TFC loses to SKC 1-0 - full marks for cohesion and effort, needs to improve on creativity

TFC needed a spark tonight in Kansas City. They lacked finish. It would have been nice to see Tsubasa Endoh score his first goal, he was a goalkeeper finger tip away from that.

They were a team that looked capable of scoring and controlled sections of the game. The effort was there, but ending up down one goal late in the game is not the route to road success. Despite having a man advantage for a time and all three substitutions revealing Vanney's willingness to go all out on the attack. they could not conjure up a comeback.
There was plenty of evidence that improvements have been made. TFC looked strong when defending. They moved the ball well out of the back and did not look like a team just getting to know each other, which they are.



So, the long road trip continues.
3 down and 5 to go before TFC hosts their home opener. If the next three games end up a repeat of the first three, a win, a draw and a loss - a fan could be very, very happy with that. Colorado, New England and DC United don't seem to be as tough a group of opponents than the ones TFC just finished with.

Until the next time...

Points in New York - twice already in 2016

TFC came from 2 goals down to draw NYCFC and continue to gain points from every game in 2016. The rising confidence of Toronto FC seemed to jump out of the tv screen, notably in the second half. When Toronto scored late in the first half to pull within one goal of NY,  I had the gut feeling that TFC was capable of more and NY was incapable of shutting them down. We were treated to a few scary defending moments late in the game, but nothing New York did was any way near to matching the skill and snap of that Giovinco goal that tied the game earlier.

It's so pleasing to salute the TFC performance today in Yankee Stadium. In some ways I am happier with a draw versus NYCFC than I was with with the victory over the Red Bulls last weekend.
NYCFC seem to have had TFC's number last season (NYCFC were new to the league). It might be too early to give them the role of TFC's "bogey" team, but I feared this second game in NY more than the first (I know that NY Red Bulls play out of New Jersey, but you get the drift).
I still have vivid memories of the first meeting of these teams in Toronto last summer. The New Yorkers strategy was a physical one, hack and chop at Giovinco. The ref would not protect Gio and New York took advantage. It was easy to fear another match with TFC being taken advantage of...

The ref got it mostly right today in Yankee Stadium. The penalty call was the correct one. The blind eye to the Villa hand ball in the second goal was dodgy. After that the game was a smooth one.

I thought that Marky Delgado played a strong game down the wing today. There were a few times when I felt that he deferred too often and too much to the scoring potential of the big names around him. Hey, Delgado, you are tied for the second highest goal scorer on the team - so take your shots.

So now it is into KC for the last game of March. The April road games present Colorado, New England,  DC United and then Montreal. I had read that the TFC president Manning had felt that 8 points was a worthy goal from these first 8 road games. 4 points already with 6  games to play makes that bar look too low.
Keep cheering...

Yankee Stadium as a soccer ground.

2016 Road game #1 vs New York Red Bulls - Oh, one could learn to love this efficiency and attention to defending...

Those frigid and bleak months have rolled by. The winter storms have howled through. The driveway shovelled and shovelled, salted and shovelled again. Dog walks became my offseason interest (when conditions allowed). The calendar tells us that spring is only days away and therefore a new TFC season 2016 must be upon us. Can this be?

Have we tamed the memories of the stunning, stumbling mess of those two games in Montreal that brought 2015 to a close? A long winter of long walks might do that for you. Heartbreak was the theme when we last gathered to cheer for the grey and red. I owe this space a blog to just capture the offseason but allow me to sum up.
Goodbye Joe Bendik and Chris Konopka,  Jackson and Robbie Findley, Luke Moore , Herc Gomez and Collen Warner. Almost forgot Ahmed Kantari..
Hello, hello to Will Johnson, Steve Beitashour, Drew Moor, Clint Irwin and Tsubasah Endoh.
Got it?

A pre-season game or two caught from Florida on somebody's youtube channel gave me a little glimpse of TFC 2016, but it was nothing to blog on about. I have always struggled with blogging about games watched on television. Blah - camera angles are deceptive as they vary from stadium to stadium. Blah, blah - your ability to watch formations or match-ups or developments well off the ball gets compromised. Yet, it will be two more months before we head to our seats (now covered). Oh the tyranny of construction.

