TORONTO — There are many similarities between MLS Cup Week 2016 and 2017 – the same clubs featuring the same coaches and many of the same prominent players, the same venue and the same wintry chill off Lake Ontario.
Yet there’s one glaring difference: one team returns as the reigning champion, while the other looks for an opportunity to exact its revenge.
“After the disappointment and the heartbreak of last year, [we have lived] each and every day this year knowing that in the back of our minds that all we wanted was to give ourselves another crack,” Toronto FC midfielder Michael Bradley told media on Thursday afternoon.
Toronto’s motivation to win its first MLS Cup is evident, and it didn’t take a press conference, which also featured Head Coach Greg Vanney and forward Jozy Altidore, to understand that. All season long, the Reds have been a force. The club won the Canadian Championship, set a league record with 69 points en route to earning the Supporters’ Shield and is now in position to become the first team in MLS history to win the domestic treble.
But that requires getting through the Sounders on Saturday.
“They are a good team defensively,” Vanney said. “When I watch their games, I feel like you have to break their shape and create uncertainty.”
It is easier said than done, considering the Rave Green enter MLS Cup on their best form of the 2017 campaign. The club hasn’t allowed a goal in over six consecutive matches dating back to the final month of the regular season. In the attack, the Sounders have outscored opponents 7-0 in four postseason contests and have demonstrated a balanced offense.
“First you deal with transition by being good with the ball,” Vanney said. “We know they are capable of both possession and in transition. Any team who gets to this point has to be good at both sides of attack that way. We just have to be smart in how we go about business.”
A key factor for the Reds will be Bradley, the club’s captain and dynamic cog in the defensive midfield. His desire to defeat Seattle was tangible at the press conference, yet his respect for the reigning champion as an organization was undeniable.
“They like to do things at a high level, the best possible way,” Bradley said. “I think for the league to have teams that are willing to spend at different areas and do whatever it takes to make sure that, on and off the field, that things are done at the highest level, that’s how the league gets moved forward.
“It’s even more exciting to have another season where two teams who are standing at the end are two of those clubs.”
