Klinsmann!

While apologies and ticket price relief are nice and certainly welcome, what TFC did to improve the on the pitch performance and results was always by far the most important factor for me in deciding if the new responsive touchy feely, dedicated to winning, front office was on the right track.  I want them to follow their corporate cousins the Raptors and Leafs and give us our Colangelo/Burke.  Well, Stephen Brunt of the Globe and Mail reports today that TFC are about to announce Jurgen Klinsmann as a consultant.  Jurgen Klinsmann!  who was coaching Germany at the World Cup a mere 4 years ago and since then has coached Bayern Munich and been linked by the media to positions at Chelsea, Liverpool and the U.S national team.  And now he's at TFC?  Well done MLSE, that's an ambitious appointment, I'm pleasantly surprised.

There's no official announcement to say exactly what his role will be, but Brunt reports "The former German national team player and coach will be given a free hand to rebuild an organization that has failed to make the playoffs during each of its four seasons of existence.....Though Klinsmann will not take on the role of general manager or coach himself, he will be asked to make a recommendation as to Johnston’s replacement.
Klinsmann and his company will look at the club’s infrastructure, at its academy and scouting system, will suggest a playing style, and then find someone to accomplish the goals they set out."

So, a consultant to chart a new course and start the process of how to get there, and then presumably he'd be kept on the payroll as a consultant for whichever full time front end people he hires to be able to discuss issues with.  There are many questions and blanks to be filled in, hopefully whenever it's officially announced, but I for one feel quite good about this.  I'm happy he's not coming here full time as a coach, a lot of people suggested that his assistant Joachim Low was the tactical brains behind Germany's semi-final run in 2006, his stint at Bayern Munich wasn't exactly a raging success, and I can't help but feel we'd have another Ruud Gullit at LA Galaxy situation on our hands.  As a "Director of soccer" or whatever title he may end up with though, to provide an overall philosophy for the management and coaching team he hires to implement, and to act as a figurehead to inspire the players and hopefully attract a better class of player than TFC is used to, well, I'll certainly take that, any extra football IQ between the day to day football operations people and the board can only be a good thing.

What can we expect? Well according to wikipedia, his staff at Bayern Munich included two assistant coaches (one of which, Martin Vasquez, just got fired as Chivas USA's head coach) a goalkeeping coach, 4 fitness coaches and a psychologist, and his methods were considered quite unorthodox which is part of the reason he left Bayern before the end of his first season.  Presumably his ideas of a future staff came up in his interview so if he's been given free rein to do that sort of thing here, well that would be another impressive committment from MLSE.

I'll have to wait for further details of exactly what his role is, whether he or other people at his company, Soccer Solutions, will be directly involved, and of course who ends up being hired to the more hands on positions before I get too excited, but this definitely seems like another step in the right direction.

Arthur Wharton

Back in England, the FA makes a very easy target for mockery with it's scandals, it's fit and proper persons test and it's general ineptitude in guarding the game's best interest as opposed to those of the Premier League.

But today at least it's doing something right, in recognition of Arthur Wharton.
From today's Northern Echo:

THE Football Association will tonight announce it is donating a five-figure sum to honour a North- East sporting pioneer.

The donation, thought to be about £20,000, means work can now begin on a 12ft bronze statue of former Darlington goalkeeper Arthur Wharton, the world’s first black professional footballer.

The news will be announced at the Black List awards, taking place in London tonight, which are held to celebrate the most influential black people in football. Today would have been Wharton’s 125th birthday.

You can read the rest of the article here and for more on the story of Arthur Wharton, who as well as being the world's first black professional footballer, was also at one time the world record holder in the 100 yard dash, click here.  For details about the Arthur Wharton Foundation and the campaign that led to the donation in question click here.

Weeeee love you! But we hate you. You too. And especially you!

With the MLS playoffs about to start, and TFC's lockers already cleared out, it's time to decide who to be following, and who to be prepared to cheer for or against when the final is played before all TFC's eager season ticket holders (everyone's going right?  there were no problems with that?).

