Marked for Sam Morris
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Dec 2034
Dylan Chambost damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad11 Dec 2034
A season's verdict on Sam Morris: the best of his age
Toronto FC have a 21-year-old the division has just voted its finest young footballer. The club's next problem is that everybody else now knows it too.
Squad11 Dec 2034
José Cifuentes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Aug 2034
8 matches without a win for Toronto FC
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Toronto FC are no longer polite ones.
Match19 Aug 2034
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad21 Aug 2034
José Cifuentes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings21 Aug 2034
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Aug 2034
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad21 Aug 2034
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sam Morris and Toronto FC agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Aug 2034
Chastening afternoon for Toronto FC
A 0‑3 beating by Columbus Crew was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match5 Aug 2034
6 matches without a win for Toronto FC
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Toronto FC are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Aug 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dániel Sallói and Toronto FC agree another 2 years.
Match5 Aug 2034
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Market7 Aug 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Toronto FC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 Aug 2034
Sal Olivas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Aug 2034
The manager makes an example of José Cifuentes
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad7 Aug 2034
Sam Morris is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Toronto FC will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Boardroom7 Aug 2034
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Apr 2034
A 2‑1 win over Vancouver Whitecaps, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad10 Apr 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Toronto FC may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad10 Apr 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Toronto FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Apr 2034
The name of Mateo Fofre has come up in conversations Toronto FC were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings10 Apr 2034
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Apr 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Adisa De Rosario, and the manager let it.
Match8 Apr 2034
Atlanta United FC left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad10 Apr 2034
Jhon Bello falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings10 Apr 2034
The afternoon belonged to Mateo Fofre
7.53, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Toronto FC had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Apr 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad3 Apr 2034
“The easiest signature of my career.” Adisa De Rosario and Toronto FC agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Apr 2034
Sal Olivas in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Toronto FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Apr 2034
A 1‑0 win over Charlotte Football Club, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market3 Apr 2034
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Toronto FC have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Apr 2034
A month that belonged to Sam Morris
The young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at Toronto FC who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Squad3 Apr 2034
Words at Toronto FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jhon Bello is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings3 Apr 2034
7.74, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Toronto FC had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Market3 Apr 2034
Deandre Kerr is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Toronto FC has been clear about where Deandre Kerr stands, which is more than many ever get.