'We have to be resilient': How Toronto FC can use Whitecaps draw as key building block towards ongoing rebuild
It can be hard to search for positives right now if you’re Toronto FC.
Having missed the playoffs in four straight seasons, they face long odds of returning to the postseason again in 2025, especially after a start that has seen them go winless in six games (0W-2D-4L) to begin the year.
At the same time, that doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy the signs of progress that have slowly started to emerge early on this campaign.
They had one such moment this past weekend, as they welcomed the Vancouver Whitecaps, who are off to a red-hot start to 2025. Despite entering the match as the top team in MLS, TFC held the Whitecaps to a 0-0 draw and even had a couple of glorious chances late on to steal all three points from a Whitecaps team that seemed sure to waltz into Toronto and leave with a victory.
On a cold and rainy day at BMO Field, TFC showed some fight, something they haven’t always shown in recent years, and they were nearly rewarded for it in the end.
“Personally, a big thing I took away from it was the attitude of our team,” TFC captain Jonathan Osorio said after the match. “The intensity at which we played and the togetherness was good. The intensity and attitude was good, when we put that in, and we focus on that, we give ourselves a much better chance in every game.”
One of the games of all time in Canadian soccer history ✨#TFClive | #VWFC pic.twitter.com/kUVzGB43IV
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) March 29, 2025
Having won just one trophy in the past five seasons, coming when they won the 2020 Canadian Championship (doing so in 2022), it was a good building block moment against a Whitecaps side that has denied them of two trophies in recent years, beating them in the 2022 and 2024 Canadian Championship finals.
Now, TFC is looking to return their club to a time when lifting trophies like that seemed second nature to them.
For a club that was a top side in MLS between 2015 and 2020, lifting one MLS Cup to go along with one Supporters Shield and three Canadian Championships (not to mention three MLS Cup final appearances and one Concacaf Champions Cup final appearance), these last few years have marked a stark regression.
It’s not for a lack of trying - the club has been one of the top spenders in the league over the past few seasons, having invested in high-priced Designated Players such as Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi, but they’ve struggled to find the same formula that vaulted them towards the top of MLS in 2017, led by stars such as Sebastian Giovinco, Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley and Victor Vázquez.
A big reason for that, however, is that the club has been without an identity. For all of the success that they had in terms of bringing in players such as Giovinco, Altidore, Bradley and Vázquez, they would’ve never had the success they did without the work put in by head coach Greg Vanney, and the support of the other players that helped make his system tick, like Drew Moor, Chris Mavinga, Mark Delgado, Jonathan Osorio and countless others.
To win in MLS, you need synergy across your team, top-level talent, competent depth and a good head coach, and TFC had all of those things in the mid-2010s.
In recent years, however, TFC have lost that, in a big way. In 2017, which was the peak of their powers, TFC was a force at both ends of the pitch, leading the league in goals for with 74 and sitting second in goals against with 37, while being a strong possession-based outfit.
Now, they’ve conceded 61, 59, 66 and 66 goals in their last four seasons, respectively, while only finding the net 40, 26, 49 and 39 times, as they’ve struggled in both boxes, issues that have remained despite changing bench bosses.
Currently, on their sixth head coach since Vanney’s departure at the end of the 2020 season, Robin Fraser, a former assistant head coach from the Vanney days, faces a monumental task, as evidenced by his first few weeks on the job.
Oli Platt 🗣️ "I don't think people are upset enough about the state that Toronto FC has gotten itself into – it's scandalous, guys..."
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) March 10, 2025
How close are we to crisis mode at #TFClive? 😬 pic.twitter.com/ET8r509A0l
Despite that, there’s reason for optimism from a Toronto perspective. Even if it already seems like 2025 could prove to be a write-off, some blueprints exist for a quick turnaround. In fact, Vanney’s current team, the LA Galaxy, might be the best example of that - they finished 4th-last in 2023, conceding more goals than last-place TFC with 67, having dealt with a transfer ban that restricted their ability to bring in any players from abroad.
In 2024, however, having made some key signings, they turned their ship around completely, finishing tied for third in MLS before winning MLS Cup on their home pitch.
To be fair, they also were helped by the fact that they already had a huge piece of their core in place in Riqui Puig, but thanks to signings such as Joseph Paintsil and Gabriel Pec, they gave him the support he needed to truly shine.
With TFC, it’s hard to say who could be their version of Puig - the Insigne signing has fizzled out hard, as he’s been left out of the matchday squad completely several times this year after scoring just 18 goals and adding 13 assists across 2.5 injury-plagued seasons with the club, then, while Bernardeschi has been better, scoring 23 goals and adding 14 assists across that same span, he is 31 - but it’s not reasonable to imagine them landing a player of Puig’s quality if they were to reinvest the money they’ve spent in past years in the right area.
What they’ll need to do, however, is vary their approach, and adapt to the changing realities of MLS. One big issue with the Insigne signing was that it was made with past successes in mind - having hit a grand slam with the Giovinco signing, they tried to emulate that move on a grander scale with an Insigne who was older and starting to deal with injury issues.
