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.