TORONTO -- Toronto FC coach Greg Vanney says Jozy Altodore's contributions this season go far beyond the stat sheet.
With five goals in five playoff games this fall, Altidore is one of the main reasons TFC -- who are experiencing their best season in a mostly forgettable 10-year history -- will host Saturday's MLS Cup final against the Seattle Sounders.
"He's always played great. He's always played hard for this team. He's always done everything that needs to be done on the field and the reward right now is he's scoring goals and winning games and enjoying himself," Vanney told a news conference on Thursday.
"And everybody wants to talk about that. But this is a guy who has always competed every single day for this team and that should go noticed, regardless of whether the ball hits the back of the net or not."
The 27-year-old Altidore has been in some of the best form of his career since returning in July from a hamstring injury that sidelined him for more than two months. He notched 10 goals over the final 15 games of the regular season before upping his strike rate to a goal a game over the last six weeks.
Yet it was a far different story at the beginning of the 2016 campaign, which began with an eight-match scoreless streak before that aforementioned leg ailment sidelined him in mid-May.
The barren spell led to criticism in some quarters, even among Reds fans. But Vanney was quick to point out on Thursday that Altidore's hold-up play and imposing physical presence was instrumental in helping Toronto navigate an eight-game road trip to start the season as BMO Field underwent renovations.
Vanney's side amassed a respectable 11 points from those games, with the New Jersey-born, Florida-raised forward playing 90 minutes in impressive road wins against D.C. United and Canadian rival Montreal Impact.
"At the beginning of the year, we were grinding out games on the road and Jozy didn't get a goal, but we were winning games," Vanney said.
"And we were winning games because of the amount of work he was willing to do for us on the road to compete. Whatever he sees needs to get done in the game, he'll do it. That, for me, counts a whole lot -- sometimes more than putting the ball in the back of the net."
Still, Altidore has found the net plenty during a decade-long pro career that began at age 16.
He has 37 goals in 99 games for the U.S. squad, for which he played at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, and his strike rate of .38 goals per game is second in U.S. history behind Clint Dempsey and ahead of Landon Donovan, the U.S.'s all-time top scorer whose record he is on pace to break. Yet Altidore has also been underappreciated by U.S. fans in much the way he was in Toronto, at least at first.
Altidore arrived in Toronto from English Premier League side Sunderland at the beginning of the 2015 season as part of a swap deal for English striker Jermain Defoe. He scored 13 times in 25 appearances that first year. This season he's even more at home. And as Vanney said, he's enjoying himself more than ever.
"I've always enjoyed it, obviously, but when you're young sometimes and a lot of things get put your way, you forget that it's a game, that you're having fun," Altidore said on Thursday. "As a young player being involved with the national team and playing overseas, sometimes it too quickly became a job in the sense that I didn't know how to balance the two."
Now Altidore and TFC have a chance to claim a championship. And as long as they pull it off, he doesn't much care if he pads those impressive postseason numbers.
"What you can accomplish as a group," Altidore said, "Is far greater than what you can accomplish by yourself."
