Sunday, April 18, 2010

Defeated, but glimpses of life by the mountains Rapids 3- TFC 1


TFC deserve some credit for making a game of it today. When the schedule first came out, the Colorado game jumped out as unfortunate. The Rapids are hard to beat at home, Toronto has only done it once and trying to do it three days after playing a game was a challenge. After seeing Toronto play at home, it is tough to watch a game on television and have much in the way of analysis. So I will go with some quick observations
Positives
Sam Cronin is back! Sam Cronin played a solid game. The early part of the second half was his time. He was brought down in the box by Mountain Man Perkins, the Colorado keeper (Dero scored on the subsequent pk to tie the game). Even before that play though there were stretches that Cronin and JDG and Sarich were playing with the ball down the left wing where they looked like they knew each other. Short passes and plenty of movement and possession. It was only a blip, but it was nice to see.
A back four of Usanov - Attakora - Cann - Harden. I would not have thought that this would be TFC's backline against Omar Cummings of the Rapids. Yet it worked fairly well. Even if the first penalty was not right, Cann should not be on the ground trying to make plays with his face. That was a rare error.
Chad Barrett! His "no-look" pass that sent Sam Cronin away alone on the Colorado keeper was a pretty play indeed.


Negatives
Marvell Wynne using his lightning speed recovery moves for the Colorado Rapids. There is a category of ache, the TFC headshake, that involves watching players that were let go by Mo flourish elsewhere. Colorado already had Conor Casey, having Wynne too adds to the pain.

JDG jumping up and out of the way to allow the second Colorado goal go through the wall (wall?, what wall) and into the Toronto net.

Each and every camera glimpse of Mr. Preki. He is livid. He is yelling. He is furious. He needs medication.

Nick Labrocca. I see the advantages of having a Martin Sarich, his crunching tackles and tough play give spine to the midfield. DeRo and Peterson, JDG and Sam Cronin all bring something to the midfield. Yet Nick Labrocca is very low profile. I can't get a handle on what he contributes.

3 comments:

The Yorkies said...

Giving your view a turn now!
You hit on the one thing that had us most furious after watching "our" Wynne play so well at CB: what exactly does Nick LaBrocca (who we got in return) bring to the table?

A useful bench player possibly but seems like a dime a dozen in exchange for a very explosive defender whose raw skill is better than LaBrocca's can ever be. Only an absent minded idiot would make that deal - right?

Anonymous said...

Any future post about the latest words out of Gerba's mouth?

Link: http://video.thescore.com/watch/kristian-jack-with-ali-gerba

Unknown said...

The reason that Gerba's interview has credibility in my eyes is that It sounds remarkably like the parting words of Adrian Serioux.
I might do a post - I am thinking of writing a weekly grab bag of ideas every Tuesday or Wed or Thurs....