"That feeling, that excitement that I felt running through my body during that moment, I still go back to pretty frequently." Richie Laryea is talking about Cyle Larin's late equaliser against Bosnia-Herzegovina at BMO Field back in June — 45,000 people, a country discovering what it felt like to host World Cup football. This Saturday, roughly 30,000 will show up for a Toronto FC side sitting 12th in the Eastern Conference.
The drop-off is real. And Laryea isn't pretending otherwise.
The 31-year-old fullback took five or six days off after Canada's round of 16 exit to Morocco before returning to training. He didn't travel. "Tired of travelling," he said flatly. Since then, he's started all four of TFC's post-World Cup MLS matches and played every minute of each one — a workload that says everything about how short-handed this squad is.
Six points back with 16 to play
Those four games have returned just three points from a possible 12. TFC now sit six points behind D.C. United for the ninth and final playoff spot, with 16 games remaining. The maths are uncomfortable — not impossible, but the margin for error is basically gone at this point.
The mental adjustment hasn't been easy, and Laryea isn't dressing it up. "To be honest, it's tough to be able to go from playing in the World Cup, and then... we're playing away in Montreal," he said. That's a sentence that tells you everything about the psychological whiplash of club football after a summer like that.
Toronto's current record of 3-7-8 makes them one of the shakier bets in Eastern Conference playoff markets. The return of Laryea and Jonathan Osorio was supposed to shift that — and in terms of performances, there are signs — but the points haven't followed yet.
Laryea's letter and a longer responsibility
This week Laryea wrote directly to the club's supporter groups, urging them back into the stadium. He's framing TFC's remaining season as part of something bigger — a continuation of what Canada's national team built this summer.
"We have to take that into Toronto FC now, where we're winning games, bringing this club to new heights and being able to lift trophies," he said. Noble sentiment. The fixtures are less poetic.
He does have one relevant reference point. Laryea was part of the 2019 TFC side that went unbeaten in its final 10 regular-season games to reach MLS Cup. He knows how fast momentum can shift in this league once a run starts. The question is whether this squad has the depth to manufacture one.
TFC haven't made the playoffs since 2020. That's the drought they're chasing. Six points in 16 games is the gap that needs closing, starting Saturday against New England at a BMO Field that will feel noticeably quieter than it did two months ago.
