Reds under a roof- TFC holds LA to a 2-2 result

It has taken me a couple of days to post my thoughts. Forgive me, Wednesday night gave us a lot to take in.

The setting

I am not a fan of the Rogers Centre. I think it managed to get the ambience wrong, the connection between fan and field is too often missing. It works best for baseball, though even then it has it’s flaws. It is terrible for both soccer and NFL/CFL football. There are yawning spaces that make no sense and from the 500 level you find your eye wandering between big remote field and big remote screen. You can feel that you are watching, but not truly participating.

 You have to salute the effort made by the supporter groups. They did more to inject noise, colour and affection for the team  into that stadium than some of those cold sections have seen in decades.

The team and the game

I am not sure how I feel about TFC as the season looms. I am willing to make allowances for playing on turf. I am also willing to admit that playing LA in your first legit game of the season is a mountain to climb. Donavan and Keane have been playing EPL, Beckham is healthy and rested and the only offseason changes for the Galaxy that I recall were losing Ricketts ,the keeper, to Montreal in the expansion draft and then welcoming back Edson Buddle.

 TFC surprised the faithful with two quick goals to open the game. The Frings to Silva pass that created a goal was a very nice play. If Silva can move into space like that on a regular basis, he will be the answer to our midfield prayers.

 Playing Torsten Frings in the back 3/5 was a good move. I don’t expect to see it against teams that have a less potent attack than LA, but Winter’s way demands a lot of ball control out of the back and Frings is Toronto’s best.

I was pretty steamed at Eckersley when LA scored their first goal. He did get caught guarding space instead of the player. I had thought that having Morgan and Eckersley play wide gave Toronto numbers when LA attacked. Instead we had Robbie Keane seem to be free of coverage and then wide open spaces for MCGee to score from.

The possibilities of the TFC defending alignment was further complicated by just finding out that Geovanny Caicedo, an offseason signing, has been released by the club.

Although he scored a goal and played well, I am not a fan of playing Ryan Johnson and Danny Koevermans in a three forward set-up. I think that they both play a back to the net target game and that slows things down. Playing the opportunistic striker between two swift attackers works for all. Having two cagey strikers means that the one swift winger (Plata) can be isolated and smothered.

The future

I am looking forward to the game in Los Angeles. Toronto held their ground and had an overall respectable game at home. Now they can look at the return game as a glorified pre-season game with the pressure off. A tight game with a lucky bounce could put them into the next round. A roaring LA onslaught would not diminish the accomplishment of getting this far.

Coach WInter and the 7 subs

It good to see the team in action, even though the quality of the streaming picture did not always allow the viewer to identify the players. I think that we fans want the team to look in mid-season form as of yesterday. The prospect of playing LA in a big game only a week from Wednesday might be cause for concern considering that most players looked rusty. Coach Winter does not seem to be concerned with anything beyond giving some game time to the maximum amount of his squad. When Frings scored the tying goal there was no hint of putting short term goals ahead of long term ones. Those seven substitutes were on the field within seconds and it was a chance to squint to see the new faces in camp. Maund seemed to be in the thick of things on the defending side. Cordon and Stinson had some success going forward.
Stefan Frei looked good and kept Toronto in the game.  Frings and Plata had some nice moments.  We are hoping nice moments will abound in the dome.

Winter (the season) begins to fade...new season on the horizon

I am fond of February. It is the first month of the off-season when you can finally say 'TFC game next month". That, and the signs that days are getting just a little longer, are important to me.
Now since I blogged that TFC was using the pre-season stage to shed some players, they turned around and signed two defenders. Ecuadorian Geovanny Caicedo and Chilean Miguel Aceval are the players in question. If you read the forums, the way that I read the forums, you have been reading rumours about the arrival of these two guys for months now. I hope they are the solid, sensible defenders that we have been lacking for years now.
Oh and just as training camp opened, it was announced the Richard Eckersley had signed with the club thereby ending his loan status. It was the good offseason news that we fans had hoped would be paired with the return of Plata, and so it was good news all around.
So now it is a countdown until the preseason tournament. For the first time ever Toronto has skipped Charleston, South Carolina's tourney and is only participating in the Pro Soccer Classic in Florida at the Walt Disney World resort.
TFC games schedule
 Feb 25 vs Orlando City Soccer
Feb 28 vs B.K. Hacken (Swedish club)
March 1 vs FC Dallas
Both Vancouver and Montreal are playing in this tournament, but it must be group based and the only way TFC would meet them would be in a final or a consolation final game. That's ok, the rivalry with B.K Hacken will make that match the pinnacle for me.....

