I foolishly watched on television TFC collapse in Montreal. Yes, the team I cheer for, the team I support by buying season tickets for since day 1, the team I write this blog about - decided to make their very first MLS playoff game a memorable one. A horror show.
Montreal scored three goals in the first half and it was akin to watching a hot knife go through butter. Hell, Drogba had time and space on the third goal to have sent a text message to his friends " I am about to score" although it probably would have been "Je suis sur le point de marquer" which clearly would have taken more time...
The question that hangs in the air tonight, hangs in the air like a ghoul in the night is "Does this team regroup and come back stronger or does it crumble?"
I was tired of hearing Jason DeVos talk about TFC defending on the broadcast. It is a concern and I am all for shoring up the back.
Trade for or sign a new keeper - nobody has confidence in the Konopka-Bendik combination at this point.
Trade for or sign a new right back - Jackson seemed to be promising, but boy did he fail the audition tonight.
Justin Morrow deserves a contract and the left back role.
Did Vanney throw Ahmed Kantari under the bus by subbing him at half and therefore ending his TFC days? Or did he end his own TFC days by launching that dumb pass that surprised the slipping Williams and made Montreal goal two the playoff crusher? I think that Perquis and Williams, with a new keeper that they trust behind them, can be the central pairing in Toronto for next year
The trouble with TFC is just as much lack of firepower as it is sloppy defending. If there was a team ever designed to win by surviving shootouts it was this one.
Allow 3 goals and score 5.
Trouble is that for September and October, other than Gio, the potential big scorers melted away. Even with a home game heavy schedule and games against lesser teams- Bradley, Altidore, Findley each scored one or two goals for the final two months of the year. Jason DeVos can talk all he wants about defenders and defending - equal time must be given to the feeble attack - shut out in their first playoff game, one goal from Altidore in that critical game in Montreal on the weekend, shut out by Columbus in the last home game. With the startling exception of the NYRB game, unless TFC was playing Col. Chicago, Philly or Orlando they were a team in recent months that could not score....
Those TFC millions spent on goal scorers seemed to be squandered tonight.
Does Vanney survive this? I doubt it. Change the "At Last" making the playoffs song to "Can't Last" or "Let Blast". TFC looked worse in the biggest game of their history, so far, than they did Sunday night. A team that can't adjust, Vanney called Sunday a dress rehearsal, is a team in trouble. I am just as willing to cut ties with the coach as I am with the Manager (Tim Bezbatchenko) and the captain (Michael Bradley).
I feel like a fool for being eager, days ago when TFC beat Red Bulls, to renew my season tickets and reserve my playoff tickets.
This team has been making us look like fools for a long time now. Makes you wonder if it is the team or the fans who are making the mistakes by the lake....
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| All that science - all that conditioning and the heart monitors. All the new faces and the time to make the team yours - and the final three games of the year (loss to Columbus- two losses to Montreal) felt like a joke... |
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