If you're undecided and it's uninformed opinions, partisan sentimentality, bitterness and petty prejudices you want to make a decision on, then you've come to the right place.  Here's my reasons to boo and cheer for the 8 teams still playing.

Colorado.
Reasons to cheer.  Marvell Wynne, his flailing arms and lack of positional sense annoyed me, but I hold no grudge with Wynne and would have no problem seeing him with the trophy.  No sponsor, I'm officially jealous of their jersey, simple, no sponsor or obnoxious North American style logo, classiest in MLS by far.
Reasons to boo.  Conor Casey, the poor man's Danny Dichio.  You don't like Toronto?  We don't like you either, so there!  Success would probably increase their commercial value and lead to a jersey sponsorship offer they can't refuse.
Verdict.  Meh!

Columbus.
Reasons to cheer.  Their consistency over the last few years is an example of...Nah, can't do it.  Seriously, it's Columbus.
Reasons to boo.  Schelotto, Lenhart, Padula's terrible hair, their taser happy cops, the fact that TFC still hasn't beaten them.  Seriously, it's Columbus.
Verdict.   Fuck those guys!  booooooo!

Dallas.
Reasons to cheer.  I seriously can't think of any, though I suppose in a "good for the growth of the game" kind of way, being champions might help them actually sell some tickets.
Reasons to boo.  Jeff Cunningham.  Milton Rodriguez's obnoxious fan-baiting celebration after scoring at BMO field this year.  The bouncy castle.  Did I mention Jeff Cunningham?
Verdict.  Booooo!

Los Angeles.
Reasons to cheer.  The Riot Squad supporters group standing up to Beckham last year was a great moment.  That's about it.
Reasons to boo.  Beckham.  Landycakes.  That's all the reasons I need.
Verdict.  Fuck those guys!  Boooo!

New York.
Reasons to cheer.  Robbo, it`d be good to see him raising a trophy at BMO.  Greg Sutton, ditto.  They`ve built themselves a fantastic stadium, and it`d be good for the league for it to be filled on a regular basis, winning would help with that.
Reasons to boo.  Thierry Henry.   Changing the team name to Red Bulls?  Awful.  5-0 last year.  That Red Bull Energy Zone or whatever it's called that sprung up outside the North stand at BMO towards the end of the season is terrible on so many levels.
Verdict.  Sorry Robbo, booooo!

Salt Lake.
Reasons to cheer.  Will Johnson, good Canadian kid.   Their turnaround from consistently terrible to very good gives some hope for TFC.
Reasons to boo.  The dirty hippy.  Real Salt lake is still a stupid name.
Verdict.  Meh!

San Jose.
Reasons to cheer.   Canadian Frank Yallop, showing the benefits of patience and sticking with a plan.  Sam Cronin.  A pacific coast team representing the Eastern conference would be amusing.  Supporters had their original team ripped away from them, so karma wise, they've earned it.
Reasons to boo.  None that I can think of, they're a pretty inoffensive club.
Verdict.  Against New York and probably Columbus?  Rock the Casbah!  I hope they make it.

Seattle.  Reasons to cheer.  Before TFC's game in Seattle, I unknowingly ended up in the home pub of Seattle supporters group Gorilla FC.  "Anti-racist, anti-Fascist, anti-sexist and anti-homophobic, but pro-party!!"  Now that's a slogan I can get behind.  They were unfailingly friendly, many of them very sincerely thanking me for travelling.   It was a great day for lucky drinking, I ran into some of Chad Barrett's family at a bar near the stadium pre game, and later that night Danny Dichio and Leo Percovich showed up at the same Irish pub I was in. The atmosphere at the game was great, and the ambition the owners have shown is something that I really hope TFC are going to try and emulate. 
Reasons to boo.  They`ve already had way too much success, I`m jealous.
Verdict.  I hope they win it all.

So here it is in order who I'll be cheering for, or more likely, not cheering against.
1. Seattle
2. San Jose
3. Colorado
4. Salt Lake
5. New York
6. Dallas
7. LA
8. Columbus.

