

Posted by

Armen Bedakian ,

April 30, 2014 Email

Armen Bedakian Twitter @ArmenBedakian Read this on your iPhone/iPad or Android device





So here’s a harsh truth: the 2014 Amway Canadian Championship cannot be a priority for Toronto FC – or, at the very least, the club needs to win it with reserves – in order to have a successful MLS regular season. It’s a matter of timing and of cost-benefit, and, therefore, logic versus sentiment.



Obviously, winning the Amway Canadian Championship and qualifying for Major League Soccer’s postseason is the perfect scenario, but there are a few factors preventing Toronto FC from being able to realize that dream; the first, and this goes back to the point about timing, is that the club has to schedule around the 2014 FIFA World Cup this year. Thankfully, this is a problem unique to the 2014 season (and again in 2018) but what this means it that, at minimum, Toronto FC will lose Michael Bradley and Julio Cesar, and at worst, loses Jermain Defoe as well.



Now, the Amway Canadian Championship is not a tournament that requires that much exertion to win, since it is simply a tournament with two rounds and five teams. However, winning the first round double header against the Vancouver Whitecaps means adding another round of games against the winner of the next leg, and winning the tournament means adding another wave of CONCACAF Champions League group games; all this, in the middle of an already tough season where the roster has been stretched to its limits in the first six games of the year.



The manner in which the Montreal Impact limped to the end of last season certainly highlighted the perils of competing in two competitions at one time. Simply put, there aren’t many teams in MLS that have the depth to be able to compete effectively in both the MLS and Canadian Championship/CONCACAF Champions League at the same time.



The World Cup means Toronto FC, more than any other Canadian outfit, must manage its roster wisely. Adding more games to the 2014 schedule and trying to maintain the ultimate goal – MLS playoffs – is foolish. The simple fact is that Toronto FC would have to split its commitments, instead of putting 100 per cent effort into the more important competition this season, Major League Soccer. This, coupled with injury risks and the sheer unlikeliness of even winning the CONCACAF Champions League means sacrificing the playoff effort for a Canadian Championship win is poor management of resources. The only benefit of winning the Amway Canadian Championship is in hoisting a trophy and feeling good about it.



Is it blip of joy worth weeks of hardship later on? That’s up to you to decide. If it were left to me, I’d register the TFC senior academy for the tournament and focus all my efforts towards reaching the playoffs. At the very least, I would not field of TFC’s key every day players such as Defoe, Bradley, De Rosario, Caldwell, Morrow, Henry and Osorio. A team like TFC should follow the Mexican model and allow the club’s young players to use those games to gain experience and to prove that they are good enough to step up.



It has been eight years without a spot in the postseason. That has to change.