Thirteen months ago, Thomas Rongen was sitting on a plastic chair in Milwaukee scouting the USSF’s Development Academy Finals Week for potential players to add to the U.S. youth national teams.

Today, he is sitting in an office in Toronto building an MLS academy with the intention of never playing in the Development League.

After being fired from his post as the U.S. U20 Men’s National Team head coach in May, Rongen stuck around to help scout for the federation for a couple of months before his contract ended in December. 

The former YNT head coach took over the reigns as the Academy Director for Toronto FC in January. Seven months later, his academy did something no MLS club has done – put both of its teams in the finals of the MLS Generation adidas Cup.

Rongen was on hand last week to watch his outfit breeze past fellow MLS academies before falling short in the final of both age groups.

Toronto FC players celebrate a goal.

“With our new facility and the changes the club made when I came in, it is a new paradigm,” Rongen told TopDrawerSoccer.com. “This is a little bit of a watershed moment. Reinforcing again that we are doing things right with two teams in the final, it has not happened before in this tournament.”

One of the things that Rongen believes TFC is doing correctly is avoiding the Academy and competing against older teams in Canada instead.

“We are the only club that will not be a part of the Development Academy,” he said. “I think our results showed that we are actually in a better position than being part of the Academy.”

The Dutch coach went on to explain that the U17/U18 team at TFC plays in the Canadian Soccer League (CSL), which is a semi-professional league that is considered the third-tier of soccer in Canada. The U15/U16 team plays in the CSL second division. 

“With all due respect, I think the success from our club is because our guys are used to playing against faster and quicker guys,” Rongen said. “For us, the Academy is not something we are considering.”

To be fair, Generation adidas Cup is hardly a measuring stick. The tournament can turn into a glorified youth All-Star game with many teams bringing in national team players to audition and fill out rosters.

However, Toronto FC did impress with its style of play regardless of how seriously some of the other academies took the competition.

“We are trying to play dominant football,” Rongen said. “Trying to make the other team adjust to us. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t. Within that, we are going to continue to push the two-three special players we hope we can deliver to our first team.”

When asked about bringing the results into the equation in player development, Rongen spoke about the balancing act required.

“That is always a fine line,” he said. “The older we get with the age groups, the more winning becomes part of it. But first and foremost, we are looking for technical, attacking, aggressive football.”

Even though Rongen is confident in his vision and the direction that his club is headed, this early success was still a bit surprising even for him.

“Not necessarily what we expected this early, but something that we can say in short term that our investment is paying off.”

Rongen honestly believes he can build a powerhouse in Toronto based off what he has seen from the local talent.

“The talent pool in this city is as good or better [than anywhere I have been],” he added. “I think we can build a club here from within that has a soccer culture. We are building something that is very important.”

And he plans on doing it all without the Development Academy. 

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