Joshua Kloke - Come on You Reds: The Story of Toronto FC

How does one sum up a lifetime? In Come on You Reds, Joshua Kloke does just that for Toronto FC, navigating the tumultuous history of the club from perennial punchline to MLS champions and beyond. Deftly highlighting the essential moments, both on and off the pitch, Kloke unearths innumerable stories and insights that will be revelatory to even the most ardent of TFC fans. It is a must read for all TFC, MLS, and soccer fans.

James Grossi, MLSsoccer.com

Joshua Klokes account of the many ups and downs of Toronto FCs first decade of existence should be considered required reading for any player, coach, administrator, or fan with a stake in Canadian soccer. Kloke details the phenomenon of TFCs loyal, unwavering support, its many futile attempts to build a winning product, and its recent rise into one of the continents soccer powerhouses. There are important lessons to be learned in the clubs successes and failures alike, and Come On You Reds shines an in-depth and well-researched but also highly accessible light on them.

Oliver Platt, TFC Report

A compelling tale of how Toronto FC went from being the most tediously tragic franchise in Major League Soccer to capturing not just their first MLS Cup, but the imagination of a city too. Kloke does an excellent job of conveying how exasperation finally led to euphoria, and all the bits in between. There are parts of this story that defy belief, but TFCs tale serves as a reminder to all soccer fans of all teams always believe.

Graham Ruthven, soccer reporter
(Guardian, Eurosport U.K., Sportsman)

Over its first decade of existence, Toronto FC managed to bring the full spectrum of sporting experience to its fervent fan base. Come On You Reds manages to take the reader inside both the club as well as its fandom. From the birth of an idea, through the years of mismanagement to finally getting it all right in glorious fashion, Joshua Kloke describes just how Toronto FC became the pin-up club of Major League Soccer.

James Sharman, Sportsnet

From the moment the club was first dreamed up in 2005 through their treble triumph in 2017, Toronto FC has consistently been at the vanguard of pushing Major League Soccer forward. The results havent always pretty, but TFC has almost always been ahead of the curve in terms of support, willingness to spend, and, at least since 2015, results. In Come On You Reds, Kloke chronicles the clubs birth, those long years of mismanagement and misguided ambition, and its rise and ultimate triumph in a way that will entertain and inform the most ardent TFC supporters, casual Toronto sports fans, and fans of other MLS clubs alike. This isnt just a story about a team this is a book about how, if its done right, an MLS club can become a continental power and a true part of the fabric of their city.

Sam Stejskal, MLSsoccer.com

Copyright Joshua Kloke, 2018

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purpose of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Cover image: Carmen Giraudy
Printer: Webcom

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Kloke, Joshua, 1983-, author
Come on you Reds : the story of Toronto FC / Joshua Kloke ; foreword
by Michael Bradley.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-4597-4237-6 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-4597-4238-3 (PDF).-
ISBN 978-1-4597-4239-0 (EPUB)

1. Toronto FC (Soccer team)--History. 2. Soccer teams--Ontario-
Toronto--History. I. Bradley, Michael, 1987-, writer of foreword II. Title.

21 2 3 4 5 22 21 20 19 18

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country, and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Ontario, through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and the Government of Canada.

Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. Lan dernier, le Conseil a investi 153 millions de dollars pour mettre de lart dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

The publisher is not responsible for websites or their content unless they are owned by the publisher.

Printed and bound in Canada.

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For Jess, who knows what it means to be a fan

I SAID THIS RIGHT AFTER the 2017 MLS Cup, on the field: for 364 days a group of guys had to live with the ghosts of losing a final at home on penalties and all of the pain, disbelief, suffering, frustration, heartbreak, tears, and everything that goes along with it. There was not one day that I did not think about losing that final and trying to get back to the next one. We lived that together. You feel like your chance at redemption is never going to come. So you just work every single day. You keep chipping away, with this idea: in the end, if you give enough, youll get another chance. We did all of that.

Theres a pride in doing that, of living that, with your teammates, with your coaches, with everybody at the club, with the city, with the fans, because you look at the south end and you see the same faces every game. In any other city, you lose a final at home and all anybody wouldve wanted to say is You idiots. You blew it. All you had to do was win a game at home and we were going to get to lift the trophy, and you blew it. And thats the nice version. Theres places, and Ive played at one, where there would be fans waiting outside the training ground or outside your house and thered be some issues. With our fans and our city, it was the complete opposite. People were heartbroken, but people werent angry. Nobody pointed fingers, nobody blamed anybody. There was heartbreak, but then there was pride. People felt like they had been a part of something different and unique and something that made them feel.

I can remember in the days after that first final, when we started to get out a little more, the reaction from fans and people wed see in the city: I was almost embarrassed because they were congratulating me as if wed won. It was so genuine. I thought to myself,