TORONTO — It's been a strange couple of weeks for Jozy Altidore.

Relegated to starting the past two games for Toronto FC on the bench, the American striker has nonetheless made the most of his minutes on the field. He followed up last week's two-goals-in-18-minutes performance against Orlando City with another outing where he got on the scoresheet as a substitute, this time in a massive rivalry game against the Montreal Impact.

Altidore's physical play up front for the final 57 minutes gave the Impact back line fits, and his put-back of Jonathan Osorio's shot off the post in the 55th minute proved to be the game winner as TFC held on for a 2-1 victory that puts the club nine points clear of sixth-placed Montreal.

Whatever helps the club win games, Altidore said after the match.

"Everybody's happy," Altidore said. "[It's a] big sigh of relief because we took a big step today and we put a little bit of distance between ourselves and the bottom of the pack and one step closer to the playoffs."

TFC head coach Greg Vanney shifted his tactics ahead of last week's 5-0 drubbing of Orlando, using Sebastian Giovinco as the lone striker in that match. Altidore was moved to the bench, and despite scoring twice in that match he once again found himself deputizing the little Italian this week.

Altidore explained that he was not at all thrown off by the tactical shift, and he reiterated that he's happy to play whatever role the team asks of him.

"To be frank, to not start and have to play behind a guy like Giovinco is not exactly a bad thing at all," Altidore said with a laugh. "He's shown this season how good he is and the fact that he's played himself back into the [Italian] national team I think says it all."

Regardless of how he got there, the American international has once again found his scoring touch, and he all-but-confirmed that he'll be able to test his newfound form with the U.S. national team in friendlies against Peru and Brazil next week.

"I'll be on my way [to U.S. camp] and hopefully I can go there and give two good performances," he said.

And is he worried about another dip in form with both his national team and club side that drew some criticism earlier this summer?

"Misses happen," Altidore said. "Every striker's gonna miss sitters, you're gonna score great goals, you're gonna score—it's like that. That's part of life, that's part of the job and I just look forward to the next chance."