The hell is over.
For Toronto FC fans there isn't really a better way to describe the 2013 season. It started with fans bickering with each other, a front office doing pretty much nothing, no hope and nothing much to think that was going to change.
It got worse.
A year without hope. A year without joy. A year (hopefully) like no other and never to be repeated.
Ironically, the best MLS season in memory played out around the train wreck at BMO. A season that ended Saturday with a MLS Cup final that was full of drama and ended with Kansas City finally finishing the job.
Sporting Franchise of Kansas City are champions of Major League Soccer.
Deserving champions (and I don't just say that because they were my preseason pick). Although there were prettier teams (Salt Lake), teams with bigger stars (New York) and more fancied story-lines (Portland) there likely wasn't a better, more consistent performance from March to December than KC.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
And, based on the balanced way KC is built (and retaining Graham Zusi), it's a team that could very well be there again next year.
Watching KC can give TFC fans both hope and fill them with despair. It shows that teams in MLS can fairly quickly raise themselves from the outhouse to the penthouse. So, that's good. However, it also illustrates how important patience is in MLS.
So, we're screwed.
Well, unless the new management can fulfil its promise of finally doing things the right way. TFC has earned every bit of the cynicism that surrounds it.
Every.
Bit.
But, it is new management. So, we'll try and dial our vitriol back a bit as the club starts its most important off-season of its short and painful history.
No hyperbole there. It is. We only have to look back on the last season of 2013 to understand how important it is that TFC make itself at least relevant again.
Forget specific goals like playoffs. Instead just focus on relevancy. TFC wasn't in 2013. It goes without saying that regaining that is the biggest and most important challenge the Reds have ever faced.