7 and 8 was a really tough call.  I hope they don't both make it to the final.

A really good year for TFC.

My usual cynicism and pessimism will soon return, but buoyed by a 2 game winning streak to end the season, and in the spirit of reconciliation, with MLSE playing nice, I'm going for a positive season review, so here we go, the 8 reasons why this was the best year yet for TFC.

1. We won the home opener.  The home opener is always a special day in it's own right.  The end to 5 months or so of not going to games, the chance to hold aloft a new scarf, try the new food options (mmmm, poutine) meet up with old friends, or check out the view from your new seats, and just get back into whatever your matchday routine and way of supporting the club is.  The anticipatory buzz around the ground, the optimism not yet beaten out of the crowd, an enthusiastic singing of the anthem even in the prawny sections.  For the second straight year we got an expansion side to kick things off, but whereas last years game against Seattle was a real downer, this year we won.  OK, we didn't play all that well, and were lucky to be gifted both our goals, but what the hell.  The home opener, a win, excellent stuff.

2.  We won our first 5 home games.  Though the weather was terrible pretty much every game, we kept building on that feel good first win, making it into June before we even drew a game at home.  The peak of this run was the 4-1 win over Chicago.  Heavy winds and intermittent rain provided a trial for the real supporters to get through and led to a freak opener from Nick Labrocca, and a Jersey Shore celebration (how together the team seemed, how much fun they appeared to be having).  The second half saw Chad Barrett score twice against his old club, and even O'Brian White scored, though he nearly messed up an almost impossible to mess up chance. The combination of the weather and the result launched the brief "shirts off" phenomenom, for better or worse.

3.  We won the Voyageurs cup with the minimum of fuss.  This time there was no Miracle needed, we beat Montreal twice and drew in Vancouver, and that was enough for the cup to be clinched before we even played the last game.  That led to a pressure free game with academy kids playing and supporters able to celebrate throughout the game, with no need to worry about the result.  A trophy presented at home for the first time, players diving into the corners to celebrate, good times.

4.  We had a 2 month unbeaten streak.  Between May 1st and July 17th, we went 11 games without a loss in all competitions, including away wins at San Jose and Montreal, and important away draws at LA and Vancouver.  At the end of this stretch, even Fuad Ibrahim scored, to give us a 1-0 win over Colorado.

5.  We beat Motagua over two legs.  The first game, we played really well but only got a 1-0 win to show for it, so we would have a hard time to defend that.  Yeah, Motagua were only just out of pre season, but a Canadian side went to Honduras needing a result, went down early, but still got it, Dwayne De Rosario and Barrett with the goals, both set up by an excellent Maicon Santos.  I watched this game at Shoeless Joe's and the Red Patch Boys "qualifiers! qualifiers! ole, ole, ole!" chant was as inspired as it was emotional.

6.  We went 14 games unbeaten at home to start the year.  Our away form was nothing special again, but BMO Field really was a fortress, 21 goals scored and only 6 conceded giving us a record of 9 wins and 5 draws in those first 14 games.

7.  We beat Cruz Azul over two legs.  The game at home is probably my favourite TFC game so far, an early goal, 2-0 before half time and then defending comfortably before letting in a goal from a very good free kick that was too late to cause real worry.  Again, we beat Cruz A-fricking-zul, in a game that counted.  The second leg, after the firing of Preki but with Champions League progress still a real possibility was an excellent backs to the wall performance, grinding out a 0-0 that never really felt in danger.

8.  We've got some good academy kids.  Doneil Henry was the first player to be signed to the big club from the academy, Ashtone Morgan put in a great performance against Arabe Unido, but the real find was Nicholas Lindsay.  Signed to the first team late in the season, he put together a series of good games that suggest we might finally have ourselves a dangerous winger.

So there you go, without even having to resort to " there's hope for the future under a new regime" or "at least things got bad enough that they finally got rid of Mo" there's a lot of things that happened on the pitch that, despite the way the season unravelled, made 2010 a very enjoyable year.

