Football
Tom Marshall, Mexico correspondent 6y

Toronto FC's Michael Bradley vows to make city proud in CCL final after attack

Toronto FC captain Michael Bradley vowed to make Torontonians proud during the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions League final, in the wake of a deadly attack in the city on Monday.

Ten people were killed in a van attack that rocked Canada's biggest city and captured international headlines.

And ahead of Wednesday's decisive match against Mexican giants Chivas in Guadalajara, Bradley said he would play with the city of Toronto in mind.

"Following what was going on in Toronto yesterday was heartbreaking," said Bradley in a news conference in Guadalajara. "Toronto is an incredible city, multi-cultural, vibrant, one of the best cities in the world and to see and read and hear and watch what was going on yesterday is not easy.

"Our thoughts and prayers go to the victims, to their families, to their friends. We're going to step on the field tomorrow night and play in a way where everyone back home in Toronto is proud.

"On the flip side, with everything going on yesterday, I couldn't have been more proud of seeing the way first responders, emergency medical teams, policemen responded to such a terrible situation.

"The actual video of the policeman arresting the suspect yesterday was like nothing I've every seen. The bravery to act in the way that he did made me proud for me to call Toronto home.

"When we get our chance tomorrow night we're going to see if we can do something special and make it a night that everyone watching back home can be proud of."

Toronto needs to overcome a 2-1 deficit to win its first CONCACAF title and will have to score at least two goals if it is to have a chance, although coach Greg Vanney wants his team to be smart in attempting to lift the trophy.

"It doesn't change our approach or our thought-process," said Vanney in the same news conference. "We come in with a game plan and ways we want to get on the board and score goals (and) with a plan to try to stop them trying to score goals, but if they happen to score a goal, we continue with what we were doing.

"I don't think it gives us any reason to be more aggressive ... It's a long game, it's 90 minutes. Lots of things can happen.

"We're not in a rush at the beginning. We're not trying to do anything crazy. We can approach this game and play it one play at a time and try to get ourselves into a position to win. That's how we'll approach it."

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