Toronto FC

Team information

Inaugural season: 2007

Home field: BMO Field, Toronto

Owner: Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment

Team colors: Red, white, and grey

Overview

Toronto FC, which is short for Toronto Football Club, is a professional soccer team that plays in North America’s Major League Soccer (MLS). Nicknamed “The Reds” because of their distinctive red jerseys, Toronto FC is one of three Canadian teams in MLS and the only one of the three to win a championship. The team entered the league as an expansion squad in 2007 and struggled for years before making its first playoff appearance in 2015. Since that time, Toronto has been an MLS postseason fixture and even won the 2017 MLS Cup. Toronto FC is owned by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the same corporation that owns the city’s other major sports teams—the NHL’s Maple Leafs, the NBA’s Raptors, and the Canadian Football League’s Argonauts.

History

Soccer was introduced to Canada from Great Britain in 1876, with nation’s first-ever game played in Toronto. Within a year, the first Canadian soccer association was formed. For much of the next century, professional soccer struggled to gain a foothold in Canada, with numerous leagues and teams established and many folding. In 1967, several teams from the United States and Canada joined together to form the North American Soccer League (NASL). Toronto had an NASL team in 1968 and another from 1971 to 1984, but the league eventually disbanded in the mid-1980s.

In 1994, the United States played host to the FIFA World Cup, the biggest tournament in international soccer. The event raised the profile of soccer in North America and spawned the 1996 creation of Major League Soccer (MLS). The league struggled before gaining its financial footing in the mid-2000s, prompting a new push for expansion. In 2005, officials with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment announced that they had submitted the ten-million-dollar franchise fee and would be placing an expansion MLS team in Toronto. The team was scheduled to begin play in 2007.

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment asked fans to choose a name for the new team in an online poll. They chose Toronto FC from among the other options of the Northmen, the Reds, and Inter Toronto FC. Club management agreed with the fan opinion and officially dubbed the team Toronto FC. Using the initials FC as shorthand for “football club” is a common practice among European teams. The naming convention also allows fans to create their own nickname for the team. In the case of Toronto FC, the fans and media began informally calling the team “The Reds,” after its primary uniform color. The team’s logo features a large gray “T” set on a shield outlined in red and topped by a stylized maple leaf. The name “Toronto” is emblazoned on a banner across the front. Toronto was the first Canadian team in MLS. It was joined in 2011 by a second Canadian squad, the Vancouver Whitecaps, and a third, the Montreal Impact, in 2012.

Toronto FC opened its first season as part of the league’s Eastern Conference in April 2007. Toronto went scoreless over a four-game losing streak to start the season. The rest of the year was not much better as Toronto finished with 6 wins, 7 ties, and 17 losses. The season included a nine-game stretch where the team did not score a goal, which at the time was an MLS record. Despite Toronto’s poor showing on the field, the team averaged more than twenty thousand fans a game, an attendance figure among the best in the MLS.

Toronto continued to struggle over the course of the next seven seasons. The low point came in 2012 when the team went 5–8–21 and finished as the last-place team in the MLS standings. However, things began to turn around in 2014, when Toronto upped its record to 11–8–15; the following season, the team went 15–4–15 and earned its first trip to the MLS postseason. The 2016 season turned out to be a watershed year for Toronto, as the Reds went 15–9–10 and earned a trip to the MLS Final. In a game played at Toronto’s home of BMO Field, Toronto battled the Seattle Sounders to a 0–0 regulation tie, before falling in penalty kicks, 5–4.

Toronto FC’s 2017 season would prove to be special on many levels. Led by Italian star Sebastian Giovinco, the Reds outscored their opponents by 37 goals. They finished with a 20–9–5 record, the top mark in MLS and the team’s best record in its history. Toronto outlasted the Columbus Crew, 1–0, in the Eastern Conference Final to advance to the MLS Final. The game was again played at BMO Field and featured a rematch with the Seattle Sounders. This time, the outcome was different. Behind an early goal by Jozy Altidore and a late insurance goal from Víctor Vázquez, Toronto defeated Seattle 2–0 to win its first MLS Cup.

Toronto finished out of playoff contention in 2018 before bouncing back to make another MLS Final appearance in 2019. Once again facing Seattle, Toronto fell 3–1 to the Sounders. The following season, Toronto finished second in the eastern Conference with a 13–5–5 record. However, the team fell in the first round of the playoffs to New York City FC. In 2021, Toronto missed the playoffs with a 6–10–18 record.

In addition to competing for an MLS Cup, Toronto also plays for the Voyageurs Cup, a trophy presented to the best men’s and women’s Canadian soccer teams. Since 2008, the Voyageurs Cup has been awarded to the team that wins the Canadian Championship. The winner of that tournament determines Canada’s entry to the CONCACAF Champions League, a competition between the best teams in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Toronto has won the Voyageurs Cup seven times, with four straight wins coming from 2009–2012, and three straight wins from 2016–2018.

Since the team joined the league, Toronto has had one of the highest average attendance rates in the MLS. During its championship run in 2017, Toronto averaged 27,647 fans a game, good for third in the league. In 2019—the season before Toronto and Canada imposed strict lockdown measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic—the team averaged 25,048 fans.

Notable players

The most-accomplished Canadian-born soccer player in MLS history was midfielder/forward Dwayne De Rosario, who played fourteen seasons in the league with five different clubs. He spent two stints with Toronto, from 2009 to 2011 and again in 2014. De Rosario led the team in goals with 11 in 2009 and 15 in 2010. He played in only two games with Toronto in 2011 before being traded to the New York Red Bulls and later to D.C. United. De Rosario compiled 16 goals and 9 assists with the three teams to earn the 2011 MLS Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award. He retired from the MLS in 2014. De Rosario is fourth in the Toronto record books with 33 goals as of 2021.

American forward Jozy Altidore began playing with Toronto in 2015. He was part of the 2017 championship squad and stands second in team history with 79 goals as of 2021. Canadian midfielder Jonathan Osorio has been with Toronto since 2011 and had 48 career goals with Toronto, good enough for third all-time. Spanish midfielder Alejandro Pozuelo began play with Toronto in 2019 and led the team that year in regular-season goals with 12. In three seasons, Pozuelo has scored 24 total goals, fifth on the team’s all-time list. In 2020, he won the league’s MVP award. American goaltender Alex Bono has posted 33 shutouts since beginning play for Toronto in 2016. He set a club record with 10 shutouts in 2017 and was in goal for the team’s MLS Cup victory over Seattle.

The greatest player in franchise history was undoubtedly forward Sebastian Giovinco who played for Toronto from 2015 to 2018. Giovinco scored a club record 22 regular-season goals in 2015 and was named both the MLS MVP and Golden Boot winner that season. The Golden Boot is presented to the player who leads the league in scoring. Giovinco was the driving force behind Toronto’s 2017 MLS Cup victory, scoring 16 goals and chipping in 6 assists during the regular season and adding another goal and an assist in the playoffs. That same season, he was named MVP of the Canadian Championship as Toronto also captured the Voyageurs Cup. Giovinco scored 83 goals in his time with Toronto and remained the club’s all-time leading scorer by the end of the 2021 season. In 2020, De Rosario and Giovinco were named to a list of twenty-five greatest players in MLS history to mark the league’s twenty-fifth anniversary.

Bibliography

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“Toronto FC Team History.” Sports Team History, 2021, sportsteamhistory.com/toronto-fc. Accessed 16 Nov. 2021.