Today's game turned out to be a treat, a tonic for the wailing "can't wait for May" true blue TFC fan (did I just use the colour "blue" to describe a fan of the red and grey?).

The first half was clunky and creaky. TFC struggled to find any passing tempo, but their defending held up. Perquis looks better with Moor around and Irwin behind to steady things (I'm a fan of Perquis, but he does have a terrible habit of removing himself from the action COMPLETELY when he makes a claim for offside). The tactic of Bradley well back in the midfield and Giovinco well forward seemed to work. At least I hope it was a tactic, what if it was just a sign that the two of them are not getting along?
2nd half had early signs of good ship TFC battening down the hatches and hoping to hold on for 45. K.J. on the broadcast had it right when he called for Lovitz out and Delgado in on the left side of the field. Once the substitution was made, then the counter-attacks began to click and the goals were scored. TFC winning in New York (technically New Jersey), next weekend they get to try it again with the NYCFC group that treated them badly last year.
2016 TFC off to a great start. There are so many pairings and partnerships that are straight from the factory new on this team (Endoh out to the right with Beitashour behind him, Bradley and Johnson down the middle, Moor and Perquis behind them, Irwin as the new keeper) that you need to expect rust and clunk and setbacks and time to gel. That aspect makes the victory that much sweeter. Thanks for reading...

The roof just up on the south end (some weeks ago)

Horrors Montreal 3 Toronto O

Woe, muttering, anger and more woe is how I would describe my evening.

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....

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...

To cheer for TFC is to follow a perilous path Montreal 2 TFC 1

Curses.

Who allowed Toronto FC to travel to Montreal to determine their playoff ranking?

The loss in Montreal tonight (Sunday) drops Toronto to sixth place and ends their 2015 season. Montreal is now poised and prepared (in third place) to host TFC in a one game knockout playoff mid-week. The winner of the one game will participate in the two game Eastern conference semi-finals over the next two weekends.

Did you see this coming? Do you feel that TFC has managed to uphold a thrilling TFC tradition? Where did the perpetual suffering clause hide when I signed up for season tickets all those years ago? Do you think I can write all night, peppering the page with rhetorical questions?

Caring about this Toronto FC team (an affliction that I once dared to name mistakenbylaken) takes you to dangerous places. The ups and the downs are too cruel. It was some 12 days ago that TFC defeated New York to clinch the playoffs. The joy of that unexpected peak has been followed by a bumpy descent.

I saw something bleak coming... I was so livid when TFC did not show up fully when hosting Columbus last week. In my bred in Ontario bones I knew that putting yourself in the position of needing points (or a point) from a road game in Montreal was foolish and should have been avoided.

I understand the view that the TFC goalkeepers are an area of concern, but I prefer not to dwell on it. TFC are certainly set up to win by outscoring teams. Did anyone truly think that a strategy for road victories was to have Giovinco and Altidore combine for one goal and then let Konopka lock the gate?
I also understand that the back four are a cause for worry, but midfielders tracking back play a large part in defending too. Although Montreal started the second half with energy and confidence, it was two touches by Didier Drogba within a two minute span that brought TFC to the brink. It was the inability to respond with second half goals that pushed TFC over the brink.

I think that the focus on Kantari and Williams does not explain how TFC lost their minds for a five minute spell. I think that handling pressure is a concern for fans looking at both coaching staff and players. After all, the playoff clinch game versus the Red Bulls was not a pressure game, more of an appreciated gift from team to those fans who braved that night (when Texas Rangers game 5 versus Blue Jays held the spotlight). I do think that Coach Vanney holds Robbie Findley in a higher regard than his 2015 results would indicate. I do think that he waits too long into the waning stages of the game before he makes critically needed changes.

The chance at hosting a playoff game here in 2015 was made slimmer today in Montreal

TFC in Montreal is the next game. May it not be the last TFC game of 2015.

Everyone wastes my time - TFC 0 Columbus Crew 2

Momentum? It was as if the thrilling game before never happened. I am ready to rant and rave. This is your warning, run away if you can't stomach bleating...

