Toronto FC II 2018 season...

Only 50 attended the game. Seems like TFC II experiment in Toronto is off to a bad start and might end up as a failure.

Another missed opportunity for Toronto to expend their brand by not having this team play in another city in Ontario that could have supported it.

 

All the USL teams are being forced to play in at least 5000 seat stadiums. There aren't too many of them out there that aren't in cities looking to get a CPL team. Once Lamport remodelling is finished and they actually get to play there, hopefully attendance will pickup. It doesn't make sense to move the TFCII team out of Toronto where Vanney can't see their development.

 

Can't wait for CPL II, that would be a good league for them to drive up attendances. Playing Sherbrooke, Kingston, Windsor or Kelowna will always draw more than North Carolina or Rochester.

Of course, they wouldn't be able to promote to CPL

 

The success of TFC II will be determined entirely by its ability to supply players to the first team, not by its attendance. It is a farm team, not a club of its own.

 

Tell that to Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps. Hoping for their sake they are the exception to the rule

 

I'm also disappointed that Montreal and Vancouver have dropped their USL teams. I suspect the financial hit is a problem for them while it isn't for TFC.

 

How do you know it isn't? The Saputos are like one of Canada's wealthiest and they dropped it.

 

I don't know for sure. I'm basing it on what the teams have done. If we look at what the three Canadian MLS teams have spent, TFC has taken a much different approach and has not hesitated to spend large sums. I believe they spent something like $20 million on their training facility, for example, and spend about $25 million on first team salaries compared to $7 million or so for each of the other teams. They seem less likely to be deterred by the cost of running an unprofitable USL team.

 

I think Saputo lost somewhat interest ever since he got his hands on Bologna in Serie A. Montreal Impact is his B team now. Once Ottawa joins CPL, Montreal will probably affiliate with a US city in USL. Shameful

I think Vancouver said that saturation of the Vancouver market was a factor in folding due to CPL arriving with Surrey and Victoria coming soon while CPL is still targeting Vancouver or Burnaby. VWC II can't compete but I'm disappointed that's the way they saw it... so I'm calling BS on that excuse...Shameful

I really don't know what TFC's strategy with TFC II. They need to revamp and rethink how they do business because it has not been that great so far. They need to pay more attention to other academies in the area and give a shoot to good prospects. They've been stubbornly ignoring them short of few exceptions. A Liam Millar or Cyle Larin should have been found by TFC, yet they had no clue that they even existed. That's not normal to me. Great that they are giving opportunities to local kids in their system but they are doing it wrong I think. They have to stop acting like the other academies out there are incapable of developing players and start looking at their methods and make deals with them when they see good players.

 

I'm sure TFC Academy coaches and scouts will be watching for diamonds in the rough on other teams in OPDL matches TFC-A teams play in. Even here in Ottawa they have their fingers in the pies of several clubs.

 

TFC also have formal agreements with the Windsor and London L1O teams (as well as, obviously, their own TFC III team).

I'm sure they could do more but there is no way they are going to find every good player in a province of 14 million people.

If you look down the list of up and coming Canadians, or the list of young players who have recently made national team appearances, you will see a lot of TFC influence.

I hope the CPL makes a much greater impact as they will have far more teams but in terms of actual production of real life players, TFC is the best we have so far.

 

They are being looked at, but I guarantee you that Canada's A team will have little to none product of the TFC System for the upcoming League of Nations

Potential Ontarians on the A team?

Liam Millar -Mississauga
Cyle Larin - Sigma FC
Jonathan Osorio - Brampton Youth / Clarkson Sheridan Mississauga
Manjrekar James - North York Hearts / Azurri /Sigma FC
Marcus Godinho - TFC Academy *didn't go that well for him with TFC, he quit TFC and got properly developed at Hearts U-20 in Scotland* Now a starter at Hearts

Michael Petrasso - TFC Academy

That's like 4 and 1/2 vs 1 1/2 for non TFC Academies
*1/2 is the split time between TFCA and Hearts for Godinho

The rest? Not starters. Bench at best.

U20 Team? Haven't qualify since 2007 when TFC entered MLS. So they have a lot to prove before crediting TFC with anything

Production of USL and MLS? maybe
National team? God no

 

Nice work there!

Hoping you'll consider writing for CPL. This website might be interested in your work

http://thecanplhub.com

 

Good write up. Thanks.