing a 1-0 heartbreaker to Inter Miami on Saturday afternoon at BMO Field in its final match of the MLS regular season.

That result coupled with D.C. United’s 2-1 road win over the New England Revolution on Saturday night dropped TFC (11-19-4, 37 points) from ninth to tenth place in the Eastern Conference and officially eliminated them from playoff contention. D.C (10-13-10, 40 points) leapfrogged Toronto in the standings and moved into a tie with CF Montreal for eighth place. With no more games, TFC is unable to catch D.C. and Montreal, who will both play their regular season finales on Decision Day on Oct. 19.

TFC haven’t qualified for the playoffs since losing to Nashville SC in the first round in 2020. After Saturday's loss, a sombre TFC coach John Herdman reflected on his first full year in charge of the MLS outfit, feeling that things unravelled for the club during the second half of the campaign.

"There've been some [positive] moments in the season: the derby win [over Montreal], our League's Cup progression, beating Pachuca, being in the top four [in the East] for the first part of the season. All of those things were great steps. But it just hasn't been good enough in the last four months. And we'll have to look hard at ourselves. We were in a playoff fight, but I don't think we had enough punch in that fight," Herdman admitted.

What's next for Toronto FC?

Even though TFC have been eliminated from the playoff race and there are no more games, the players will remain in Toronto for a little bit as they'll have their end-of-season evaluations with the coaching staff.

Those discussions will help inform GM Jason Hernandez's decisions when it comes to deciding which players to bring back and which to cut loose ahead of next season. Thirteen players on the current roster will be entering the option years of their contracts in 2025, including TAM striker Prince Owusu, midfielders Brandon Servania and Alonso Coello, fullback Kobe Franklin and veteran centre back Kevin Long.

TFC will also be looking ahead to the MLS SuperDraft. And MLS will expand to 30 teams in 2025 with the arrival of San Diego FC, which means TFC have to figure out which players they'll protect and which ones they'll leave unprotected for the expansion draft.

But before all of this, TFC will hold their annual locker clean out day at the BMO Training Ground where players, coach John Herdman and Hernandez will talk to the media for the final time this year.

Sebastian Giovinco joins Reds' front office

Sebastian Giovinco is back with Toronto FC. But the Italian hasn’t returned as a player. Instead, TFC announced this past weekend that Giovinco is back as their new special advisor and club ambassador.

In this dual role, Giovinco will be focusing on player evaluation, development, identification, and recruitment in support of General Manager Jason Hernandez and the team’s scouting department. Giovinco will also represent TFC at various community events and engagements.

Giovinco, a 37-year-old from Turin, is generally recognized as the greatest player in Toronto FC history. He signed with the club prior to the 2015 MLS season from Juventus and went on to make 142 appearances across all competitions, scoring 83 goals (a franchise record) and tallying 61 assists. He left Toronto in January 2019 when he was sold to Saudi Arabia's Al-Hilal FC after failing to come to contract terms with the Reds.

He was a key member of the club's historic treble season in 2017 when it won the MLS Cup, the Supporters' Shield, and the Canadian Championship. During his time with TFC, Giovinco won two other Canadian Championships (2016, 2018) and helped the team reach the final of the 2018 Concacaf Champions League.

In his first season with TFC in 2015, the Italian won the league MVP award, the MLS Golden Boot and the MLS Newcomer of the Year awards. Incredibly, he was involved in 65 per cent of Toronto's 58 goals that season, finding the back of the net 22 times and adding 16 assists. Other individual honours included being named to the MLS Best XI (2015, 2016, 2017) and an MLS All-Star (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018).

Important message about TFC Republic

First, I would like to thank all of you for your readership and continued support of TFC Republic in the form of paid subscriptions. We've grown our customer base each year since the website launched in 2021 which has allowed me to continue on with this project. I'm humbled by your support and will never take it for granted.

And second, I wanted to let you all know that even though the regular season is now over, TFC Republic won't be going on hiatus. Quite the opposite.

This is shaping up to be one of the most important off-seasons in the club's history. There are a lot of important rosters decisions to make by coach John Herdman and GM Jason Hernandez. Management, the coaching staff and players also have to face local reporters one last time at locker clean out day. You can expect TFC Republic to ask some very hard questions and hold people to account in that media session.

As such, we'll be providing extensive coverage of Toronto FC over the next two and half months before we take out Christmas holidays in December. We'll be reviewing the 2024 campaign and looking ahead to 2025 with plenty of thoughtful analysis, all the while reporting on the latest news of this off-season.

There are also important fixtures coming up for both the Canadian men's and women's teams, as well as the Canadian Premier League playoffs. We'll also be covering those events.

So, even though the season is over, TFC Republic will be continuing on as we have been all year by producing daily coverage. Be sure to check the website every day for fresh content.

Stories to look out for at TFC Republic

One of the biggest talking points about Toronto FC at the moment centres on Lorenzo Insigne, specifically his future at the club. The Italian DP had another disappointing season in 2024 as he suffered through injury problems and put up very poor numbers in MLS – just four goals and seven assists in 23 games, 17 starts. A lot of fans want him gone, feeling the Reds should try to sell him or buy him out of his contract. But how likely is it that TFC will part ways with Insigne? I'll have a feature article looking at the Insigne situation in the coming days.

Other stories that will be published later this week include:

My “Random Thoughts on TFC” column.
A video blog on the state of the union at Toronto FC.
Regular "TFC Tidbits" stories throughout the week.
The TFC 2 report with James Grossi.
A new instalment in out TFC flashback history series.
Another edition of the reader mailbag.
My feature story on the Canadian men's team.
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 Lucas Kschischang/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.