A good start. Thank you.

Toronto FC today put out another open letter, emailed to supporters and posted on their website here.

After the previous letter of apology and removing of two games from the season ticket package, this details the further actions they've taken after listening to feedback that's been so freely and angrily offered up at the townhall meetings, message boards, conversations with account reps and so on over the last month or so.

What are those actions?  Firstly, a price freeze guarantee, if you renew your season ticket for 2011, the price won't increase for 2012.
Secondly, a guarantee that the 2012 package will only include the MLS games and 2 Voyageur cup games.  Everything else will be optional and sold seperately.
Thirdly, a committment to two further townhall meetings in 2011.
Finally, renewing Season ticket holders will get the home opener in 2011 free, refunded one way or another from their ticket package.

There was also talk of improving transportation to and from BMO field, and of course for the on the pitch side of things, they're "working hard to assemble a management team that is second to none in Major League Soccer."

For me, the last part is by far the most important factor, and it obviously remains to be seen how that will work out, even after the appointments we probably won't know for a year or two.  On the ticketing side of things, there'll no doubt still be many questions, and some people still won't be satisfied, but for now, I'm impressed that they've listened and taken concrete action in the right direction.

I'll upgrade my "mangy flea-ridden pigeon" from a few posts ago to something very tasty, if still a bit small, let's say a Pheasant.

Thank you.

It was 20 years ago today. October

Part 3 of my look back at Darlington's 1990/91 season.  Click here for August, and here for September.

Things were looking promising going into October, but our first away game was a frustrating one at Peterborough, a 1-0 defeat with Paul Emson missing enough chances to have a crimestoppers poster put in the fanzine Mission Impossible.  "Have you seen this man?  He is wanted for questioning and/or mutilation by Darlington fans after missing THREE absolute sitters against Peterborough United, which could have been scored by an inebriated duck with a wooden leg - or even Archie Stephens."  That was the end of Emson's run as a regular starter, replaced in the next game against Hereford by Mark Burke, on loan from Middlesbrough, who scored on his debut, as did David Cork and Michael Trotter, in a 3-1 win, which unfortunately saw Les McJannett injured, he would miss the rest of the month, replaced by Steve Mardenborough.

Next up was Swindon for the second leg of our League cup tie, with a comfortable 3-0 lead from the first leg. I wasn't at the game and ended up watching teletext in horror as the goals kept on coming in, and we ended up losing 4-0 on the night and 4-3 on aggregate.  The main thing I remember about the game was the next morning going to school, and one of my friends hanging out of a window to laugh at me as I walked in from the bus stop.  A valuable lesson for any Darlo fan, even when things go well, it won't be long until they inevitably end up going bad.

We then played Blackpool again, in the league this time, and I was amongst the over 1,000 fans making the trip for the saturday afternoon game.  Blackpool were doing well that year so it had a bit of a top of the table feel to it, and Darlo won 2-1, Gary Gill scoring late with what I think was a header from a corner right in front of the Darlo fans.  An away trip to Maidstone followed, the team who were promoted, under slightly dubious circumstances the year that Darlington were relegated, which ended in a late come from behind 3-2 win, Toman, Borthwick and Cork with the goals.  This was the first game missed by David Corner, replaced by promotion clinching hero Gary Coatsworth

Two home games finished off the month, a Tuesday night game against Northampton which saw our highest crowd of the season so far witness a 1-1 draw, Frank Gray with his third penalty of the year.  A 0-0 draw with Scunthorpe ended the month, a game most notable for emotional chants of "we told you we'd be back" at the Scunthorpe fans who had seen us relegated back in 1989.

As always,  feel free to add your own memories in the comments section to fill in any important details I've forgotten.

Coming up: November, lots of cup games against York, and the Monkey hangers come to town, as does Ryan Giggs (and guess who the second most famous player (with hindsight) was on the pitch that night).

An enjoyable last game at BMO.

Pre-game.

