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In one of his hit songs from years gone by, Alice Cooper wrote, “I’m eighteen, and I don’t know what I want.”
Toronto FC defender Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty is 18 and he certainly knows what he wants – a chance to play and hone his skills in Major League Soccer. And that’s what he got on Saturday night at PayPal Park in San Jose, a hard-fought game that ended in a 0-0 draw between TFC and the Earthquakes.
TFC coach Bob Bradley inserted the Brampton teenager as the starting right-back in place of Richie Laryea, who was away on international duty for Canada. It was Marshall-Rutty’s first time in a regular season MLS game this year.
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“I try to take it day-by-day,” said Marshall-Rutty, when asked how anxious he was to finally get into a match. “I knew I was going to get my opportunity when Bob came up to me and when Richie was going away. But just learning from Richie every single game and just learning from my teammates every single day, they put me in the best position to be ready, and I felt pretty good.”
The man they call ‘Jack’ looked better than just pretty good, battling hard throughout the match, particularly against San Jose forward Cade Cowell, who is just a year old older at 19 and may soon be off to Europe. There was one play, in the 63rd minute, when the explosive Cowell started a dangerous run down the left side and Marshall-Rutty stripped the ball of him and started an attack the other way. The TFC youngster recorded six tackles- won in the game, the most by any player on either team. It was certainly an impressive season debut.
“I’m happy for Jahkeele,” said Bradley. “I think that in this last stretch (at training), his mentality every day has been very good. I think his way of training every day, the way he comes in, he’s doing more in the gym. I think his concentration from the beginning of training until the end of training has gone up. So all the things that we spoke about at the end of last year, even though he had not gotten an opportunity until tonight, we told him over and over that we have seen a lot of these things going in a good direction. It’s good to see him get on the field and play well.”
There’s been a buzz around Marshall-Rutty since even before he signed with TFC as a 15-year-old in 2020 – the youngest player in history to sign a first-team contract with the club. Marshall-Rutty attracted the attention of some of the top clubs in Europe and he trained in the off-seasons with Arsenal, Liverpool, and Belgium’s Club Brugge. There was talk this past off-season that the young star might be transferred to a European team, as was the case this year with 20-year-old TFC forward Jayden Nelson, who joined Rosenborg BK of the top Norwegian league in February. A move to Europe is almost certainly still in the cards. But first he has to play. Marshall-Rutty played predominately at the wing position in past years but TFC is converting him into a right-back.
“I’m just going to continue working hard and do everything that (Bradley) tries to teach me because we all know how experienced Bob is,” said Marshall-Rutty. “I’m going to continue to keep working hard. I enjoy playing full-back and I enjoy playing winger. So wherever he plays me, I’ll just work my hardest.
“I’ve said this before. Modern day wingers, full-backs, you look at Alphonso Davies, Tajon Buchanan, these players, they have played winger and they have played full-back,” the personable defender continued. “So I just think being versatile and being able to play both positions is just what I’m trying to do, and it’s perfect to learn from players like Richie and Tajon and Alphonso that are on the (Canadian) national team.”
Marshall-Rutty said he has been working hard at full-back, particularly on his pace.
“And it makes it easy when you have Federico (Bernardeschi) and (Lorenzo) Insigne running after you every day in training,” he said. “They have definitely improved that side of my game, and I just try to do my best to just stay focused every single game for the whole 90 minutes. My teammates help me as well. Sigurd (Rosted), Sean (Johnson), Mike (Bradley), speaking to me, whether telling me someone is behind me or giving me the confidence to continue to keep going play after play.”
The Reds were without Insigne (groin) and new forward Adama Diomande (lower body) against San Jose as well five called away for international duty – forward Ayo Akinola, midfielders Mark-Anthony Kaye and Jonathan Osorio and Laryea (Canada) and goalkeeper Tomas Romero (El Salvador). Alonso Coello Camarero made his debut for Toronto FC. Víctor Vázquez also made his first start of the 2023 campaign (along with Marshall-Rutty).
Goalkeeper Sean Johnson recorded back-to-back clean sheets for the first time in his TFC career.
Bradley had praise for all of the young players who was forced to play in the absence of his regulars on Saturday, including Marshall-Rutty, Deandre Kerr (20), Kobe Franklin (19), Kosi Thompson (20) and Hugo Mbongue (18).
“It’s nice to see that we’ve got some guys that are moving in a good direction,” said Bradley. “The team understands that on certain days, there are no excuses. If certain guys aren’t there, we prepare for this game the same that we would any other game. We had good training throughout the week, and the idea was to come and step on the field and do the things we always do, and I think a lot of that happened.”
With the draw against San Jose, the Reds have one win, three draws and a loss.
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