TFC 2 Fire 3, not resigned, never abandoning the team, but pissed and steamed...

April is the cruelest month and after today’s game I am developing a scary theory around season 2012.  Every month will be April.

   Is it a Toronto thing to build all their hopes around a savior or is it a Judeo-Christian thing? Go ahead and discuss that for your thesis, you university types. Don’t forget to cite me for both background and inspiration. It might be all the inspiration you are going to find in the TFC world today.

   Now, wasn’t the theme of the week that all would be fine because Torsten was coming back? TFC would be a different team with the captain back. It was a classic TFC moment as seconds after Mr. Frings had first touched the ball, Chicago scored. I am not picking on Torsten Frings, mistakes can happen by the lake. However this is not a team just waiting for a magic ingredient. This is a mess.

   Chicago did not play the role that TFC seemed to desire from them. Chicago Fire being the team that TFC had their first goal and first victory against seemed to be the other theme. The Fire made the most of their chances and then played shutdown soccer when they needed to. 

   I give TFC some credit for fighting back into the game. I can’t be the only one who had a great view from the west stand as Lambe’s first goal was a curving rocket to the top corner.  My pet theory, that when the goal drought ended it would end in a flood of goals, had it’s tiny moment when Lambe scored his second goal. Then it was back to the frustration.

My theme of frustration remains the midfield. It seems like a revolving door out there and Winter is throwing out midfielders until something works. Today's candidates were Dunfield, Stinson, Avila, Silva, Burgos Jr. Santorum, Gingrich and Romney. Thanks to vigilant security and a supremely athletic ball retrieving squad, Rohan Ricketts was kept off the field.

Late in the game when Chicago had all their players back to protect their lead, Frings returned to the midfield and the middle of TFC’s attack looked cohesive for the first time in a long while. The wise men of 220 are saying end this Frings as a central defender strategy, wasn't this an emergency move when Cann was hurt last year?

  Let’s cut the crap, I am throwing this on Coach Winter. Three times TFC faltered today, in the first minute of the game, once they had the lead and at the beginning of the second half when Chicago took the lead again. Although I am not a fan of Winter’s formation and will quibble with his player selections, his is a team that knows how to choke better than anything else right now. Winter seems to combine an inability to inspire with an inability to limit the damage. Allow a goal in the first minute is cruel, but you have time to recover. Rally, recover, rise above your foe, rouse your fans; these are the things that TFC lacks. Heart and spirit in other words. This AIN’T our house…..