In an ever-changing MLS landscape, one where their stars are becoming younger than ever, as they move away from the older European names that dominated the circuit in the 2010s, buying for star power is no longer enough. Now, it’s important to buy players who can keep up with the increased physical demands of the league, one that seems to get faster by the year - gone are the days of stars coming to the league and coasting.
Speaking of, that ties things nicely into TFC’s most recent match. In facing the Whitecaps, TFC saw a first-hand example of a team that has found success by scouring unheralded markets.
Key players like Ryan Gauld, Brian White, Pedro Vite, Andrés Cubas, Ranko Veselinovic and Ali Ahmed were all found by various unique methods - Gauld came from a Portuguese side that got relegated, White from an intra-MLS trade, Vite came as a U22 signing from Ecuador, Cubas came from a French second division side, Veselinovic came from Serbia and Ahmed was originally a second-team signing that worked his way up to the first team.
Now, all of those players have become some of the best at their position in MLS and some even within their National Teams, while someone like Gauld has been one of the best in MLS, period, over the past couple of seasons.
Plus, quite importantly, they’ve come via different acquisition methods, as Gauld and Cubas count are Designated Players, Vite is a U22 Initiative player, Veselinovic was a TAM signing, while White and Ahmed are domestic players, with Ahmed still on the supplemental roster.
That’s key, as a big factor for success in roster-building is how a team uses all of the mechanisms available to them. Teams can no longer just sign a couple of big DPs and call it a day - nearly every team has high-level DPs now, and several other players who play like DPs even if they’re not designated as such.
That last category is crucial - teams that are finding high-level players via the U22 Initiative, TAM signings and their academy are thriving, something that the likes of Inter Miami and LAFC, in particular, have done very well to do.
Naturally, that might shift in the years to come - there are signs MLS could remove some of the roster restrictions - but even if that occurs, the point remains; you need to know how to mine talent in various ways.
For TFC, that’s felt like a big hurdle, and their biggest challenge at the moment. In particular, they need to skew younger - their four biggest minutes accumulators so far are all above 30 - which goes against the trends of the league, as they’ve relied on a lot of short-term fixes in several instances where they could’ve perhaps looked at the longer-term.
They’ve started to get the wheels turning in that regard - the signings of 22-year-old Theo Corbeanu and 25-year-old Ola Brynhildsen fit that mould, and they’ll have to stick on that track as they fill out the rest of the roster, especially at the back and in midfield.
Especially if they can keep promoting more of their younger Canadian talent, such as Deandre Kerr, Kosi Thompson, Markus Cimermancic and Kobe Franklin, with Kerr impressing to start the year, that’s another avenue that seems like it’ll pay off down the road, too.
It might take some time to bring that all together, but if you can do that for a couple of windows, as the Whitecaps did, and all of a sudden the pieces can quickly start to click into a strong unit as you build some continuity.
The good news, however? TFC is starting to re-find their identity, to Fraser’s credit, as he’s doing well to build something out of what he’s got at his disposal.
There’s no better example of that than this Whitecaps game - for 90 minutes, TFC fought hard defensively, stayed organized, and then mounted a late push. Instead of wilting at the first sign of adversity, they kept in the fight and were nearly rewarded for it.
Sean Johnson coming up big in the box 🧱 pic.twitter.com/9A3Xexgq5G
— Toronto FC (@TorontoFC) March 29, 2025
Plus, there appeared to be total buy-in in that plan - having been reintroduced into the squad and starting XI, there were signs of Lorenzo Insigne being more involved offensively and defensively, which is encouraging to see.
Yet, that’s why the club pushed to bring Fraser in. As they look to navigate the best way to rebuild this roster, led by general manager Jason Hernandez, they know that it’s important to put pillars in place to lead that rebuild.
Now, of course, the big challenge will be to stick to that identity long-term, even as the team navigates the turbulent waters ahead. They’ll know there might be a lot more tougher days in their future, but they will be worth it if they stick to the plan.
Plus, there are a lot of short-term goals that can help push them on - making the MLS Cup playoffs isn’t impossible with the new qualification system, while the Canadian Championship is a good opportunity to win some silverware - so it’s far from a lost season.
Chaos in the final embers 🐦🔥 pic.twitter.com/EIZhVvLyKJ
— Toronto FC (@TorontoFC) March 29, 2025
Because of that, look for this TFC side to push on from this result, as they look to leave the last couple of seasons behind them, rising to become a force again in the mid-2020s, much like they did a decade prior.
In the short-term, a 0-0 draw might not seem like much, but for this team, they’ll hope it’s the start of a new chapter.
“What I think is important is resilience,” Fraser said after the Whitecaps match. “To get to where we want to go, that’s probably the #1 thing, we have to be resilient. What we’ve seen so far this year is that when things haven’t gone well for us, we’ve had lulls, and in those lulls, we’ve given up goals and that’s been our Achilles heel up to this point.”
“Today, we had to fight, it was all hands on deck, and by the end, we were quite threatening… overall, it was something we can build off.”
