I came away from Wed night's fizzle of a game in Dallas more concerned and more convinced that this stage of TFC 2011 had better end soon. The soccer saying goes that you build a team from the back and allowing only one goal on the road is an indication that the keeper and back four can do the job. That the single Dallas goal was from a penalty kick on a phantom foul, further supports my view. I am not saying that there was no foul on the play (Coach DeKlerk felt it was worthy of enough complaint that he was tossed from the sidelines and he was not depending on tv cameras). I also considered it odd that the ref who awarded a penalty kick on what seemed to be a case of a Dallas player falling in the box, twice in the second half gave out yellows for diving in the box. Was he trying to compensate?
Still, adequate Toronto keeping and defending combined with inadequate reffing could not conceal the fact that TFC has an inadequate attack. The question keeps popping into my head, what are we seeing on the screen that the coaching staff don't already know? I suspect that they are way ahead of us, largely because they have input into the road ahead.
Toronto had nothing but fizzle,pop and squeak in the attacking third last night. Winter knows this, his starters Plata, Stevanovic and Soolsma gave way to his subs Martina, Santos and Yourasskowsky and the results were consistently weak. Jacob Peterson, Tony Tchani and JDG were the midfielders all night and their offensive contributions were weak, weaker and weakest.
The home game Saturday against Chicago will see these same names in the line-up and no matter how you shuffle them. Next month the Gold Cup will have an impact on the roster, but I don't think that a scoring talent is waiting in the wings...
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