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December 6, 2024 14 mins
This week on Sportsfeld Storytime, we wrap up our look back at the 2017 Toronto FC season, capped by their historic run in the 2018 CONCACAF Champions League. We are talking wins over Tigres, Club América, and then the devastating loss in the final against Guadalajara. All of that, plus we dig into why the 2019 MLS Cup Final just...didn't seem like that big a deal in Toronto. It's a weird time to be a Toronto FC fan, and we're going to try and figure out why that is. Because we're very, very smart.
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Sports Feld. It is sports Feld story time. We take
you back to the greatest, the highest and lowest, the
most memorable at least moments of the sports fandom that
we have experienced. And now we have arrived at the
end of the Toronto sc run. In the last episode,
they had raised the hardware, they had won the MLS

(00:47):
Cup in a victorious, wonderful game, a wonderful night at
BMO Field, and I'll say some incredible footage of that.
Shout out to the Toronto c digital team all for
one stuff I was going through. And I know I've
said this before, and obviously we're in an era where
right now we're not seeing a lot of fans and boy,
goosebumps going back and watching this stuff, like like going
back and watching the MLS Cup final when when they

(01:10):
when they send in Josie, it's like, man, legitimately like goosebumpsh.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
I've said a couple of times in the last few
episodes of these like twenty sixteen seventeen TFC highlight videos
are top top, like up there with Batflip and Edwin
and Kawhi, Like you just random YouTube videos to watch them.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Now and then, and I think they jump into the
crowd too, right on the on the back basket as goal.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, they do. The whole thing is great.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
It's just fun, absolute pandemonium. And listen, you would consider
anything after that pretty much icing on the cake. But
they would can listen. This is up there with best
full years of any team that I watched in the city.
That is, like, man, they go all the way through
the Conka CAF Champions League as well, which is something
that you would normally not even think about that much,

(01:59):
but man, and they go. They go through a rarity
to see a MLS team have such success, but they go.
They go on a huge run in this tournament.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, and some of like the most fun for me
personally games I can't remember if it was the Tigris
game or the I think it was a Tigris game,
the two to one at home in Toronto. I went
to that game in the freezing cold because it was
like February with some friends. And then that day was

(02:31):
also the Raptors game when Damar ran the length of the
court and dunked on the pistons and that game went
to overtime, and it was one of those like we
were what we were at the TFC game and we
got to the bar just in time to see him dunk,
and it was just like a great just a great

(02:51):
few years in Toronto sports as a whole.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
I was also at one of the games on this run,
not nearly as cold. I was at at the March
seventh Toronto FC versus T Grace game at Bamfield. I
did a did an edible and went with my roommate Zach.
And it is great because Zach is somebody that when
I was talking to you about a couple of episodes ago

(03:15):
about being at.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Games, maybe maybe that was the same game.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
I don't know. Yeah, I talked about being at a
game in the team's first season, and I high gone
with Zach to all those games because he was his
family had season tickets at a certain point and we
lived pretty close nearby. We would go fairly often in
the first few years to go then with it was
the same We're.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Talking about the same games.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, I apologize, I'll say this is it was a
two to one Toronto FC win. Alta Door scores and
Asareal scores and Tea Grace scores. First, it was the
best game I had ever seen in that building. It
was like to contrast the skill on display versus watching
them in the early seasons was unreal. And just to

(03:58):
give you an idea of like legit, like Toronto has
thirteen shots on goal in this game and Tea Grass
has ten. Is fifty two forty eight possession. Toronto will
see three hundred and thirty five passes t Grase two
sixty three. Like the pass accuracy eighty nine percent, eighty
seven percent, Like just really really really high quality soccer.

(04:19):
And you know, you come into these things and I
think you have this idea of how good the Mexican
clubs are going to be. But to see Toronto, to
see hang with them and beat them and then score
in the eighty ninth then we were standing. As a
matter of fact, we had our seats in the Tea
Grace supporter section and they were up the whole time, chanting,
having a great time. It was really really fun to
be up there. I remember just being like blown away
and moved about how far the team had come and

(04:41):
like how high the quality of soccer they were playing.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
You're right, it was an extremely fun vibe in the
building that day. Like the Tea Griss fans were great
I couldn't believe they fucking traveled that well. And it
was yeah, that was a obviously not quite like an
MLS Cup level, but like it was just like a
fun because like we got to have this sort of
happy to be there feeling, but also we won, so

(05:07):
it was like it was great.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
I loved it. It was a really fun one really
really good times. You gotta love it, you simply, you
simply must love it. They get all the way to
the goddamn final. They beat Club America in the Semis,
which I did not see. They're not Quay that game obviously,
but three to one win in Toronto, and then they
draw and then it's the twenty eighteen CONCACAF Champions League

(05:29):
final against Guadalajara. Like that is that is quite a
journey to go on?

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah, and it was, uh yeah, all right, I'll tell
the story.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Leg one, the final against Guadalajara, was in Toronto. That
was the same night as a Raptors playoff game. I
don't remember which one, and I think there was also
a Leaf playoff game that night. I think there was.
It was either all three or I know the final.
Leg two was definitely all three. I think the first
one just a Raptors playoff game, but was it a

(06:03):
bar for that one?

