The MLS regular season may have hit the pause button for the 2024 Leagues Cup, but in MLS NEXT Pro, as the calendar turns to August, the action is just heating up.
Sunday, October 6 is Decision Day.
28 of the 29 teams in the league will play their final matches of the regular season that day – Toronto FC II are scheduled away to Crown Legacy FC in North Carolina, Charlotte FC’s reserve side. Eight sides from each conference will then go on to compete in the MLS NEXT Cup Playoffs.
TFC II are currently eight points adrift in the East, albeit with games in hand against most of the sides they are chasing.
11 games remain for the Young Reds.
“The mission, of course, is to win games and get into a playoff run,” said Julian Altobelli last week. “We're all confident in our abilities, as a team and individuals, that we can get to that point.”
“It's just about putting all the pieces together, coming out, and doing what we do best. Most of the games we're dominating, we're creating chances, it comes down to putting the ball in the back of the net,” he continued. “Once we can get that rhythm going, I'm sure this team will get flying.”
The four goals scored in Sunday’s 4-3 win over New York Red Bulls II was a step in that direction.
Toronto FC II finding strategic balance during season: “We picked guys that had a good mentality"
Following the end of the 2023 MLS NEXT Pro season, Toronto FC II took a deep look at their roster, analyzing and comparing it to the rest of the league.
It’s been an up and down stretch for TFC II since the last check in at the start of June.
A loss away to New York Red Bulls II on June 9 was followed by a 3-1 home defeat against NYCFC II. Toronto followed that up with a 2-1 win over Inter Miami CF II, but then lost 4-0 at York Lions Stadium to Philadelphia Union II.
A late goal then rescued a point away to Columbus Crew 2 on July 7, but the Crew took the extra point in the shootout after the 2-2 draw; two more losses – 2-0 away to Chicago Fire II and 2-1 back home against FC Cincinnati – followed in short order before the recent win over Red Bulls II.
“It's definitely been a difficult stretch,” summarized Altobelli. “We've lost players, such as Charlie Sharp, who is key for us and our front-line. He scores our goals, he links up our play; having Dékwon [Barrow] step in, he did well, and then again he also gets an injury. It's been a difficult stretch, but once everyone's back we'll be rolling again.”
Injuries have been a factor – Lazar Stefanovic and Dékwon Barrow currently sidelined – but so too has international duty.
Five players who would normally be available to Head Coach Gianni Cimini – Adam Pearlman, Theo Rigopoulos, Andrei Dumitru, Richard Chukwu, and Nathaniel Abraham – have been away with Canada competing at the 2024 Concacaf U-20 Championship.
Sharp returned off the bench on the weekend to begin rebuilding fitness and the Canadians will be home soon to bolster the side following a heart-breaking 2-1 loss to Panama in the quarterfinals, denying their dreams of both reaching the semifinals and securing a berth at the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile.
Results, fickle at the best of times, can be deceiving, so Cimini and his coaching staff have been tracking underlying trends.
“We're focusing on key performance indicators,” explained the coach. “How many times we were able to get in the box; how many advantages we create on the final line; are teams easily winning the ball in our build ups?”
“When we look at the quality of chances that we're conceding, the trend is that we're going in the right direction. We need to be shooting more and making more of our chances. On one end, you concede very few shots, you concede very few quality shots, but you create high quality chances,” Cimini balanced. “You miss high quality chances and then [the opponent] scores goals that are really difficult to score with not many shots.”
Those are the margins between victory and defeat.
“There’s been a lot of games where I feel like we could have had more, bar a couple games, maybe the Philly game at home,” suggested midfielder Marcus Cimermancic. “We've been playing well. We're confident and ready to go.”
One element Toronto have been battling all year is the start-stop nature of their season. A game, two weeks off. A run of games, two weeks off. Two games, nine days off. Two games in three days, two weeks off. Start, stop. Start, stop. Start, stop.
“We've played two games and then had a little break, whatever it is, whether games are getting rescheduled, it's been pretty difficult to catch a rhythm,” said Altobelli. “That's one of the disadvantages, but we’ll try to go through a good stretch of games like we did midway through the season.”
He’s referring to TFC II’s best run of 2024, which came between April 14 and May 10, when they went unbeaten through five and the matches came more-or-less regularly.
“Having that regular action is good,” agreed Cimermancic. “[If] a game doesn't go the right way, you have the next game coming up right away to make up for it. Your match fitness is good and you can get on a roll.”
This most recent break was more welcome, but the side are looking forward to a more regular flow of games over the next two months. It’s basically one game a week from here to October with the rescheduled game against NYCFC yet to be slotted into one of the midweeks.
“This last break was okay because our roster is really thin right now, but the earlier ones in the season, where you want to get rhythm really fast and then you're a bunch of games back, it’s tough,” said Cimini. “We're happy that we're going to get a rhythm going on, just to get some good consistency in terms of performances.”
Two of the players Cimini will be relying on throughout this push will be Altobelli and Cimermancic. The two have been near ever-present for TFC II. Cimermancic has appeared in all 17 matches, starting all bar two, while Altobelli has appeared in 15, just twice off the bench.
