Victor Vazquez has departed. Toronto FC are now looking for a new creative midfielder. The time is now, then, for Jonathan Osorio to step up to the plate.
Victor Vazquez might have been the most important player during Toronto FC’s historically brilliant 2017 season. Sebastian Giovinco may grab the headlines with his eye-popping dribbling and propensity to score the truly jaw-dropping, but it was Vazquez that was critical to everything that Toronto did.
His absence last season was noticeable. He missed 13 MLS games last year due to back and hamstring issues. He still totalled eight goals and nine assists in just 1440 minutes. That is a staggering level of production.
But Toronto suffered a down year, largely because of the lack of cohesion and smoothness that the quality Vazquez provides in the middle of the park. Not only is he a terrific creator with scything passes and whipped crosses, but he also provides an element of control and orchestration that Toronto were unable to replicate without him.
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And now, he is gone altogether. Seeking out a final paycheck in his career, Vazquez, who will turn 32 at the end of the January, is off to Qatar, a place renowned for paying the big retirement wage that many footballers want these days — given his age, you can hardly blame him for making the switch. And so, Toronto must now find a replacement, and not just a replacement for when he in injured, but one for the whole season.
Step up, Jonathan Osorio. Osorio has been with Toronto since 2013. But it was only last season that he began to deliver on his talent — and produced as a player of his position and potential should. Oddly, Osorio has played between 27 and 30 games each season that he has been with TFC. He has only scored more than five times once, that being the ten he notched last season. He has only assisted more than five times twice, once in 2015 and once last season. His 17 direct contributions to an MLS goal last season is the most of his career. He actually scored 17 goals in all competitions, a staggering amount from central midfield.
Initially believed to be a hard-working, industrious midfielder who can play in several positions and provide flexible depth, Osorio proved last season that he has far more attacking quality that many would have you believe. Deceptively quick when bursting from deep, he has the nous in the final third to both score and create, an invaluable quality for any midfielder to possess.
What TFC does in trying to replace Vazquez remains to be seen. But with Ali Curtis only recently been hired as the General Manager and Vazquez being such a crucial piece of the puzzle, it might well be difficult to find a suitable like-for-like replacement. Perhaps an in-house successor might serve Toronto better.
Osorio is the natural successor. But for all of his excellent performances last season in a somewhat lacking TFC team, there are serious doubts over whether he can deal with the attacking responsibility that Vazquez flourished in.
There is a long way for Osorio to go. But he has the opportunity. Now he just has to take it.