Speaker 1 (06:04):
With a friend the game five of Raptors Wizards, thank you.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
And that was the wonderful day where we got yelled
at by a well name names but a very famous
Canadian sports reporter because he wanted to watch the early
season Blue Jays game and we had asked the bar
to put on the TFC game and uh TFC lost
the first leg two to one, and then I fair

(06:31):
who was someone missed a sitter in the second half
which would have made it uh to two, and we
were told to pipe down because there they already gave
up two away goals and it's over and what's the
point was what we were told by this sports professional.
Little did he know a week later they would be

(06:55):
a Marquis Delgado miss, which I think about all the
time from winning the whole day.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Middle ill take back, true, but coach against on the
end of that one, Jimmy Cohn is one of them.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
Though Jimmy con.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
Here up against pet up, stands up the trust over
the bomb. We turn up, shoot to mock Delcato and stop.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
It's time to try and win it for TFC, that's unreal.
I'm misspoke. It's game two of Raptor's Wizards. They were up.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
I believe, yeah, I believe game five was Leg two.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
Maybe yes, game seven, get the date's wrong.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
At least Boston Game seven was definitely the same day.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
As Leg two is absolutely least Boston Game seven. This
is this is what was really incredible. I think about
this time as we sort of reflect on it, It's
like this stuff was happening at an alarming rate, and
that there was another There was another day a couple
of years later where I remember she was like also

(07:53):
like a prominent Jay's game. Maybe this is the same day,
but like there was I think twenty nineteen as well.
We had we had like a sort of a quad day,
really cool, and I think, you know, hopefully we can
get back here, and I think something we wanted to
do is sort of talk at the end of this
is total I c does shortly after this sort of

(08:14):
get back near this level, which is like sort of crazy.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, but done in a very I guess not done
in a different way, but taken supported.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
I don't know that's what I'm what am I looking
for here? I think supported this I think supported is right,
Like that's sort of so.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
I feel like we may have talked about this before
on the main show. I don't remember if.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
It's well, I think we talked about it. We talked
about it going into this final.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, and like how yeah TFC made the MLS Cup
Final in twenty nineteen and like no one seemed to care.
This is maybe a little more reflective than we usually

(09:03):
get on these story times.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
Against say against Seattle, against.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Seattle, and I find it so odd that it was
And like, obviously don't have the star power of a
Javinko to bring people in, Like we talked about how
he was like the best possible guy to sort of
galvanize the fan base. But I do find it odd
that they've made this underdog run, like they were not

(09:27):
supposed to make the finals at all, and won some
crazy playoff games, you know, especially the Semis where Nick
DeLeon absolute rocket of a shot upset Atlanta, which you.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
Know, Rayah carrying this one forward and finds the feet
of ale Andro Posuelo.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
He'll cut in on Pogba Pusuelo to Delion on the
edge of the box.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
Here Nick DeLeon no way through as He's turned around
and Deleion Trunk test Us cut this, Nick DeLeon picks
out the top corner and t f se laid in
the Eastern Conference Final with thirteen minutes left to play.
Incredible from Nick de Leon and maybe just maybe a

(10:12):
huge upset on the Conch and that lad.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
I'm surprised to goal like that didn't sort of galvanize everybody.
And then like I watched the Cup final in the
bar with like six people watching the game, which is fine,
but you and I'm not really saying this as any
sort of judgment, but you compare it to what we
were talking about last week and how there were thirty
five thousand people packed into Bemo going crazy and this

(10:38):
was just like an they lost her it, Yeah, because
I find it very odd in such a short amount
of time.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
I mean, you still have Bradley, you still have alta
door on that team, You still have you know, Bono,
a lot of the backline guys, and you have Pozuelo
who is not alta door op part of me and
not Javinko, but he would MVP absolutely right. It is.
It's very curious and that thing I think we talked
about a little bit with the Rafters, and I think

(11:06):
we saw it a little bit in that twenty sixteen
J's run as well as like after you have the breakthrough,
conquer the sees the moment thing for the first time,
it can be hard to replicate that energy of the
way that that happens to overcome something. What that seems impossible?

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yeah, And like I wonder too if it's sort of
the format change in MLS because they changed the playoffs
from two leg matches to one game, it's one game
each round, and because TFC were the four seed, other
than the opening round, they didn't have a home playoff
game the entire run, and I wonder had they had

(11:46):
sort of those home playoff games to build the excitement,
if that would have maybe garnered more excitement in the city.
But that being said, I was at the first game
the first round against DC United and then only drew
twenty five thousand people, which isn't nothing, but certainly isn't

(12:09):
the playoff excitement that we were accustomed to with TFC.
I find it interesting that they weren't. That team wasn't
able to grab the city's attention quite and maybe it's
because it was a few months removed from the Raptors
winning and the city was burnt out or something. But
you'd think that would just get the city more excited.
I don't know. I think TFC is probably for me

(12:32):
what the Blue Jays are like for people that aren't us, Yeah,
I think it's hard for a lot of people get
invested in the Blue Jays if they're not going to games.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
Yeah, as just a TV product, it's hard to be
like yeah, anyway, And that's a story at TFC. I
wanted to see what happens next in this next chapter.
But an incredible run and really really a major part,
looking back, a major part of what was an incredible
couple of years stretch for sports in this city in general.

(13:00):
They were such a fun piece to also have while
we were enjoying the least come up while you're doing
the Raptors cementing themselves as one of the NBA's best franchises.
As the Jays sort of had these sparks of suddenly
being in the talk of the town. It was really
nice to also have TFC to go to games, to
see games to you know, you were talking. You made

(13:23):
some great points about how like you would watch a
game and then you'd also watch the Raptors play at
the same time, and all these race things were happening
at the same time, and it felt like it was
constant and they were a huge part of it. Yeah,
there was, you know, I.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Think they're a part of you know. I think there's
going to be a look back eventually on sort of
twenties seventeen to twenty nineteen, as obviously capped by the Raptors,
but like really good years to be a Toronto sports fan,
and TC are a big.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Part of that. Absolutely, And that does it for another
month of sports fall, the story of time. We will
look forward to another topic or another day. In the meantime,
we will thank you so much for listening to Sports
Bell

Speaker 2 (14:48):
Sports
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