Sebastian Giovinco has been able to do just about everything for Toronto FC. But getting out of the team parking lot defeated him this week.
Giovinco, usually the first to leave after practice, found his car blocked on both sides by vehicles belonging to teammates Will Johnson and Drew Moor. A bemused Atomic Ant walked around the cars, unable to squeeze into his, as teammates guffawed from a safe distance at the team training centre.
Rookie Tsubasa Endoh captured the prank on video and posted it on his Instagram account, with the hashtag TFCCameBackHomeButSebaCantEvenGoHome. Endoh credited Johnson and captain Michael Bradley for coming up with the idea.
"They didn't want to let me go home," a smiling Giovinco said through an interpreter Friday after training.
"It's definitely funny for me," he added. "I think that jokes like this within the dressing room are what make us more united."
Will there be revenge, he was asked?
'We'll see," he said mischievously.
Next up for Giovinco, however, are the Vancouver Whitecaps who visit BMO Field on Saturday night.
Vancouver (5-5-2) has won two straight since going a six-game stretch (1-3-2) with just one win. The Whitecaps defeated visiting Chicago 2-1 in a midweek game that saw striker Masato Kudo suffer a fractured jaw in a nasty collision with Fire goalkeeper Matt Lampson.
With Octavio Rivero nursing a sprained ankle, Panama veteran Blas Perez scored twice off the bench -- once via bicycle kick -- after Kudo went down against the Fire.
The Whitecaps will also be without towering centre back Kendall Waston, suspended for yellow card accumulation.
Toronto, which beat FC Dallas in its home opener 1-0 last week, will be missing midfielder Marky Delgado (hamstring). But coach Greg Vanney has a ready replacement in Canadian Jonathan Osorio.
For Bradley, the prank involving the team's biggest star is a sign of a team that gets on well.
"It's a good group," said Bradley. "Guys enjoy spending time with each other. That's been the case since the first day of pre-season. And I think even now with time and as the season goes on, guys get to know each other better, in some ways you enjoy the time together even more.
"In any good team, that's always important. The ability to have fun together at times, the ability to know when to be serious, when to push each other, when to get after (each other) a little bit, all these things come into play."
Bradley and his teammates will be looking to give Giovinco an assist this weekend. His next goal will be a club-record 29th in MLS play, moving past the retired Dwayne De Rosario on the franchise all-time list.
Toronto FC, which managed five shutouts in a 2015 season that saw it surrender a league-worst 58 goals in 34 games, can also match that shutout total in Game 10 Saturday. Vanney's team has given up a league-low seven goals so far in 2016 and stands second in goals conceded per game (0.78).
"We're in a good way at the moment. (But) you don't establish an identity by talking about it," said Bradley, keeping things in perspective.
"Through nine games so far this season, things have been done at a pretty high level ... but nine games don't mean anything, don't make a season and we are the first ones to understand that. That we're not good enough yet to be able to take our foot off the gas, at all."
It's Vancouver's sixth game in three weeks but just the fourth for Toronto over the same time period. The TFC fixture sheet gets more crowded next week with home games against New York City FC and Columbus Crew SC.
