TORONTO — Growing up in England, John Herdman saw plenty of cup competition. He knows the pitfalls that can come with it.
“What you always know is that there’s a few banana skins in the opening rounds,” said the Toronto FC coach. “There’s always some upsets and surprises.”
The semi-pro Simcoe County Rovers hope to do just that at BMO Field on Wednesday in the League1 Ontario champion’s first taste of the Canadian Championship.
“If I’m sitting in the Simcoe camp, they’ll be pretty excited and, I think, hoping for one of the biggest upsets in Canadian football history,” Herdman said.
Simcoe County, based in Barrie, Ont., some 90 kilometres north of Toronto, has wasted little time making news on and off the field.
Its ownership group incudes former Canada captains Julian de Guzman and Atiba Hutchinson and current Canadian Internationals Janine Beckie, Doneil Henry and Cyle Larin. And it has made it to the Canadian Championship after just two seasons in existence.
Simcoe qualified by winning the League 1 Ontario title last year. The club finished runner-up in the 2023 regular season at 15-4-1 and defeated league-leading Scrosoppi FC 4-2 in the championship game last September.
The 14-team Canadian Championship, featuring the three Canadian MLS clubs plus the eight Canadian Premier League franchises and the Ontario, Quebec and B.C. champions, kicked off Tuesday with Vancouver FC at Cavalry FC in an all-CPL matchup. After the Toronto-Simcoe tie, the four other preliminary-round matches go May 1 or 2.
Simcoe covers gas mileage and other expenses for some players but the team is amateur. Some players have day jobs, from working in a chemical plant to serving as deliverymen, while other are students.
In contrast, 20 Toronto players made six-figure salaries or better last season with 12 earning in excess of US$500,000 including Italian stars Lorenzo Insigne (the second-highest-paid player in MLS last season at US$15.4 million) and Federico Bernardeschi (fifth-highest at US$6.295 million).
Toronto, coming off a league-worst 4-20-10 season in MLS, currently stands fifth in the MLS’s Eastern Conference at 4-4-1. TFC has lifted the Voyageurs Cup eight times, most recently in 2020, and finished runner-up five times.
“Winning the cup is on the agenda for this group of players,” said Herdman.
Toronto exited in the Canadian championship quarterfinal last year, beaten 2-1 by CF Montreal.
With the midweek game sandwiched between Saturday’s 1-0 win over visiting New England and a date in Orlando on Saturday, Herdman plans to rotate his roster.
“There have been some players that haven’t seen the field and I’m anticipating they’ll get a lot of minutes, to again feel part of the group and to take a step forward in a big competition,” he said.
TFC will be without the injured Insigne, Richie Laryea, Shane O’Neill, Brandon Servania and Deandre Kerr. Midfielder Alonso Coello is available after going though concussion protocols.
There could be other roster moves.
Toronto GM Jason Hernandez said Monday the club is looking to bring a player in and move another out in advance of Tuesday’s closing of the MLS primary transfer window.
