Bradley will be sorely missed at TFC

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This article was published 20/10/2023 (1048 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Michael Bradley has been a Bloody Big Deal.

Back in the winter of 2014, with Toronto FC having run a cringeworthy advertising campaign to announce the signing of Tottenham Hotspur striker Jermain Defoe, Bradley, just arrived from AS Roma, quietly walked onto the stage.

Quite literally, in fact.

Club owners Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment had planned a pep rally-slash-press conference at their Real Sports Bar & Grill at which Defoe would be presented to a waddling of reporters and covey of fans, the beer splashing and chants piercing. It was all excruciatingly embarrassing, but for the modest entry of Bradley, an afterthought.

Again, quite literally.

The official team store was already hawking Defoe’s No. 18 shirt, but Bradley’s No. 4 was nowhere in sight. A newswire story from the event mentioned the American only in passing, the quotes reserved for Defoe and CEO Tim Leiweke.

Both are long-since departed, as are then-general manager Tim Bezbatchenko and head coach Ryan Nelson. Defoe wound up playing just 21 matches for the club, and Nelson was sacked that August.

Bradley, however, remains at the club – its longtime captain, second in all-time appearances only to Jonathan Osorio. He’s played in almost half of TFC’s matches, ever, and in 70 per cent of its Major League Soccer wins.

He, more than anyone else, is a figure who connects three distinct periods in TFC history, the third of which will conclude Saturday at BMO Field against Orlando City (5 p.m., TSN4). At 36, the midfield stalwart is set to hang up his boots, and with MLS Cup Playoffs long since out of reach, he’ll be officially retired at about 7 p.m.

Given what has mostly been a miserable season on the Toronto waterfront, one could understand him thinking that it can’t come soon enough. The Reds have won just four MLS games this term, and only one since the second week of June. They were dumped out of the Canadian Championship at the quarter-final stage, outscored 6-0 in their two Leagues Cup appearances.

Designated player Lorenzo Insigne has been dreadful on the pitch and a distraction off it, and he and fellow Italian Federico Bernardeschi will likely exit the club in the next few weeks. Victor Vazquez, Greg Ranjitsingh and C.J. Sapong are also expected to depart when their contracts expire in December.

In his send-off match, Bradley will be part of a team consisting of underperforming former superstars and a bunch of guys named “Who.” He’ll also be working under his seventh head coach as John Herdman takes in-game charge for the first time since leaving the Canadian men’s national team.

Overall, the 2023 campaign has somewhat mirrored Bradley’s first at the club, which started off with an XI featuring, in addition to Defoe, Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar, defender-turned-TV analyst Steven Caldwell and much-hyped Spanish winger Alvaro Rey, who presently plays in Gibraltar.

TFC missed the play-offs then, too, and lost the Canadian Championship to Montreal Impact. What was different, however, was the trajectory.

With Bradley the permanent captain, Toronto played post-season soccer in five of the next six seasons. They also won three straight Canadian Championships – their 2017 title part of a memorable treble alongside the Supporters Shield and MLS Cup. A penalty shootout denied them becoming the first MLS side to win the CONCACAF Champions League.

Those teams, a far cry from today’s, included the likes of Sebastian Giovinco, Jozy Altidore, Justin Morrow, Drew Moor and Alex Bono. Osorio, too. And manager Greg Vanney had them playing some of the finest football MLS had ever seen.

They won 20 games in 2017, not including the playoffs. They need a victory Saturday to have won 20 in the last three seasons combined.

Much like those early years, the club’s recruitment has reeked of desperation. Frantically looking for something, anything, to improve their plight — the classic “throw it against the wall and see what sticks” analogy works extremely well here — they’ve rattled through 39 players since February.

One would hope Herdman’s arrival signals a top-to-bottom rebuild, though its success will have a lot to do with a leader who can marshal his teammates on the pitch and represent the club with dignity away from it.

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In other words, it needs a Michael Bradley, but it won’t get this one.

Outside its hockey arena, MLSE has a series of Maple Leaf icons in statue that make up its Legends Row. If it were ever to do the same for its soccer team, Bradley would be the first one cast in bronze.

Defoe might have been the Bloody Big Deal, but Bradley was the Biggest.

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