Toronto FC II Close Season Strong with Breakthroughs and Rising Talent

November 8, 2024 – MLS NEXT Pro (MLS NEXT Pro)
Toronto FC II News Release

Toronto FC II finished the 2024 MLS NEXT Pro season strong at the start of the month, defeating Crown Legacy FC 4-1 in North Carolina on October 6.

It was an emphatic conclusion to the campaign. Marko Stojadinvoic and 17-year-old Joses Chukwu scored their first goals for the Young Reds, Julian Altobelli set a new club record with goals in nine straight appearances and becoming TFC II’s all-time leading scorer with his 21st goal in the process, and Nate Edwards, recently signed to a first team contract, bagged one as well.

“I was really proud of the way we ended,” said TFC II Head Coach Gianni Cimini last week. “Crown Legacy had eight first team guys on the pitch. [Away from] home, in the heat, against a side we knew was a quality side, older players, and we go there and end up winning 4-1.”

“That was a good response, especially losing 5-1 to Chattanooga the week before,” he continued. “From a mental standpoint to show that level of response was important at the end of the season. To say there’s something about these guys – from the compete, from the character building, all that kind of stuff – that we’re happy about.”

Toronto’s long shot hopes of a playoff berth came to an end a few weeks earlier with a 2-0 road defeat against New York Red Bulls II. The home finale against Chattanooga FC got away from the side, but they head into the offseason knowing they weren’t far off the pace this year.

TFC II finished eight points off the playoff places in the Eastern Conference.

“From a result standpoint, inconsistent,” assessed Cimini. “But to take a contextual view, a new year with a new system, new language, new types of profiles and new positions, new academy players coming in, the likes of Mark Fisher, Ythallo, Hassan [Ayari], Charlie [Staniland] and Abe [Rodriguez], some new faces in the group, you put those things together you can see the reason why.”

“It’s a jump in terms of the record, 10 wins, 12 losses, six ties – teams are making the playoffs with 10 wins,” he compared – Toronto were 6W-14L-8T in 2023. “We’re really happy that we were able to integrate some younger TFC Academy guys. We went the youngest we’ve ever gone. Richard [Chukwu, 16], a 2008, ended up playing 450 minutes, six starts; [17-year-old] Andrei Dumitru had a large amount of minutes with us this year.”

In parallel with the first team, players will wrap up training this week to finish off the year.

“We’ll have exit medicals…