The general tone and theme of this blog, and my life as a sports fan, if there is one, while not exactly a celebration of sporting failure and bumbling incompetence, is certainly an indulgence and acceptance of it as the natural lot of the local team follower.
Maybe years from now I'll chuckle at the shitshow that was TFC's game against DC, and hold it up as some kind of badge of honour to show how I deserve whatever hypothetical success may arrive in the future. Right now though, I'm not really feeling all that indulgent, after watching one of the worst performances I've ever seen, and believe me, I've seen a lot of bad games.
Where to start? I guess with the result. That must win and most winnable game against the worst team in the league I was talking about? We lost 1-0, and we got lucky, 4-0 wouldn't have been a flattering result for DC. It pretty much guarantees we'll miss the playoffs, but I'll leave some kind of season review for later and focus on just this game.
The line-up. Maicon Santos starting up front? Excellent, but with Mista? He hasn't looked like a good forward all year, and he certainly didn't correct the impression today. When he wasn't wasting half chances by dribbling into defenders rather than trying a quick shot, he was dropping deep, thus leaving Santos on his own, as well as getting in De Ro's way at the top of the midfield diamond, who'd have thought signing a DP striker would create our very own Gerrard/Lampard conundrum in midfield. And who was on the sides of this midfield diamond, why noted dangerous wingers Martin Saric and Dan Gargan of course. No offence to either of them, they're both good MLS level players in their own way, but they certainly don't suggest creativity, or a threat that DC had to take seriously thus opening up space for the central players. In defence, I can only presume Ty Harden is injured, even though he was on the subs bench, as all of a sudden, there's Raivas Hscanovics at left back.
The game . Aside from De Ro's early effort, a fantastic dribble through three defenders and shot from outside the box that hit the post, we were absolutely terrible, saved only by DC's ineptness in front of goal. There's just too much that went wrong to even try and analyse it.
The post game excuses. Preki blamed tiredness and the schedule and the rigours of having to play at 4pm after an evening game on Wednesday. There's probably an element of truth in that, but it's a feeble excuse. The squad just isn't good enough, and if there's a silver lining right now it's that surely it's time for Mo Johnston's to go back to Scotland. As for Preki, I've been on his side generally, thinking he was doing a good job until injuries and lack of depth killed our momentum, but there's been a few games where I thought he's got his line up and strategy all wrong, and this is another one to add to the list. Should he go as well as Mo? I still don't think I'm prepared to call for that, if only because I really don't want to blow things up completely, but I'm closer than I've ever been.
So what now? Concentrate on the champions league? I suppose, but we're already in trouble there, having blown a glorious opportunity to be in control of the group by taking Arabe Unido too lightly. There's a very good chance that by the time we play Real Salt Lake at home, we'll still be stuck on 3 points while Cruz Azul and RSL have 9. Not to worry though, Mo Johnston made clear in his pre-game interview that TFC feels merely qualifying for the group stage is mission accomplished as far as the CCL is concerned.
To sum up: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
In some regional Croatian dialect "Saric" must translate into English as SLOW. He doesn't have the pace to cope defensively let alone provide any offensive burst from the flank. He's 30 years old I think he's had 9 clubs in 10 years: no upside, he's only depreciating. Should be released at season's end.
ReplyDeleteThe Russian Adam Braz, the Croat-Argentine Kevin Harmse, and the Latvian Marco Velez all need to go!
Saric can have value if he's used properly. I can't imagine there's many of those clubs that have asked him to play as a wide midfielder though.
ReplyDeleteHscanovics? well, Preki's complaining long and hard about the schedule, and about tiredness, yet his half time sub is used to take off the one guy who's barely been playing so should be freshest of all. That tells you everything you need to know about his future with TFC.
Usanov has played better recently, I'd be fine with him sticking around.
Fergito - Preki will never win anything, not when it comes to trophies that matter anyway. Half this squad is his, the way they play is entirely down to him and the mood in the camp is down to him too. You could give him another 5 years and things won't improve all that much, he'll just keep brinign in more and more grinders.
ReplyDeleteTime to blow it all up and start again (again) but this time start from the top and blow up Mo first.
That must be a nice crystal ball you have to know exactly what's going to happen.
ReplyDeleteHalf the squad is his? sure, and there's a lot of work still to be done there, but given where we were at the end of last season, major changes had to happen, Is everything expected to just fall into place perfectly overnight at the first time of asking?
They way they play is down to him? absolutely, so I presume you're ready to give him credit for drastically reducing our goals against, and the times we've played well and looked like a decent team, ie before injuries came along and took away our best strikers. Were we the finshed article? nowhere near but we were on the right track, and with time to get rid of the dead wood, and bring in more talented players to work with the more consistent disciplined defensive base we have, not to mention a more competent gm to work with, we'll improve. Again, was he supposed to have started from scratch after last years fiasco, and got things exactly right at both ends of the pitch right away.
the mood in the camp? that's where he loses a bit of support from me, if there's issues with Mista, Dasovic, and general player unrest, then that's not good at all, and his own mood seems to be that of a completely beaten man right now, much more ready to make excuses. It's those issues that make me think maybe we should let him go. If even he doesn't believe in himslef any more then that's not good at all.
before the season started, i didn't really think we'd have a good year, but I thought that Preki ws what we needed to bring in more discipline and a good attitude, from we which we could finally build a proper team instead of the half arsed reactionary management of the first 3 years. Personally, up until the wheels came off due to the lack of depth when barrrett and santos got injured, we were ahead of where I thought we'd be.
So I'm still ready to give him another year, and I think we would improve. Better than going right back to the drawing board again.
I could well be wrong, but shouldn't we at least give someone a fair chance?