TFC still subtracting from roster as training camp looms...

TFC training camp opens this week and it would be great to feel that anticipation for a new season rising in one's heart. New season, new faces would be a great motto for TFC to adopt. Toronto certainly seems to have roster spots available.
In the month of January we have spent more time waving goodbye than waving hello. Thanks for the memories goes out to the following players. Make that a tiny wave and a little thanks for the memories.

Mikael Yourasskowsky (released). You always felt that if he started to pursue goals the way he pursued yellow cards, he had a chance to amount to something. He joins an unfortunate group - TFC players who managed to score only one goal while wearing Toronto red and gray.
Andy Iro (contract offer declined) Sigh....I know he was a disaster. He was always a giveaway just waiting to happen. Yet he was the one MLS player that I had coveted from afar. Hope he finds a team (Andy Boyens is still playing in the MLS, so hope always remains). I hope Iro matures and turns into a player, yet reverts to his Toronto ways when he plays against Toronto.
Peri Mirosevic (contract offer declined) Some saw his potential, I can't say I was in that group. Scoring a goal in his first game was a good move, but after that he never seemed to find his spot in the midfield. Perhaps he was more suited to a classic 4 midfielder set-up.  Now we await the names of signings and players on trial. Stay tuned.

going...

going...

gone.

Plata signs with TFC

There was good news coming out of the TFC universe today as Joao Plata left the loan category and signed for Toronto. The deal was described as "multi-year" and no dollar amount was mentioned.
I like Plata, you have to admire the energy and dedication that he brings to the field. I am still convinced that he should be used as a super sub more often. Adding him fresh, late in the game, has to pay off with goals.
Seems like I am overdue with mentioning some of the off-season news of recent weeks.
- TFC to play the March Champions League game inside the Rogers Centre. I thought this was inevitable once Rogers was part of the purchase of MLSE. I have my tickets and hope for the best, but that dome inspires dullness and the turf surface is never a treat.
- College and Gen Adidas draft is tomorrow. TFC have both the 4th and 12th pick in the first round. I would like to think TFC will find a player in the draft, but the  Toronto record on drafting is questionable. When you cheer for a team that has only two on the roster (Frei and Plata) that were drafted by Toronto. Those two players are outnumbered by roster players who were recent drafts for other MLS teams and then found their way to Toronto through trades (Avila, Hall, Marosevic and Iro spring to mind).
- Of course there is plenty of room on the TFC training camp roster for draft picks to take since the end of last season meant the release of Martina, Omphroy, Gold, Viator, Davies, Zavarise and Griffit. Departures do not always add up to vacancies on the team. There were players with season ending injuries and that leads to an expanded roster. More tomorrow.

On the brink of a new year

I have difficulty with endings. I am not sure that I would like people who handle endings with detached aplomb. Now that I have used the phrase "detached aplomb', honestly it just popped into my head, I am wondering if this means I would not like James Bond and why do words such as "aplomb" stick in my head when I have trouble remembering the names of people I see every day.
2011 was a great year for me personally. There were people and places that wove through the year that I will remember and cherish for the rest of my life (or until the memory goes totally). The TFC season was not one of the things that made the year memorable, but hope for 2012 can only grow through the off-season.
So my best wishes to everyone for a Happy New Year. It is only months until we are all  back in Section 220 (by the way, if you are a reader who also knows me from the section, I have moved my seats. I have used my seniority to go down a few rows, but I will still be in talking distance).
May the winter fly and the soccer season come around the corner...and I promise to write a proper farewell to Nathan Sturgis any day now.

Bought and sold, but do new owners see beyond hockey?

Well, we don’t have the Teacher’s Pension Plan to kick around anymore.  The big bad media giants, Bell and Rogers have married and bought MLSE. Now what does this mean for our little TFC? I am hoping for either benign neglect or selling off the team, but not holding my breath for either.  Bizarre billionaires are rare in Canada.  I could get enthused about Belinda Stronach becoming owner of TFC, but that is just me. Maybe the increased role of Larry Tanenbaum is the silver lining to the deal?

Face it, this is a hockey thing and TFC is the afterthought to the afterthought (Raptors). I think that the Rogers side of the ownership will be baseball occupied all summer long and the BCE side will be hockey, hockey, hockey all year round. If CBC manages to lose HNIC to TSN can you imagine how hockey obsessed that sports channel will get?  TSN would rather cover zamboni races than anything soccer related.

So perhaps it is a dream that being owned by media giants will lead to better coverage of TFC.  I can have my dreams….