Both have been key contributors: Altobelli has three goals and two assists, while Cimermancic has three goals and one assist.
The 21-year-old Altobelli is one of the members of the leadership group, often wearing the armband as captain.
“It's been a great challenge for me,” he said. “I was so excited when I got to wear it for the first time. I've been at this club since I was 12 years old and it's a big accomplishment to wear the armband.”
“For me, I'm trying, as best I can, off the field to mentor the younger guys coming in, or the new guys coming in, and make them feel welcome, make them feel comfortable,” he continued. “And when they're on the field, just making them play free and [remind them that when] you were a little kid, you always dreamed of being a professional and to enjoy every single moment.”
“There's obviously going to be bad moments – I've been through them all – and there's going to be good moments,” Altobelli weighed. “You just need to know how to keep a level head and be excited to play.”
Cimini has been impressed by the attitude with which the forward has approached this new role.
“In training, on a daily basis, he's a guy that is holding players accountable. When we're doing any sort of exercises and the quality has dropped, he's the first one to say, ‘It's not good enough, let’s go,’” highlighted the coach. “Defensively his work rate has improved a lot in games and in training sessions.”
“He's transitioned more towards the side of ‘I'm here to perform for the team.’ And when he realized that, the individual performances have gotten much better,” Cimini continued. “In the past, he has come off the bench, a 60-to-90 guy, some quality in and around the goal when we need a goal. This year he's become a guy that's 0-to-90 – he's still struggling a little bit in the 80th minute, but physically he’s there and he's usually one of the most dangerous players on the field for us. Everything's pointing in the right direction.”
A leader needs to uphold the standards, reiterate the non-negotiables, bring others along, and put the team first, even when times are tough.
Altobelli has done that even when he himself was going through a rough patch.
“The Chicago game, where we ended up losing 4-1. I missed two big chances and also missed a penalty. The game after that I ended up getting sent off against New York [NYCFC],” he recounted. “That was one of the toughest stretches in my career so far.”
“I didn't want to put my head down, be down on myself, and bring other players down with me. I took it on the chin,” Altobelli continued. “I came into training every day and continued to work hard, even though I knew that I wasn't going to play the next game or the game after that. I continued to lift everyone else up, be the leader that I am, and tell them that I'm not playing, but you guys still need to get the result and that's the most important.”
It was Altobelli, upon his return from suspension, who scored that late equalizer in Columbus.
“It was a great feeling,” he recalled. “It was a much-needed point. We tried to get two, but it was unlucky that we didn't. I want us to keep climbing the table so I'm going to do everything that I can – I'm sure the other players will too – to get these late equalizers or game-winning goals or whatever it is.”
Two matches later, against FC Cincinnati, Altobelli became the all-time appearance leader for TFC II, representing the club for the 85th time. His goal on the weekend against the Red Bulls also moved him into third on the all-time scoring list.
“It's a huge accomplishment, something that I'm super proud of,” he said. “This club means everything to me. This is my first real home, everyone here is a family, I've known a lot of the staff members here for majority of my life. It's an accomplishment that I'm super proud of.”
His teammate Cimermancic, 19, recently crossed the 50th game threshold for TFC II.
“I've been a Toronto FC fan my whole life,” said the teenager. “50 appearances – it's amazing. I hope to push for more and, hopefully, one day make the first team.”
In his third season in MLS NEXT PRO, the midfielder set a simple goal for himself this year: “Just to grow.”
“Last year, I felt like it wasn't able to affect the play a lot; I felt like I was going backwards a lot,” Cimermancic explained. “So this year I've been more confident, whether that's carrying the ball forward or just playing forward more to affect the game in a positive way.”
“With my engine I love to attack and defend,” he added. “Box-to-box is my ideal role.”
Cimini too has challenged him to evolve.
“We always talk about adding market value to players and if we're looking at him as a player, as a midfielder, what are the realistic ways that we can easily raise his market value for the first team?” explained the coach. “With him, it’s the aggression in the duels.”
“He’s not going to be a guy that we're looking for many final passes and many goals, although he has it in his pocket, but he should be able – with the ground cover that he's able to take, the smarts, the ability to anticipate – to start more counterattacks off the interventions,” continued Cimini. “The other thing with him right now is we're taking the opportunity with a thin roster to explore him as a left-sided centre-back, to see what he would look like there. Maybe it helps make him more aggressive when he goes back into the middle.”
Cimermancic welcomed the experience.
“I’ll always play wherever the coach needs me,” he said. “It's a good challenge and I'm going to learn the game more by playing in a different position, one I'd never played before. So I take the challenge and go with it.”
The rest of TFC II’s season begins on Saturday when they travel to Tennessee to face Chattanooga FC, one of the teams they’re chasing.
Cimini always has a tagline he puts in front of his players to prepare for the game ahead.
Heading into Chattanooga it is “Make them work.”
“Make them work, which means make them chase us,” he explained. “They like to have the ball.”
“We always think about what's the phase that they prefer and then we start with a game plan from there. The phase that they prefer is in possession in your half, making you go side-to-side and waiting for a one-vs-one isolation,” Cimini closed. “Make them work.”