Have we TFC fans not suffered enough? The churning, rollercoaster nature of supporting this team never fails to amaze me. Ask me Wednesday night which MLS team in the East wants to meet Toronto FC in the playoffs, my answer would have been "nobody". Ask me again after the Saturday loss to Columbus and the answer changes to "everybody".

The  recent Wednesday victory versus New York Red Bulls put Toronto up in second place, their highest spot this late in the season, ever. The first opportunity they had to give second place away, they did.    

To Columbus.

In front of the home crowd to close out the regular season in Toronto.

Sure, it could be just a letdown after the playoff clinching effort of just hours ago. I am still shaking my head at how frustrating this letdown was to watch. I am toying with the idea that SHOULD TFC reach a home and home playoff round they might be better off being the lower seed team and get their home game first and therefore over with.

It is difficult to pinpoint where Toronto went wrong today. The Columbus goals came as lightning surprises, not sustained pressure. Joe Bendik was in net and I think it's fair to observe that TFC is a playoff team despite their keepers as much as because of their keepers.
TFC had a lot of the play. They just lacked finish and true opportunities. Vanney gets a mixed evaluation from me. I was pleased with going to three forward late in the game and putting both Herc Gomez and Luke Moore, but it was too late. At the start of the game I was also liking the pairing of Giovinco and Bradley as the two forwards. I have said before that I think that Bradley is a more potent, creative player when he is forced into a scoring role rather than a support role. Late in the first half though, either Bradley abandoned the role or Vanney coached a different formation. Findley went from winger to forward, Warner from central holding midfielder to winger and Bradley came back to the midfield. Sorry, but that was a huge step in the wrong direction. It has reached the point where I would rather see Cheyrou and Warner as a pair of holding midfielders, with the occasional probing pass than Bradley mucking up the midfield. I think that Bradley has something to prove to the TFC fans at this point. The last two times that Toronto has beaten an Eastern conference team higher than them in the standings was the other night vs. NYRB and way back in the spring vs. DC United. Both games had the absence of Michael Bradley in common. I don't think that one thoughtful Toronto soccer fan is deciding to renew their season tickets for 2016, right now, based on feasting their eyes on Bradley.  A game in Montreal and the playoffs could paint a different picture. I see his skills, his positioning and his effort, but something critical is missing. It may be a coach that pushes and prods
Oh and a word on Marky Delgado. I think that Marky Delgado has potential and will contribute one day. Right now he plays like a junior player, as if his role is to always, ALWAYS defer to any senior player. Y'know "here Mr. Bradley" or "here Mr. Giovinco". He knows his role, we in the stands can predict his role and Columbus defenders sure know not to worry about him. I think he successfully took on a defender only once today. Late in the first half Delgado was wide left at one point and wide open. He was waving for the ball and of course no pass came in his direction.  When the other team won't cover you and your own team won't pass to you, something is wrong. A Vanney rush job?


Random thoughts

Tony Tchani- am I the only one amazed that he continues his career with Columbus as a starter 4 years after TFC traded him? TFC acquired him from NYRB in the DeRo trade. I admit that Tchani is a factor in my Bradley rant. TFC has a million dollar international top quality midfield general and Columbus has Tony Tchani, a player we dumped 4 years ago. And they win!

Kei Kamara - a small consolation, but if the Crew were going to manage to keep Giovinco off the score sheet, at least TFC kept Kamara from scoring.

Federico Higuain - he made sure that every hint of a foul on him was augmented by rolling around and around on the pitch and then scored a cheeky late goal to squash TFC. Have I mentioned before that TFC is too nice for their own good?

Sigh....playoff picture still to be determined. Montreal@NE tonight, tomorrow Chicago@DC, Philly@NYRB....

Giovinco takes TFC to the promised playoff land - TFC 2 NYRB 1

Sorry for the delay in posting, but this was a big one. I spent game night smiling, Thursday morning writing and writing and now find myself Friday p.m. without a blog post on the biggest game of 2015.

Where to start?

They did it. Toronto FC, in the ninth year of their existence, qualified for the MLS Cup playoffs Wednesday night. Sure, it was overshadowed by the most captivating Toronto baseball game in some 22 years, but I am here to tell you that the TFC milestone deserves your attention too.