Meh.  This is the most pointless game since our last game and until our next one.  MLSE is probably silently thanking the protesting fans for giving people a reason to come out and use their tickets they bought back in the day when we still had hope.

Academy kids, players playing for pride and next years paycheque, and maybe revenge for the annoying theatrics in Panama, that's all we've got to look forward to really.  I'll be amazed if the crowd gets over 5,000.

I can't imagine there's many people who read this who don't also read The Yorkies, but they've got a very funny pre-game post up, check it out.  It'll be by far the most entertainment you'll get out of this match.

Post-game.

I got to the stadium to find a bird had shat on my seat, but a win, even a meaningless one was a nice way to end the season at home, so I'll keep this post to the positives.  Nick Labrocca had a fantastic game, and Academy call-up Ashtone Morgan looked really good, linking up well with the attack from left back.  At about the 70th minute mark, he had a great move and one-two with De Ro and forced a good save from their goalie, that would have been a great moment if it had gone in . Nana Attakora's goal was a very nice free kick play, and a clean sheet is always welcome.  Another positive, to their credit, Arabe Unido were a lot less divey than most people would have expected.  All in all, 8 points and 3rd place in that group really isn't that bad of a result, if only Preki hadn't cost us the game in Panama, who knows where we'd be.

As for supporter protests, the Red Patch Boys and North End Elite were both quiet again, and their sections were very sparse, there was certainly a lot less green that at Saturday's game, though maybe that was due to people having to wear coats.  U-Sector was much more heavily represented, and especially towards the end of the game, they provided a good atmosphere, serenading Danny Dichio with Happy Birthday was a very nice touch.  The attendance was never annnounced, I'd guess somewhere at about 7,000 or so, under the circumstances more than I would have thought.

Overall, it's probably for the best that there's just the one away game left.  I'm personally looking forward to the MLS cup, and hopefully a very productive off-season.  I want to believe things will be better next year, I really do.

Quarter season league two review.

So, a quarter of the way through the season seemed like a good time to see what's happening in my favourite English division, league two.

No-one's gone into administration yet, so that's a good start.  A jumper was lost at Oxford, Barnet players reimbursed the travelling fans who watched them lose 7-0 at Crewe, Northampton hilariously knocked Liverpool out of the League Cup, Chris Sutton walked away from Lincoln, and my favourite story so far, Simon Davey was fired by Hereford a mere 10 games into the season. 

Click here to see the long version of why Darlington fans hate him. The short version?  Well, whilst still in charge at Darlo he went to the U.S in the summer, and when he was there he resigned by email, saying he'd got a great job in the States, a once in a lifetime opportunity that he had to take for his families sake etc etc.  Thne he gave up that magnificent and in no way fake offer in order to join Hereford.  Bloody Hereford!  So I'm very happy he got fired, as are some other people.

On the pitch, there's been some epic games with the 7 goal game barrier being reached 7 times already, including a 7-4, a 5-5 with 4 goals in the last 10 minutes, a 6-4, and Hereford, post Davey firing coming back form 3-0 down at half time to win 4-3.

Torquay looked really good in August, and kept a clean-sheet streak going from last year for another 4 games or so, a streak that ended rather cruelly at 998 minutes.  Since then things have gone wrong and they've slumped so far as to be out of the playoffs.  Chesterfield are your current leaders, with Port Vale and Rotherham making up the rest of the automatic promotion spots.  Barnet and Hereford are currently in relegation places.  To see how that and the rest of the division fits in with my pre-season predictions, click here.

How bizarre, how bizarre.

Saturday's game was, in many ways, a very strange one.  The deliberately subdued atmosphere due to the Red Patch Boys and North End Elite protests.  Dan Gargan as captain.  TFC, without Dwayne De Rosario, Chad Barrett, Adrian Cann and Stefan Frei, arguably our 4 best players this year, playing a decent game against a good team.  Maicon Santos scoring one of the best goals in TFC history. Jacob Peterson scoring.  Nicholas Lindsay putting in one of the best performances by a TFC winger in a long time.  A double sending off after an incident that almost led to a full on brawl.  Columbus' two goals both scored by goalies, their first bounced off the bar and then off John Conway's back and in, it was very charitably not given as an own goal, and the second scored by their goalie Will Hesmer, going up in desperation for an injury time corner.  The only thing weirder would have been if TFC actually won, but alas we didn't quite get that one.

