{"id":34435,"date":"2025-09-03T11:25:35","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T10:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/?p=34435"},"modified":"2025-09-03T11:25:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T10:25:37","slug":"sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Sebastian Giovinco Gives Back to His Adopted City"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Toronto FC<\/a>  joined MLS in 2007, success was hard to come by. The club failed to make the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs in each of its first eight seasons. That all changed in 2015, when Sebastian Giovinco arrived from Juventus and transformed both the team and the city\u2019s relationship with soccer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cAtomic Ant\u201d shocked many by joining TFC not in the summer, as initially expected, but in time for the start of the 2015 campaign. He wanted to dive in right away, and his work ethic matched his intent. Teammates immediately noticed how much each loss affected him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took a few weeks for his brilliance to shine through. Giovinco didn\u2019t score until his fourth match, and Toronto managed just three points from their opening five games. But then came a breakout performance against FC Dallas, and the floodgates opened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Toronto FC  joined MLS in 2007, success was hard to come by. The club failed to make the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs in each of its first eight seasons. That all changed in 2015, when Sebastian Giovinco arrived from Juventus and transformed both the team and the city\u2019s relationship with soccer. The \u201cAtomic Ant\u201d shocked many by joining TFC not in the summer, as initially expected, but in time for the start of the 2015 campaign. He wanted to dive in right away, and his work ethic matched his intent. Teammates immediately noticed how much each loss affected him. It took a few weeks for his brilliance to shine through. Giovinco didn\u2019t score until his fourth match, and Toronto managed just three points from their opening five games. But then came a breakout performance against FC Dallas, and the floodgates opened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":34454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159,170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-news","category-mls"],"yoast_head":"\nSebastian Giovinco Gives Back to His Adopted City - Matchplug Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When Toronto FC \u00a0joined MLS, success was hard to come by. The club failed to make the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs in each of its first eight seasons.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sebastian Giovinco Gives Back to His Adopted City - Matchplug Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Toronto FC \u00a0joined MLS, success was hard to come by. The club failed to make the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs in each of its first eight seasons.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Matchplug Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-03T10:25:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-03T10:25:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sebastian-giovinco.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Sebastian Giovinco Gives Back to His Adopted City\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-03T10:25:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-03T10:25:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/\"},\"wordCount\":150,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sebastian-giovinco.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Football News\",\"MLS\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/\",\"name\":\"Sebastian Giovinco Gives Back to His Adopted City - Matchplug Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sebastian-giovinco.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-03T10:25:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-03T10:25:37+00:00\",\"description\":\"When Toronto FC \u00a0joined MLS, success was hard to come by. The club failed to make the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs in each of its first eight seasons.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sebastian-giovinco.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sebastian-giovinco.png\",\"width\":700,\"height\":400,\"caption\":\"sebastian giovincho\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sebastian Giovinco Gives Back to His Adopted City\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Matchplug Blog\",\"description\":\"Matchplug is the best soccer prediction site connecting bettors with winning tips. We are spot on in our Soccer predictions, premier league predictions, Bet9ja prediction, matched betting and premier betting.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Matchplug Blog\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cropped-mp_logo_2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cropped-mp_logo_2.png\",\"width\":389,\"height\":218,\"caption\":\"Matchplug Blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sebastian Giovinco Gives Back to His Adopted City - Matchplug Blog","description":"When Toronto FC \u00a0joined MLS, success was hard to come by. The club failed to make the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs in each of its first eight seasons.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sebastian Giovinco Gives Back to His Adopted City - Matchplug Blog","og_description":"When Toronto FC \u00a0joined MLS, success was hard to come by. The club failed to make the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs in each of its first eight seasons.","og_url":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/","og_site_name":"Matchplug Blog","article_published_time":"2025-09-03T10:25:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-09-03T10:25:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sebastian-giovinco.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Sebastian Giovinco Gives Back to His Adopted City","datePublished":"2025-09-03T10:25:35+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-03T10:25:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/"},"wordCount":150,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sebastian-giovinco.png","articleSection":["Football News","MLS"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/","url":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/","name":"Sebastian Giovinco Gives Back to His Adopted City - Matchplug Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sebastian-giovinco.png","datePublished":"2025-09-03T10:25:35+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-03T10:25:37+00:00","description":"When Toronto FC \u00a0joined MLS, success was hard to come by. The club failed to make the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs in each of its first eight seasons.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sebastian-giovinco.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sebastian-giovinco.png","width":700,"height":400,"caption":"sebastian giovincho"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/sebastian-giovinco-gives-back-to-his-adopted-city\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sebastian Giovinco Gives Back to His Adopted City"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/","name":"Matchplug Blog","description":"Matchplug is the best soccer prediction site connecting bettors with winning tips. We are spot on in our Soccer predictions, premier league predictions, Bet9ja prediction, matched betting and premier betting.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Matchplug Blog","url":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cropped-mp_logo_2.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cropped-mp_logo_2.png","width":389,"height":218,"caption":"Matchplug Blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/author\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sebastian-giovinco.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34436,"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34435\/revisions\/34436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}