I had made my way to the game with very low expectations. Many folks attended the game disguised as empty seats. New York Red Bulls (NYRB) had thumped Toronto back in August. TFC victories since then had all come against struggling teams. I could not think of the last time Toronto had bested a team higher than them in the standings. 

Add in the fact that Bradley, Giovinco and Altidore had all played for their national teams over the weekend. Cheering for TFC to gain a point from a draw vs. NYRB felt like a foolish long shot. I kept thinking about the worst case scenario - should TFC lose their final 3 games and both Montreal and Orlando win their final two, TFC could miss the playoffs once again. This is a team that has the negative outcome historically as the default position.

Then two things kicked into gear; TFC played so well* in the first half that the missing star players seemed almost not missed at all and Seba Giovinco. 

Giovinco was bundled up and on the substitute's bench. He played for his national team, Italy, over the weekend and had arrived back in Toronto only hours before the New York game. He came on as a sub, roughly twenty minutes to play. Just by warming up on the sidelines he electrified the place. He ran onto the field to a standing ovation. Everyone knew that he had good reasons to be resting and watching from the stands (or even sleeping at home). This was a level of Hollywood that TFC fans rarely witness. 

You know by now that he scored the goal that turned out to be both the game winner and therefore the playoff berth clincher. 

Giovinco's goal was a masterpiece. It had layers galore. His first burst into the clear, where he seemed to ride the two defending Red Bulls the way a surfer takes a small wave, was worthy of a chuckle. The second move, where he seemed to be ready to shoot and then glided to his left leaving two more Red Bulls sliding off as if they were salt and pepper shakers sliding off a table, was worthy of a gasp. Then he smoothly took his shot and it was both power and beauty as it found the far side of the goal. I think the sound that came out of me was a combo of yelp and cheer. 

I dare say that not since Danny Dichio scoring in the last game of 07, that long range dipper against New England, has this ground witnessed such a moment. You felt elation and wonder mixed together. 

"Did that just happen?", part of your brain is asking. 

"Oh man, you just witnessed something incredible!" another brain segment is chiming in. TFC are about to beat the New York Red Bulls and with Giovinco the possibilities for what lies ahead are mind boggling. 

However, the Dichio goal was a consolation. It put a smile on your face and completed the season of football's fairy tale arrival in Toronto.

Seba's goal is so much more than the old Dichio delight. Seba's was the game winner and the playoff clincher. It was against one of the best teams in the league, it even made the statement that Toronto could be in a position to claim that crown. It was also a personal statement, the crowd had been chanting MVP for Giovinco all evening. How could anyone witness last night's game and not see that Seba Giovinco combined incredible skill with an equally incredible sense of occasion. Toronto FC are in the MLS Cup playoffs and Giovinco put them there.   MVP 2015.

Somebody in the TFC front office had it right on the media side. Minutes into the post game celebrations of this historic victory a video of season highlights was put on the big screen and the song "At Last" boomed around the stadium. It captured the moment in a way that few TFC flourishes do. All those frustrations, all those squandered chances, all those times sitting in my seat and wondering just how much suffering could one team inflict.

Yes, through thin, thin and at last thick, Toronto FC is my team. I was in my section for game one and have seen the players come and go. The managers arrive and fall and the winds blow hard and lonely over the south stand. "At Last" was suitably wistful for the other night, but great things are possible. So put aside wistful and thump Columbus. See you then.

Celebrate

* Sorry. Got so carried up with Giovinco and TFC reach the promised land narrative that I neglected game analysis. 

This was not the first night that I have thought Jackson at right back is a positive move for TFC. He had a superb game. Herculez Gomez was strong, more for his staying positionally aware than scoring threats. His goal was a classic case of taking advantage NYRB deep in their own end. Cheyrou and Warner patrolled the midfield with authority. Ashtone Morgan as a right winger had been tried before. It may have a future, though it does offer more defensive cover than precise attack. I worry about the extent of Perquis' injury. He has put the " reckless mistake" portion of his game away and looked strong before he went down. Osorio continues to show himself as a key aspect of TFC's success.