{"id":42066,"date":"2026-05-12T15:33:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T15:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/42066\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T15:33:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T15:33:43","slug":"brazil-legends-vs-toronto-fc-was-a-success-whats-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/42066\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil Legends vs. Toronto FC was a success. What’s next?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over 34,000 fans packed BMO Field on Friday night to watch Ronaldinho and his Brazil Legends team take on a squad of Toronto FC alumni<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that Ronaldinho was the main draw, as were his high-profile teammates including Adriano, Portuguese star Ricardo Quaresma and Andre Santos, but getting some of Toronto FC\u2019s best-ever players back together again was a sight for sore eyes for Reds fans. Sebastian Giovinco, Jozy Altidore and Jimmy Brennan all scored for the home side on a special night on the lakeshore. <\/p>\n

With Major League Soccer switching to a winter schedule beginning in 2027-28, could BMO Field host more games like this over the following summers? Here are a few more ideas for similar events that could draw crowds out to BMO Field \u2014 some admittedly more likely than others.<\/p>\n

Related Reading: Toronto FC\u2019s all-time Best XI: Who would make the Reds\u2019 lineup?<\/a><\/p>\n

10-year reunion for the 2017 Toronto FC treble-winners<\/p>\n

Giovinco, Altidore, Steven Beitashour, Ashtone Morgan, Jay Chapman and Jordan Hamilton all suited up for Toronto FC on Friday night, but there were a few major absences for it to be a true 2017 reunion. The big one was Michael Bradley, now the head coach of Red Bull New York, who will have summers off beginning next year as well.<\/p>\n

Victor Vazquez was also supposed to play against Brazil, but didn\u2019t, while there are several others playing or employed elsewhere that fans would have loved to see if they were available.<\/p>\n

Finding a unique way to honour Toronto FC\u2019s golden era should be front of mind, in a similar way to this season\u2019s ongoing 20th season celebrations, and playing a match involving more of the players from the treble-winning squad against a high-profile opponent might be the way to go.<\/p>\n

It could even be in the form of Toronto FC Red versus Toronto FC White, though that likely would not draw as big of a crowd.<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy: Shaun McLeod\/Waking The Red<\/p>\n

Canada vs. Italy<\/p>\n

Italian-Canadians had a World Cup match between the two nations in Toronto snatched from them by Bosnia and Herzegovina in the UEFA qualifying playoffs. Could an alumni match be the way to give local Azzurri fans a memorable night out at BMO Field?<\/p>\n

Many nations would draw well in Toronto if past stars suited up, but Italians in particular would go nuts for something like this. If you thought Ronaldinho getting swarmed at a shawarma restaurant in Mississauga was crazy, imagine Francesco Totti\u2019s reception at Cafe Diplomatico.<\/p>\n

Giving Sebastian Giovinco a cameo for both teams would be fun, but don\u2019t expect two other former Italian Reds to suit up for either side.<\/p>\n

Related Reading: Ex-Toronto FC star Lorenzo Insigne relegated to Italy\u2019s Serie C with Pescara<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto FC vs. CF Montreal<\/p>\n

Once fans north of the Canada-U.S. border defrost from winter editions of the 401 Derby, giving them a trip down memory lane with an alumni game, or one in each of Toronto and Montreal, might be a fun way to turn the calendar over to the summer. <\/p>\n

Several players have played for both clubs, including current TFC talents Djordje Mihailovic, Raheem Edwards and Jules-Anthony Vilsaint, as well as Montreal trio Prince Owusu, Matty Longstaff and Luca Petrasso. Current Forge FC captain Kyle Bekker is also still playing in the area, but depending on when he hangs up his boots, might still be playing for the Canadian Premier League powerhouse in the summer months.<\/p>\n

Reds fans would love another chance to boo someone like Ignacio Piatti, and he\u2019d love trying to silence them like he did 11 times in 20 career matches against Toronto. Altidore is the Canadian Classique\u2019s all-time leading scorer, though, with 13 goals.<\/p>\n

Canada vs. USA<\/p>\n

The greatest rivalry in many sports in this corner of the world is Canada vs. USA, and that could present another mouthwatering matchup.<\/p>\n

It could even be a mixed-gender event, with players from both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s national teams of each nation taking part. Christine Sinclair and Atiba Hutchinson versus Abby Wambach and Landon Dovovan would be a treat.<\/p>\n

Getting some American TFC legends like Bradley and Altidore involved would entice the Toronto crowd as well. <\/p>\n

CanMNT vs. CanWNT<\/p>\n

On that note, how cool would it be to see legends from the Canadian national teams square off against one another? For a bit of extra fun, there could be two captains who draft players from either national team to build the squads. <\/p>\n

The possibilities for these things truly are endless.<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy: Sean Pollock\/Waking The Red<\/p>\n

Who would you want to see playing in a legends match? Drop your ideas in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over 34,000 fans packed BMO Field on Friday night to watch Ronaldinho and his Brazil Legends team take…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5310,17,12526,18380,1104,18381,318,359,18382,5312,48,330,6133,18383],"class_list":["post-42066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-bmo-field","tag-canada","tag-canmnt","tag-canwnt","tag-cf-montreal","tag-jozy-altidore","tag-major-league-soccer","tag-mls","tag-sebastian-giovinco","tag-tfc","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-fc","tag-usa","tag-usmnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}