Saturday, July 18, 2015

Summer heat burst TFC 2 Philly Union 1

Is it just me or does the future seem shady?

Put aside that it was a hot and humid Saturday afternoon at BMO Field. TFC only matched the temperature with some scorching play for a short stretch of the game. TFC had that first half spell where they scored their two goals and seemed capable of scoring more. Delgado from Giovinco and then Altidore heading it to Giovinco. Gio took the blast of the shot AND beat three defenders to the rebound to tuck it away. The temperature did not cool down much, but TFC did. There were sporadic bursts of attack, but the lack of Bradley had it's affect. Not that Cheyrou and Delgado were not superb in the middle of the middle...but the threat that Bradley poses was missing in the barren second half.

Morgan and Osorio played solid games. I am not always happy that Morgan seems to have a green light to play as a winger and Osorio has to mop up from time to time. The two do connect and combine well. Morrow seems to struggle with the right back spot. Or is the attacking obstacles of Warner and then Jackson at fault? Joe Bendik was back in net. His one goal allowed was a big improvement over the four allowed by Konopka in NYC last Saturday, but his distribution skills never seem to mature.

I don't mean to be too critical of Coach Vanney, he makes some good decisions and presently has the team in second place in the East.
Yet, I do get frustrated at some perceived trends, such as delayed second half subs. You can see that the team is wilting in the heat, but Vanney is always slow (imho) to make changes. He seems to have a schedule for subs that seems too rigid, pre-set and never reacting to the tempo of the game . He needs to take control of the game and the team by trying something different. Two subs at once might be a start.
Walking away from the heat of the stadium I would say the present state of this blogger is cautious optimism. The schedule only gives TFC one home MLS game in July before a deluge in August. 6 road games, 10 home games is the remainder of the year. I had to wonder why neither team seems to have a light coloured third shirt, both teams looked uncomfortable in dark colours. What happened to kit that was mostly white with stripes of red? Now it seems only all red or all onyx.  You wonder why.....
Cautious optimism...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did we ever win a game wearing white uniforms?

Secondly, any insight on the transfer Window, and any potential deals for this club?

Enjoying your blog as always.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the compliment !

TFC seem very quiet about trades, transfers and signings in general, but Gareth Wheeler of TSN says..

Look for the first player brought in to be an international (European) defender; a deal which is expected to go through as early as this week. What happens after that remains to be seen in his recent blog post ...


I think that TFC needs a right winger and a right back beyond the obvious choice of a central defender to take Caldwell's spot. A trade or two could make things interesting for the home stretch...