Toronto FC coach Bob Bradley has been fired
Bob Bradley ran out of time at Toronto FC. And President Bill Manning ran out of patience.
Anxious to halt a drop in the standings that Bradley has been unable to correct, the MLS club fired its head coach/sporting director on Monday.
Terry Dunfield, former TFC player and Canadian international, has been named interim head coach. The 41-year-old, who also played for the Vancouver Whitecaps and Manchester City, has served as the head coach of the under-17 team at the Toronto Academy.
“Bob has been a consummate professional at Toronto FC and we thank him for his passion and tireless work during his time here. We are all disappointed that we were not able to achieve the results we expected,” Manning said in a five-paragraph statement . .
The club also axed Mike Sorber, Bradley’s right-hand man who was both assistant coach and technical director.
Toronto, which lost 2-1 at the New England Revolution on Saturday, is 3-7-10 in Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference in 14th place. It has won just two of its last 17 games (2-7-8) in all competitions.
TFC, which is seven points off the playoff picture, will host Real Salt Lake on Saturday.
Bradley, whose son is TFC captain Michael Bradley, took charge of Toronto in November 2021. His record with the club was 26-14-19.
Bob Bradley is the third coach to come and go since the departure of Greg Vanney in December 2020, who led the team to the MLS Cup in 2017. Chris Armas and Javier Perez coached during the 2020 season.
Three-time MLS Coach of the Year Bradley has been in the crosshairs for some time. Injuries and a lack of depth have crippled the club.
Toronto missed 11 players through injury and an international game in the weekend loss to New England.
“The fact that we show moments of good football every game is what we point to,” said Bob Bradley after a 3-0 loss at league leader Cincinnati on June 21. “But we have to be able to keep it up. We have to get rid of some of those mistakes. And we have to do even more in terms of scoring goals.”
Toronto’s sluggish start to the season was compounded by criticism from Italian star Federico Bernardeschi after a 1–0 loss at Austin FC on May 20.
The loss in Austin, which saw Toronto lose 10 players through injury or suspension, including compatriot Lorenzo Insigne, led to a frustrated outburst from Bernardeschi.
“We’re not playing,” Bernardeschi, the league’s fourth-highest-paid player at $6.295 million this season, said in English. “We play long pass. We have no idea to play.”
“I think this city, the fans, everyone doesn’t deserve this,” he added.
Bradley benched Bernardeschi for the game against D.C. United, calling it a “coach’s decision” rather than a disciplinary action.
Bernardeschi returned to the starting line-up after the 2-1 victory over DC
Bradley, 65, was in charge of everything from recruiting to on-field product. His ties to the franchise went even deeper as Michael Bradley, second only to Jonathan Osorio in career appearances at the club, manages the team.
Michael Bradley, who has been playing for the club since 2014, has been sidelined with an injury since early April.
But after taking charge, Bob Bradley’s attempt to revive the franchise seemed at times one step forward, at other times two steps back.
In addition to the depleted roster, Bradley also hinted several times about inheriting a tangled web of player contracts that needed to be cleared. A turnaround would take time, he suggested.
Finding the right supporting cast for Insigne and Bernardeschi proved to be a problem, compounded by a series of injuries. Bradley was rarely able to field his favored midfield trio of Michael Bradley, Osorio and fellow Canadian Mark-Anthony Kaye.
A recent centre-back injury crisis, which saw three of the four available players injured, forced Bradley to use first Kaye and then, when injured, Richie Laryea in the heart of defence.
Injuries (groin and foot) limited Insigne’s play in 2023. The 31-year-old scored one goal in his first seven league appearances, but has come on strong lately and been involved in Toronto’s last five goals (two goals, three assists) .
Finding a striker to complement the Italians in attack was also a problem. Spanish striker Jesus Jimenez was shipped to FC Dallas for the 2022 season and newcomer Adama Diomande was rarely fit. Bob Bradley tried young Canadian forwards. Ayo Akinola, Jordan Perruzza and Deandre Kerr, who also try Insigne in a more central role.
Nothing seemed to work. TFC went through a 418th minute league goal following CJ Sapong’s strike in a 1–0 victory over visiting New York City FC on April 29. Toronto failed to score during a four-game scoreless run in May against New England (2-0), CF Montreal (2-0), the New York Red Bulls (0-0) and Austin (1-0) ).
Toronto failed to shoot on target against either Montreal or Austin.
A big football brain, Bradley is a professor-type coach, challenging players to think and assess options and then make the right decision.
Sometimes his bluntness was surprising, like his take on Akinola on May 17: “His finishing needs to get better.”
Bradley was announced as the club’s 12th head coach on November 24, 2021 after a 6-18-10 season that began with Armas and ended with Perez at the helm. Bradley was also given the title of sporting director.
At the time, Manning said that Bradley, who ranks third in league coaching wins behind Bruce Arena and the late Sigi Schmid, was taking over a team “that needs a significant makeover”.
More than 30 players have moved on since Bradley began reforming the club.
Despite the mid-season arrival of Insigne and Bernardeschi, Toronto stumbled to a 9-18-7 record in 2022. The arrival of the Italians fueled the team, with TFC losing just once in their first eight league matches (4-1-3).
But the club, hurt by injuries, took a nosedive late in the season. The club lost their last five league games 16-6.
Bradley strengthened the defense for this season with the arrival of goalkeeper Sean Johnson, centre-backs Matt Hedges and Sigurd Rosted and full-back Raoul Petretta.
But the regular season got off to a bad start. After rallying from a 2–1 lead at D.C. United with seven minutes remaining, Toronto conceded goals in the 90th and 98th minutes to lose 3–2.
Toronto went undefeated for the next seven games, but six of those were drawn. With injuries mounting, the team swooned.
It began with a lopsided 4–2 loss on April 11 in Philadelphia, where the Union took a 4–0 lead after 56 minutes. TFC rallied to defeat a visiting NYCFC the following week, but then went winless and winless for the next four league games.
The club also exited the Canadian Championship at the first hurdle, being beaten 2–1 by Montreal in the quarter-final of the Cup on May 9.
Bradley previously had a record of 43-25-12 as head coach of the U.S. national team from 2006 to 2011 and 22-8-6 as Egypt’s leader from 2011 to 2013.
At club level, he previously coached Stabæk in Norway (2014-15), Le Havre in France (2015-16) and Swansea City of the English Premier League (2016).
In MLS, Bradley was the first head coach in Chicago Fire history and led the expansion team to the 1998 MLS Cup championship and U.S. Open Cup double, while earning his first MLS Coach of the Year award. He coached the New York/New Jersey MetroStars (now Red Bulls) from 2003 to 2005 and Chivas USA in 2006, when he was again named Coach of the Year.
Bradley took over expansion Los Angeles FC in July 2017. Two years later, he won his third Coach of the Year award after LAFC claimed the MLS Supporters’ Shield.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 26, 2023.
