Toronto FC fires head coach Bob Bradley after team’s struggles

Bob Bradley ran out of time with Toronto FC. And president Bill Manning ran out of patience.

Anxious to halt a slide down the standings that Bradley has been unable to correct, the MLS club fired its head coach/sporting director on Monday.

Terry Dunfield, a 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 been serving as head coach of the under-17 team at the Toronto Academy.

“Bob has been a consummate professional with 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 mired in 14th place in Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference at 3-7-10. It has won just two of its last 17 matches (2-7-8) in all competitions.

TFC, which is seven points out of the playoff picture, hosts 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 14-26-19.

Bob Bradley is the third coach to come and go since the December 2020 departure of Greg Vanney, who led the team to the MLS Cup in 2017. Chris Armas and Javier Perez coached during the 2020 season.

Bradley, a three-time MLS coach of the year, has been in the crosshairs for a while. Injuries and a lack of depth have hamstrung the club.

Toronto was missing 11 players through injury and international duty in the weekend loss to New England.

“The fact that we show moments of good football every game is what we point to,” Bob Bradley said after a 3-0 loss at league-leading Cincinnati on June 21. “But we’ve got to be able to sustain it. We’ve got to be able to eliminate some of those mistakes. And we still have to do more in terms of scoring goals.”

Toronto’s sluggish start to the season was exacerbated by criticism from Italian star Federico Bernardeschi after a 1-0 loss at Austin FC on May 20.

The loss in Austin, with Toronto missing 10 players through injury or suspension, including fellow Italian Lorenzo Insigne, prompted a frustrated outburst from Bernardeschi.

“We don’t play,” Bernardeschi, the fourth-highest-paid player in the league at US$6.295 million this season, said in English. “We play a long pass. We don’t have an idea to play.”

“I think this city, the fans, everybody, don’t deserve this,” he added.

Bradley benched Bernardeschi for the game against D.C. United, calling it a “coach’s decision” rather than disciplinary action.

Bernardeschi returned to the starting lineup after the 2-1 win over D.C.

The 65-year-old Bradley was in charge of everything from recruitment to the on-field product. His ties to the franchise ran even deeper given Michael Bradley, second only to Jonathan Osorio in career appearances with the club, leads the team.

Michael Bradley, who has been with the club since 2014, has been sidelined since early April through injury.

But after taking charge, Bob Bradley’s effort to revive the franchise seemed one step forward, two steps back, at times.

In addition to the depleted roster, Bradley also hinted several times about inheriting a tangled web of player contracts that needed to be cleaned up. A turnaround would take time, he suggested.

Finding the right supporting cast for Insigne and Bernardeschi proved to be an issue, exacerbated by a string of injuries. Bradley was rarely able to field his preferred midfield trio of Michael Bradley, Osorio and fellow Canadian Mark-Anthony Kaye.

A recent injury crisis at centre-back, with three of the four available players injured, forced Bradley to use first Kaye and then, when he got injured, Richie Laryea in the heart of the defence.

Injuries (groin and foot) limited Insigne’s play in 2023. The 31-year-old managed one goal in his first seven league appearances but has come on strong of late, involved in Toronto’s last five goals (two goals, three assists).

Finding a striker to complement the Italians in the attack was also an issue. Spanish forward Jesus Jimenez was shipped to FC Dallas before the 2022 season and newcomer Adama Diomande was rarely fit. Bob Bradley tried young Canadian forwards. Ayo Akinola, Jordan Perruzza and Deandre Kerr, also trying Insigne in a more central role.

Nothing seemed to work. TFC went through a 418-minute league-scoring drought after CJ Sapong’s strike in a 1-0 win over visiting New York City FC on April 29. Toronto failed to score during a four-game winless run in May against New England (2-0), CF Montreal (2-0), the New York Red Bulls (0-0) and Austin (1-0).

Toronto did not manage a shot on target against Montreal or Austin.

A big soccer brain, Bradley is a professorial-type coach, challenging players to think and assess options and then make the right decision.

At times, his bluntness was surprising such as his May 17 take on Akinola — “His finishing needs to get better.”

Bradley was announced as the club’s 12th head coach on Nov. 24, 2021, after a 6-18-10 season that started with Armas and ended with Perez in charge. Bradley was also given the title of sporting director.

At the time, Manning said Bradley, who ranks third in coaching wins in the league 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 started reshaping the club.

Despite the midseason arrival of Insigne and Bernardeschi, Toronto stumbled to a 9-18-7 record in 2022. The arrival of the Italians sparked the team, with TFC losing just once in their first eight league matches (4-1-3).

But the club, hurt by injuries, took a nose dive late in the season. The club lost its last five league outings, outscored 16-6.

Bradley strengthened the defence before this season with the signings of goalkeeper Sean Johnson, centre-backs Matt Hedges and Sigurd Rosted and fullback Raoul Petretta.

But the regular season got off to a poor start. After rallying for a 2-1 lead at D.C. United with seven minutes remaining, Toronto conceded goals in the 90th and 98th minute to lose 3-2.

Toronto went unbeaten for the next seven games, but six of those were draws. With injuries mounting, the team then swooned.

It started with a lopsided 4-2 loss April 11 at Philadelphia that saw the Union take their foot off the gas after going up 4-0 after 56 minutes. TFC rallied to beat visiting NYCFC the next week but then went winless and scoreless the next four league games.

The club also exited the Canadian Championship at the first hurdle, beaten 2-1 May 9 by Montreal in the cup quarterfinal.

Bradley previously compiled a 43-25-12 record as head coach of the U.S. national team from 2006 to 2011 and 22-8-6 in charge of Egypt 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 once 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.