By Mike Crampton
Say what you will about Toronto FC – clearly, there is a lot to say – the team has had its moments. It might feel illusory but four consecutive Canadian Championships and a deep run in the CONCACAF Champions League did actually happen. Six long league seasons with only the barest hint of possible playoff participation, the last three spent going backwards, have lead to a sense of unparalleled defeat among Reds supporters that may take years to recover from but, unbelievable to some, it can be argued that Toronto’s had it better than New York.
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Long suffering MetroBulls supporters in New York will all tell a similar story: constant management changes, years in a hard to get to stadium with antagonistic security staff, a big spending and seemingly ambitious club that never seems to actually accomplish anything, and the residing suspicion that, even when times are better, you’re not supporting nothing more than an elaborate marketing vehicle rather than authentic sports organization. Some of those complaints will sound familiar to Toronto supporters, but MLS started in New York in 1996 and fans there have still not seen their team lift a major trophy. Then, in 2009, things really hit their nadir.
Coming off an unexpected run to the MLS Cup Final the year before the Red Bulls had a disastrous season. Five wins out of 30 is pretty much as bad as Toronto FC has been in 2012. Incredibly, by virtue of their MLS Cup Finalist status, the 2009 Bulls even got to compete in the second ever CCL until they were eliminated over two legs in the qualifying round by W Connection FC of Trinidad and Tobago. In comparison, Paul Mariner may have failed to get a result at home against Santos Laguna, but even his highly divisive tactics and injury riddled team managed to ease Toronto FC through two games against CD Aguila. Of course, Toronto supporters will by and large only remember the final game of the Red Bulls’ 2009 season.
TFC’s meltdown in the last MLS game played in Giants Stadium is a night many Reds fans want to forget but, ever since, the two clubs have seemed to go in opposite directions. It’s worth noting that the turnaround in New York had actually started a little bit earlier under interim manager Richie Williams – a fact that escaped Toronto supporters tuning in for what most expected to be a coronation that rain soaked late October evening – but the effect is too poetic to ignore. So much of what has happened in Toronto since has its genesis in that 5-0 thrashing. So much of the seething frustration -- that always threatens to boil over into rage -- and owner MLSE’s flailing attempts to keep the fan base on side can be traced to that game.
Of course, it hasn’t been all roses in New York either. Yes, the Red Bulls play in a spiffy new building (with a roof!). Yes, head coach Hans Backe has nearly completed his third full season in charge. Yes, the Bulls have made the playoffs each of the last two years and look set to do again in 2012; they even finished first in the Eastern Conference in 2010 one year removed from their calamitous 2009 season. Fans in the Big Apple can enjoy the world class talents of Thierry Henry and Tim Cahill alongside a solid MLS supporting cast like Kenny Cooper, Dax McCarty, and Joel Lindpere. It’s a level of success, stability, and star power that Toronto fans look upon enviously.
Yet the Red Bulls have still never actually won anything. The stands at Red Bull Arena are rarely full. After the immediate turnaround in 2010 Hans Backe openly talked about wanting his team to win the Supporter’s Shield, yet they’ve only briefly challenged this season and last. Red Bulls supporters still must deal with jibes about fizzy drink and pop cans and the fact that some people who could be members of their community refuse to accept the team either as a true representative of the city of New York or a meaningful sporting institution.
Everything is relative. Toronto supporters might think that they’ve had it bad and few would seriously argue that they haven’t! Other fans around the league have had their own struggles before too though and will experience the same in the future. If TFC were to lose 5-0 in New York for the third time in the club’s history Saturday night it might cheer Red Bulls supporters on the evening, but it won’t relieve their anxiety over their club’s chances in the upcoming playoffs. For Toronto supporters, most increasingly anesthetized to the game to game results, it’d just be another loss in a season of losing.
At this point it’s clear that Toronto FC isn’t going to get better in 2012; that’s a given. Even better performances often seem well beyond the current edition of the team. So, if you still care about Toronto FC and want to watch your team, instead of being frustrated why not recall that there was a time when Toronto fans pitied New Yorkers and that it wasn’t all that long ago? Things change in MLS and they will change again in the future. Where Toronto FC ends up in that reshuffled deck and whether or not they’ll ever be capable of making the playoffs won’t be decided by the result Saturday night. Those are questions that will be answered at another time.
So why not just enjoy the game?