The game itself was fairly meaningless so I won't talk much about that, but I'd say that was the best game we've played under Dasovic so far. Santos and Lindsay had great games (I feel bad for Lindsay, his substitution got lost in the chaos after the red cards, if anyone deserved a standing ovation off the pitch it was him yesterday) and were ably supported by Nick Labrocca and Jacob Peterson.  I was also happy for Dan Gargan to be given the captaincy in De Ro's absence.  With Nick Dasovic talking pre game about how players have been showing their character recently, that decision speaks volumes.

The main talking point though is of course the continuing supporter dissatisfaction and the protests, which continue to get attention in the media, even going as far as the New York Times.

It could be argued that the game showed how much of a minority the more hardcore supporters groups members are, an argument used by the Front Office in the recent townhall meetings.  Despite the promotion of the "Wear Green" protest by the Red Patch Boys, TFC red was still by far the most prominent colour in the stadium.  The silent treatment was in a way also quite ineffective, though U-Sector never made any official decision, many of their members chose not to let their gripes with the front office get in the way of supporting the boys on the field.  This combined with most of the stadium continuing their usual support, not singing all the time by any means, but reacting to the play, cheering goals, booing the ref and so on, meant that there was still atmosphere in varying degrees, though in that respect this was one of the more entertaining, incident filled games all year, so probably not representative of the average experience.  Probably the best representation of fan anger wasn't any of the organised displays but instead the spontaneous and widespread booing of the announcement thanking fans for coming this season and reminding them to renew for next year, followed by the very audible booing of Julian De Guzman after he skied a shot way over the bar early in the game.

To me though, while not as effective or widespread as many might have hoped it was still successful, and a very good representation of what the could happen to TFC if things continue to slide.  It was very reminiscent of the crowd at the Chivas game, and at many other MLS grounds, a small supporters group singing throughout the game, and then plenty of empty seats and sporadic cheering as the game goes on in the rest of the stadium, but often eerily quiet enough for any reasonably big away contingent to be heard, and the Crew fans' "Guillermo" chant could certainly be heard often from my seats in 227.

If the team keeps alienating supporters, this is what it will become, it won't be the end of the world, the crowds won't completely disappear, the club will keep going, and if the team starts winning the crowd size will probably bounce back to be decent, essentially we'll be an average MLS club.  But given the potential that still exists (even the angriest supporters desperately want to have something to cheer about again), what it could be, and especially given what TFC started with, average would be a terrible shame and a real wasted opportunity.

Jimmy Glass! The goalkeeper's done it!

Will Hesmer's injury time goal for Columbus was a real kick in the teeth, a perfect "why not?  everything else has gone wrong this season" moment to put the cap on the last home league game.  But it could have been worse.

This is one of the all time great moments of joy/soul crushing despair in small team football history.  1999, last day of the season, relegation out of the football league on the line for Scarborough or Carlisle United, depending on results in 2 different games.

This is a good recap of how the day broke down, including footage of Scarborough fans celebrating on the pitch as they thought they were safe.

This is the story from the other game, injury time, the goalie goes up for the corner...

Incredible stuff.

A mangy flea-ridden pigeon.

My post yesterday called for a Scrooge like epiphany and changing of ways from the MLSE higher ups, and in a way, that's now what we have.  Daniel Girard's article in The Star has Tom Anselmi in a remarkable and unexpected mea culpa.

First of all, the chief operating officer of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment is “pissed off” about the poor performance of Toronto FC this season, which will see the team miss the playoffs for the fourth straight year. He also admits the club “screwed up royally” with its season-ticket renewals.
And he vows to “get this fixed real quick” by re-jigging season ticket packages and hiring the right general manager to improve on-field results.

