Teamwork makes the dream work

John Herdman highlights ‘collective efficiency’ in Toronto’s 2-0 victory over Atlanta United

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Toronto FC head coach John Herdman praised his crew’s “collective efficiency” at BMO Area of their 2-0 overcome Atlanta United.

With a number of key gamers out — like Sean Johnson and Richie Laryea — by means of damage and the worldwide break, the Reds wanted to rebound at residence in entrance of their supporters after their latest defeat to NYCFC to maintain the constructive momentum going. They did that and extra as their opponents had been muted to a handful of pictures throughout all the 90 minutes performed.

“A collective efficiency. You take a look at Fede [Bernardeschi]’s efforts, you take a look at Jahkeele [Marshall-Rutty], he took a step up once more, and also you see Alonso, Matty Longstaff, placing good shifts in. It was good to see,” Herdman mentioned postgame.

It was a signature victory for a crew that endured a horrible 2023 season with simply 4 wins in 34 common season video games performed however has now flipped the web page with Herdman on the helm. Over 25,000 followers packed the stands at BMO Area regardless of the chilly, depressing situations up north.

“An enormous shout out to the followers that made it tonight, they make a distinction. We speak about this being a fortress for us, conserving a streak going right here, and the followers had been superior tonight,” mentioned Herdman.

Toronto toppled Atlanta at home

Toronto toppled Atlanta at residence / John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports activities

Herdman went on to elucidate that groups which have objectives of lifting titles might lose a sport right here and there, however they do not enable themselves to fall right into a shedding streak and subsequently slide down the desk.

“You are going to lose video games, however the essential half is you do not go back-to-back losses,” he mentioned. “They needed to struggle for that tonight. We knew Atlanta had been a bit depleted, however we had excuses as nicely. The readability of championship groups, robust groups, these antifragile groups, they do not lose back-to-back. [The guys] fought tooth and nail to maintain a clean-sheet and ensure we acquired that end result to maintain us on observe.”

Herdman additionally gave loads of reward to the primary total decide within the 2024 MLS SuperDraft, Tyrese Spicer. The 23-year-old scored the opening purpose of the sport in his first begin in MLS.

“That is a reasonably particular second. He is acquired high quality; we had a sense he’d rating tonight,” Herdman mentioned of Spicer. “We had that dialog with him and defensively I used to be pleased with his work.”

TFC return to motion at BMO Area on March 30 to tackle Western Convention facet Sporting Kansas Metropolis, trying to keep close to the highest of the Jap Convention standings with one other three factors.

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