TORONTO -- A familiar face could help play spoiler against Toronto FC on Saturday.
With five games left in the regular season and the Reds keen to clinch home field for their first playoff appearance in franchise history, they host former TFC designated player Gilberto and the last-place Chicago Fire.
"It's nice to be back," Gilberto said with the help of a translator Friday afternoon. "I enjoyed my time here, but it just didn't work out for me here. I understand soccer is a business, Toronto wanted to move on and so did I."
The powerful Brazilian striker had seven goals and five assists for Toronto in 2014, but became expendable when the club signed Jozy Altidore, giving the club one more than the allowable three designated players.
Toronto sent Gilberto to Vasco da Gama in Brazil.
Asked if he'd still like to see Gilberto in a TFC jersey, head coach Greg Vanney said "It's tough to say.
"He's a good player, so you can always benefit from having good players. But. . . you're only allowed so many designated players and what are the best three designated players that combine with each other and it just so happened that we had the opportunity to do what we did," Vanney said.
"But he's a very good player, we have to be alert for him (Saturday), and he's an emotional player so if we can make things difficult for him and challenge him in different ways, hopefully we can get him frustrated, and maybe that will be to our benefit."
Toronto is fifth in the Eastern Conference, and trails D.C. United by five points with a game in hand. The Montreal Impact are hot on the Reds' heels in sixth.
Every game from here on in is a must-win, says defender Justin Morrow.
"I'll say that at this point in the year, every game is massive, and we have to take advantage of our home games," Morrow said.
The Fire limped into Toronto like a wounded animal, sitting dead last in the league and with an interim head coach in Brian Bliss, normally the club's technical director. Canadian head coach Frank Yallop and his assistants, including Canadian Marc Bircham, were fired on Sunday.
A team in the midst of emotional upheaval can sometimes prove deadly.
"They've had a lot go on there in the last week or so," said Toronto captain Michael Bradley. "It's a team that will come in here with nothing to lose, they'll be ready to give everything, whenever a new coach comes in there's always a little bit of a reaction, and so we expect a difficult game."
Keeping track of Gilberto, who has one goal in six games for Chicago, will be a key part of Toronto's game plan at BMO Field.
"He's a tough athletic opponent," said Morrow, who was accustomed to going up against the Brazilian in TFC practice.
"He was a good teammate. He worked really hard, I think that was the main thing that sticks out for me. No matter where we were at in the season, if we were up or down, he was always there to work."
Bradley also has positive memories of the Brazilian, who was placed on waivers by TFC in July, after his stint at Vasco de Gama ended earlier than expected. He was quickly snapped up by the Fire.
"Good teammate," Bradley said. "He's a good guy, worked hard, a little bit unlucky at times. . .was a guy who stepped on the field always ready to do what he could to help us."
Gilberto greeted TFC staff with hugs when he and the Fire pulled up in their bus to Toronto's training grounds north of downtown Friday.
Gilberto was friends with the Toronto Raptors' Brazilian players Bruno Caboclo and Lucas Nogueira (Bebe) when he lived here. Asked if he's kept in touch with the two, Gilberto smiled.
"Always," he said.
Following Saturday, Toronto hosts Philadelphia, New York and Columbus before capping their regular season in Montreal.