It seems he recognises the need for action on both the on pitch and off pitch side of things.  For me the most important thing for the future of the club is the on pitch product, so let's start there.  Anselmi seems alarmed that Mo and Preki made so many changes, as opposed to going with the plan of  making“a couple of tweaks that would put us over the finish line” and into the playoffs.  I'm concerned that he felt last year's over budget division-riddled squad was a couple of tweaks away, and also very alarmed that he seems to see making the playoffs as the finish line, but I'll let that go for now, as this is the depressing part.

“At Maple Leaf Sports, we’ve been accused at length about suits like me interfering with the team. (This is) proof positive, we don’t interfere.“We had a general manager and a head coach who played together on both sides of the ocean, won a championship together. You would have thought that they were on the same page. We stayed out of their hair and let them do what they did and maybe that wasn’t the right thing.”

Anselmi insisted that he and other MLSE executives aren’t looking to run the day-to-day operations of the team. But rather than a “one-man band” as under Johnston, he said the new GM will have soccer people around him in the front office, including interim GM Earl Cochrane and Jim Brennan, who earlier this season retired to move to the front office as Johnston’s assistant.

So the lesson he's apparently learned is that he should be interfering more rather than letting whoever he hires next do the job their way!  While the idea of having soccer people around the new GM is a very good one, it seems that Jim Brennan and Earl Cochrane are definitely going to be a part of that, continuing Anselmi's investment in their potential rather than viewing getting whoever it takes to win as a priority.  To recap, it seems whoever they hire won't have independence to bring his own people in, will have Anselmi's pet projects pushed on him and won't be left alone to do things their own way.  That should get us some quality applicants.

While it's easy to despair on that front, the fair thing to do would be to wait until there's firm action taken before judging too harshly, so instead let's move on to what is being done to fix the "royal screw up" with season tickets.

An email was sent out to TFC's mailing list and posted on the club's website saying how sorry they are, and inviting people to a series of townhall meetings over the next week or so, which could be very interesting, but what did they actually do?

TFC fans know that with two extra teams in the league next year, there were always going to be extra games in the season ticket package and overall prices were going to go up because of that, but what most people are angry about is yet another increase in the per game cost, and the fact that tickets to this years MLS cup final were automatically included whether we liked it or not, whether TFC is there or not.  So that must be what they addressed right?

Nope.  Instead, with no mention of the MLS final or per game increase issues, we get the news that tickets for 2 Concacaf Champions League games will be taken out of the package and the deadline for renewal extended to October 22nd.  So instead of paying for those 2 games, then getting a refund if TFC don't qualify, we don't have to pay until TFC qualify.  That's nice, for sure, but really misses the point of what people are angry about, and has in effect made people angrier, giving the impression that they think they can placate everyone with a token gesture like this along with a few compliments about how Toronto has the best fans in MLS, and how they're looking forward to showing the rest of MLS and the soccer world how great our fans are this November.

I suppose it's a start, but it's hardly the big turnaround needed to improve supporter relations.  To belabour my scrooge analogy even further and for the last time I promise, they haven't gone out and bought the biggest goose in the shop for our christmas dinner, they've given us a mangy flea-ridden pigeon they found dead on the street, and they expect us to be thankful for that.

This Saturday's game against the Crew should be interesting, the Red Patch Boys will be wearing green rather than the usual red, and the North End Elite are planning a silent protest, no standing, chanting, clapping, no nothing.  The Front Office has a long way to go to get people back on side.

A Christmas Carol, TFC style.

I've just returned from vacation, during which I saw TFC games against Seattle and Chivas, two very different sides of the MLS experience, and seeing as how TFC was already out of contention for the playoffs, it really gave me a chance to focus less on the games and more on the overall atmosphere surrounding both clubs, and how it could relate to TFC and their future, and it all seems to have a very Scrooge like theme to me.  Think Tom Anselmi as Ebenezer Scrooge, Paul Beirne can be Bob Cratchett I suppose, and Tiny Tim? Young and permanently crocked, step up Emmanuel Gomez. 

