TFC Republic Weekly: September 15-21
With Toronto FC out of playoff contention, the club will use the last five games of the season to evaluate players ahead of 2026.
Welcome to the latest edition of TFC Republic Weekly, an email newsletter that will land in the inbox of both paid subscribers and free members of TFC Republic every Monday.
This newsletter will look at what's in store over the next seven days for Toronto FC, and also get a glimpse of what to expect at TFC Republic in the coming days.
So, without further ado...
TFC records 5th straight draw; now winless in 7 games
Idle since the end of August, Toronto FC was short on quality and lacked urgency for most of Saturday night's 1-1 draw vs. the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium. The result marked the club's fifth consecutive draw and extended its winless run to seven games – TFC's last win came in a 1-0 decision over San Diego FC on July 16.
Canadian international Theo Corbeanu scored his team-leading sixth goal of the season in the 75th minute and looked lively in attack for the Reds, but he was the only one. Jules-Anthony Vilsaint had a chance to double the lead late in the game but was denied by Revolution goalkeeper Matt Turner on a one-on-one scoring chance. His failure to convert proved costly.
New England’s Luca Langoni’s shot through a crowd of bodies deflected off Sigurd Rosted and beat Luka Gavran in the 90th minute after Toronto failed to completely clear its lines off a free kick from the home side.
"At the end of the day I'm disappointed for them. I'm not disappointed in them," coach Robin Fraser said of his players.
He added: "I sound like a broken record week after week talking to them. I want them to feel the reward of their work. It's difficult to watch them put in a shift as they have really for maybe two months now. The work has been incredible, incredibly cohesive and very much as a team. But when they don't get the three points, they don't feel the reward of all their hard work."
John Molinaro
Reds officially eliminated from playoff race
Saturday's draw officially knocked TFC out of contention for the playoffs with five matches remaining in the season.
Toronto (5-13-11) sits 12th in the Eastern Conference, 16 points off the pace of the Chicago Fire who hold down the ninth and final playoff berth.
With just over a month left in the campaign, Robin Fraser now turns his attention to analyzing every member of his squad so that he and GM Jason Hernandez can make informed end-of-season roster decisions ahead of the major overhaul of the team that'll take place over the winter.
“The goal for us certainly is to make sure that we evaluate players and we have good opinions on players by the end of the year, and then the other goal is to win every game. For me I don't care if we’re in or out of the playoffs at this point. This is a group that is gaining traction, moving forward. I think our culture has become really good, and I think our team is very cohesive," Fraser said.
He added: “The reality of not being in the playoffs, maybe that will sink in later. But for now, we're trying to be as good as we can every single day.”
John Molinaro
MLS roster freeze date comes and goes with no TFC moves
The MLS roster freeze date was last Friday, at which time all clubs had to submit their final 30-man roster for the remainder of the year. Rosters cannot be changed through to the day after MLS Cup, subject to the league's extreme hardship rule.
The MLS secondary transfer window closed on Aug. 24, which meant clubs weren't allowed to make trades with each other for players, or sign players via transfers from teams outside of the league. However, MLS teams could still make trades for assets (draft picks, general allocation money, international roster slots) and sign out-of-contract free agents up until Friday's roster free date.
But Toronto stood pat and didn't make any trades (they had two open international roster slots) or sign any free agents. The two international roster slots will go unused for the rest of the season, but TFC won't lose them, and they will get them back next year.
GM Jason Hernandez will have some big roster decisions to make once the MLS season is over as no less than 15 members of the current squad will either be out of contract, at the end of their loan deals, or will be in the option year of their contracts.
The list includes Sean Johnson, Raoul Petretta, Sigurd Rosted, Theo Corbeanu, Maxime Dominguez, Derrick Etienne Jr., Kevin Long, Nate Edwards, Kobe Franklin, Nicksoen Gomis, Deandre Kerr, Hugo Mbongue, Charlie Sharp, Kosi Thompson and Vilsaint.
He's also said that the club's No. 1 priority this off-season is to sign a new DP striker, someone with a record of scoring "double digit goals" in a season.
John Molinaro
TFC vs. Columbus Crew on Saturday
Toronto FC will be back in action when it visits the Columbus Crew on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET/Apple TV).
Columbus (13-6-10) sits fifth in the Eastern Conference with a 23-point edge on Toronto, and nine points above the 10th-place New York Red Bulls who are chasing the final playoff berth in the East.
The Crew are coming off a wild 5-4 road win over Atlanta United that saw them take a 5-0 lead after 39 minutes before just holding on for the victory.
“They could have won, to be honest with you,” Crew coach Wilfried Nancy said. “For me, this is not a failure. This is good for us because this is something we have never seen before, to be 5-1 and to struggle and to almost lose the game. This is something that we want to figure out. At the same time, this is football. It could have been an easy game.”
Forward Diego Rossi scored a first half hat trick for Columbus to increase his team-leading tally to 16 on the season. Dylan Chambost is the club's top playmaker with eight assists, while Canadian international Jacen Russell-Rowe has seven goals and two assists.
Note: I will be at Lower.com Field in Columbus to cover Saturday's game, so be sure to visit TFC Republic all weekend in order to check out our special on-site coverage.
RELATED READING: Newsletter || Features || Match reports || Opinion || Q&As || Videos || News || Transactions || TFC 2 ||
Stories to look out for at TFC Republic
One of the reasons why many fans and pundits thought Toronto FC "won" over CF Montreal in the recent trade involving Matty Longstaff was because the Reds received Jules-Anthony Vilsaint, in addition to up to $275,000 US in general allocation money (GAM). Thus far the young forward has proven to be a decent pickup by the Reds, notably scoring in his debut for the club last month. I recently chatted one-on-one with Vilsaint about his time in Montreal, the trade that brought him to Toronto and much more. Look for my feature story to run later this week.
Other stories that will be published later this week include:
- A TFC notebook column after Tuesday or Wednesday's training session (or possible after Thursday's session).
- A piece on the four stories to watch for this week.
- A feature story on TFC 2 prospect Stefan Kapor
- In-depth pre- and post-game coverage of Toronto's match vs. the Columbus Crew.
- An audio interview piece with Brianna Mac Kay of the Columbus Dispatch ahead of Saturday's road game vs. Columbus.
- The weekly TFC Random Thoughts column.
- A new TFC Talk interview with beat reporter James Grossi.
- Regular "TFC Tidbits" stories throughout the week.
- The reader mailbag.
- The weekly TFC 2 report.
- And much more!
TFC Republic mailbag
TFC Republic will feature a regular reader mailbag column where I answer questions from subscribers about Toronto FC and Canadian soccer in general.
I'll answer the best questions submitted to me by TFC Republic readers, so feel free to drop me an email at jmo1897@gmail.com. You can also reach out to me via Twitter.
(Top photo by Lucas Kschischang/Toronto FC)
TFC Republic has a comments section! At the very bottom of every story, there is a feature where you can post your comments, so be sure to share your thoughts and views.
TFC Republic subscribers can get up to a 20% discount on ticket prices for Toronto FC home games during the 2025 MLS regular season and the Canadian Championship.
To receive the special promo code, email me at jmo1897@gmail.com
(Please don't share promo code with non-TFC Republic subscribers).
