Toronto FC wasted little time opening the exit door Friday after a second straight disappointing season, saying goodbye to goalkeepers Alex Bono and Quentin Westberg, defender Doneil Henry, midfielder Noble Okello and forward Ifunanyachi Achara.
There are also question marks over whether Canadian international midfielder Jonathan Osorio and veteran centre back Chris Mavinga will be back.
Toronto declined the contract option on the 31-year-old Mavinga, a French-born Congolese international who joined the club prior to the 2017 season, but said it remains in talks about a potential new deal. The club is also in discussions with Osorio, whose contract expires at the end of the year.
Osorio, speaking to media Wednesday at the club’s end-of-season availability, said: “Everything’s an option at this point.”
“Should a good opportunity present itself overseas, if it’s the best option, then I will take it. For me it’s about taking the best option. It’s not about going to Europe because I dreamt about it. It’s about now I think I’m at the point of my career where it has to be the right move.”
Toronto has exercised the contract option on 21-year-old defender Themi Antonoglou while declining Achara’s option.
Bono, Westberg and Okello are also out of contract at the end of the year. Henry remains under contract with MLS after Los Angeles FC waived him in July and the Canadian international will be eligible to go through waivers again.
Toronto (9-18-7) finished out of the playoffs in 13th spot in the Eastern Conference for the second year in a row.
Asked Wednesday if it’s fair to say that the club is looking for help in goal, central defence and striker, head coach Bob Bradley replied “That’s very fair. Very fair.”
The personnel moves shed salary and experience.
Bono and Westberg made a combined US$870,583 this season, with the club allowing 66 goals to tie a franchise record.
“Look, the easiest thing to say about our season is we gave up too many goals,” Bradley, who doubles as Toronto’s sporting director, said Wednesday.
Bradley has acknowledged that the blame for that is not exclusively on the goalkeepers. TFC shot itself in the foot with costly turnovers all over the field, often resulting in defenders chasing attackers as they headed toward goal towards an unprotected ‘keeper.
Osorio, who made $1.026 million this season, leads the club with 318 appearances in all competitions and is tied for third in scoring with 58 goals. The 28-year-old Bono ranks seventh with 157 appearances and is the franchise leader in goalkeeper wins (67) and shutouts (35).
The 36-year-old Westberg, who finished the season as the No. 1, is third in the club record book in goalkeeper wins (28) and fourth in clean sheets (11).
Bono, taken sixth overall in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft, and Westberg have vied for the starting position since Westberg joined the club prior to the 2019 season.
In an Instagram post, Bono thanked the city, club and its fans.
“I came to Toronto as a boy. Raw, naive, but ready to work as hard as was necessary to become who I wanted to be. Eight seasons later, my journey in this incredible city has, for now, come to an end,” he wrote.
The only first team ‘keeper still under contract is 29-year-old Greg Ranjitsingh, who has yet to see action for Toronto.
Mavinga ranks eighth on the club list with 153 appearances in all competitions. Another big-ticket item at $1.037 million, Mavinga is an athletic defender whose game can be marred by errors.
Achara missed almost all of his rookie 2020 season with a knee injury. He appeared in 29 league games the last two seasons with two goals and two assists.
The 22-year-old Okello was limited to eight league appearances this season due to injury. Henry arrived in July for his second stint with the club.
There are 21 TFC players currently contractually guaranteed for the 2023 season, including Italians Lorenzo Insigne, Federico Bernardeschi and Domenico Criscito, who arrived midway through the 2022 campaign.
Toronto has a designated player slot open and Bradley said the hope is the club, unlike last season, can fill holes prior to training camp to allow for “starting the season in as strong a way as possible.”
Fullback Richie Laryea’s loan from England’s Nottingham Forest runs through June 2023. Winger Jacob Shaffelburg is on loan with Nashville SC until the end of the 2022 season, with an option for Nashville to make the move permanent.
Toronto has until Nov. 14 to act on the 2023 contract option for Brazilian fullback Auro, currently on loan to Santos FC in Brazil.
Some 20 first team players left the club after a 6-18-10 season in 2021. Designated players Alejandro Pozuelo (traded to Miami) and Carlos Salcedo (returned to Mexico) exited during the 2022 season with midfielder Ralph Priso sent to Colorado in the deal that brought Canadian midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye to Toronto.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