Anyway, first up Seattle.

1.  We have grass, Seattle has plastic.
2.  Our kits are better.
3.  We don't have advertisements broadcast over the loudspeakers during the game.

That's it.  It's been over a week since we played in Seattle, and those are still the only ways I can think of that TFC and being a TFC supporter is better than what Seattle has, and one of those is merely a subjective matter of taste.

A list of ways that the Sounders are better than TFC would take a long long time, but it obviously all starts at the top.  Whereas MLSE is very much a business that is expected to make ever increasing profits, Seattle has owners in Drew Carey and Paul Allen that are a) independently wealthy and b) soccer fans, so their main motivation is winning, and profit (and with the size of the crowd and the way merchandise was flying off the shelf, there's got to be a ridiculous amount of profit there) is secondary. 

Unlike MLSE's cautious approach, starting with Mo Johnston, and deciding it wasn't worth spending money on a DP right away, right from the start they were committed to winning, illegally luring then coach of the year Sigi Schmid away from Columbus, and signing good players including DP Freddie Ljungberg.  The Ljungberg experiment went wrong earlier this year, but they reloaded, including signing striker Blaise Nkufo and Uruguayan world cup player Alvaro Fernandez, and have recovered from a slow start to work their way into a playoff spot again.

The difference in the quality and depth of squads was shown most effectively in the substitutes during the game, Seattle bringing on Fernandez and Nate Jacqua who scored 9 goals last year which is more than anyone except Dwayne De Rosario has managed in any TFC season.  TFC?  Well we got Nick Garcia, O'Brian White and recent academy call-up Nicholas Lindsay, and our DP striker?  Mista pulled himself out of the line-up pre game with a foot injury. 

All this ambition, winning, playoff appearances and US Open triumphs (Seattle won their second consecutive last wednesday, beating Columbus in the final) have kept the fans coming and involved, and made sure Qwest field remains a genuinely exciting place to watch a game.  With some very noisy supporters groups, joined occasionally in the more simple chants by the rest of the sold out 36,000+ crowd, and with a real anticipatory buzz throughout the stadium, it was a great experience.  This was Christmas past, a reminder of TFC's early days when the stadium was packed and fans were excited just to have a team, before 4 years of constant ineptitude sucked the life out of the more casual BMO field attendees.  Basically TFC crowd circa 2007 + winning = Sounders crowd.  I'm officially jealous, hopefully there's still a chance that sort of atmosphere can return if the right moves are made and we finally start winning.

If Seattle was a great experience, and an example of what TFC can hopefully be again if they do things right, then last Saturday's game against Chivas is the other side of the coin, TFC's depressing ghost of Christmas future, what will happen if TFC continues to stagnate and lose and the front office continues to alienate people with ticket price increases and their seeming indifference to supporter concerns.

It's not all bad there by any means, they do have a couple of supporters groups doing their best, the ones I met were very friendly, as well as amusingly contemptuous of Preki,  but they're fighting what right now seems to be a losing battle against a half empty stadium and a barely interested crowd who seemed most excited when the wave got going. 

The bit that really scares me, and what I really hope to never see at BMO field, is what the club does to try and get the crowd involved.  A mascot, cheerleaders, hundreds of people on the pitch involved with the pre-game stuff, all the usual North American razzmatazz that TFC refreshingly decided to avoid at first.  Even worse was loud music and "goooooooooooooooooooooolllll" after each goal, drowning out the crowd at the one time they actually do get excited.  Terrible.  If the crowds don't come back to BMO and they end up having to resort to that sort of thing to try and attract new fans, well, that might be the moment I decide to give up my season tickets.

So, TFC are clearly at a crossroads, about to start again, with a new management and coaching team to be hired and a squad to be rebuilt.  Hopefully this time they don't go cheap, but instead, Scrooge sends a boy to buy the biggest goose in the shop window, copying Seattle's plan and getting the best people, price and legalities be damned.  If not, well the future could well be a pretty bleak one.