Toronto FC football chief Mo Johnston has received a vote of confidence from the club's owners. Tom Anselmi, executive vice-president of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (the company that owns the Major League Soccer team), maintains progress was made this year - TFC's third in the league - and that he likes the path Johnston is leading the squad down.

"You can't look at any one thing in isolation," Anselmi told CBCSports.ca.

"I think you have to look at things in context, and the context is that the GM's responsibility is to provide overall leadership and vision for the franchise, to put a roster together, to build the infrastructure [in terms of] coaching, youth academy, scouting and development systems.

"That's what the job has been about for the past three years, and I think Mo has done a good job.

"We finished one point out of the playoffs. We had 10 wins. There are three teams that made the playoffs with 11 wins, and two that made it with 12 wins. The best team in the league had 13 wins, so it's not a blow-it-up situation.

"That [New York] game might have made it feel like it was, because it was not a good finish to the season, but sometimes young guys have to lose together so that they can learn how to win together.

"We've got another step to make next year, but generally we're pleased where we're at [and] that the direction is the right direction. I'm not pleased where we landed this year, but we're heading in the right direction."