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.