It's been over three months now since Darlington won the FA Trophy in the best way possible, a winner in the last minute of extra time at Wembley for the first piece of silverware since 1991. After the near misses of previous playoff final losses, the craziness of the George Reynolds era, two adminstrations, relegation from the football league and very nearly going out of business, this was a sweet moment for all the Darlo fans who kept the faith. More generally, a reward for the basic concept of sticking with your local team, rather than switching allegiance to one of the big clubs. This was the moment of rare alleviation from the lifetime of misery and struggle that is the very slogan of this blog.
So why's it taken me so long to write about it? There should have been plenty of posts by now revelling in the moment, what it means to me and what it means to the future of Darlo, all that sort of thing. I've started and scrapped those posts, and now here I am, 3 months later, no posts at all and the new season about to start.
I was never going to write a match report, I wasn't there and stuck in Canada, I couldn't even watch it on tv or online, instead stuck just with the radio commentary. This is the video of the goal, with that magnificently, unashamedly unimpartial radio commentary laid over it.
I figured I'd have no problems with an emotional, what it all means, and how I earned it, kind of post though, and yet I have. If you want that kind of story, you should go to the 'Virtual Feethams' forum section of Darlo Uncovered, where there's lots of that sort of thing that is well worth reading, amongst many many threads started after the famous win.
Why the writer's block? I've been thinking about that, and have come to the conclusion that I haven't actually earned it. I earlier mentioned 'stuck in Canada', but I'm not, airplanes exist, there was over a month between semis and final, sure it would have been expensive but if I'd wanted to, I could have gone, it was very much my decision not to go.
Back in 1996, Darlo made the playoff final just a couple of months after I first moved to Toronto, I'd been going to games all season, travelling all over the country from university in Leeds and with some financial help from my Dad, I made sure I went to that final. I spent a night in Paris airport, which included being woken by security guards with guns pointed casually at me, as part of the last minute travel plans. If we'd won that game, I would have earned it.
Since moving permanently to Canada in 1997, I've seen about 6 or 7 games in 14 years, and this was the second Wembley final I've decided not to go to. My efforts to follow games on the internet are half arsed at best, and the results very rarely affect my day in any meaningful way. In a similar way to how Darlington quickly eclipsed Liverpool after I started watching them live, I now get to watch Toronto FC games live and that's become my main team, and by far my main blogging focus.
So would I really call myself a big Darlington supporter any more? I know if I heard anyone with a similar record to what I just described but for Man United or Liverpool describe themselves as a big fan, I'd roll my eyes and inwardly dismiss them, so I think it's time to downgrade myself to 'interested observer'. Seriously, the season's about to start, and I doubt I could name one new player we've signed in the off-season.
Also, since there's really only so much good nostalgia involved with being a Darlington fan, there's plenty of other better blogs about the lower leagues, that actually have the advantage of being in the country to follow teams and watch games, and I've got somewhere else for me to write about Toronto, it's probably best to say that just under a year after starting it, this will be my last Cruel Geography post. As a final act, a farewell tour and repackaging of the greatest hits if you will, I've updated the 20 years ago page, and have all my 2011 FA Trophy writings together in a page now as well, both accessible from the top of the page, two little archive collections that might hopefully justify this site's infinite continued existence in the web.
I'm ok with all of this, my whole footballing belief system is about supporting your local teams, wherever you are, and for me that's now Toronto and Canada. So sincere thanks to all who've stopped here and read anything or taken the time to comment or talk to me on twitter. Thanks also to those bloggers who've had kind words to say, included me in their blogrolls or allowed me a guest post. That was at The Two Unfortunates, along with The SeventyTwo are the best Football League blogs out and there and great promoters of other Football League blogs as well.
May Darlington soon force their way back into their mandate, and wherever you are, may your footballing geography become more rewarding.
Cheers, Duncan
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Thursday, May 12, 2011
It was 20 years ago today. Champions.
With thanks to the Darlo Uncovered Forum, I just stumbled across this, highlights of the final game that clinched the title. The first goal wasn't exactly as I remembered, I think in my head that goal and the early chance where Cork hit the bar had got mixed up.
But just look at the crowd in the south stand, absolutely packed, and the celebratory pitch invasion? Gold.
But just look at the crowd in the south stand, absolutely packed, and the celebratory pitch invasion? Gold.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Sweet FA Trophy. The final
With the non league season now over bar the playoffs, there's just time for the showcase fixture of the FA Trophy final, a chance for two tiny non-league teams to give their fans the game of a lifetime and a trip to Wembley.
That romantic narrative is spoiled somewhat by the fact that the two teams playing are traditional football league teams only recently entering the non-league abyss, both of whom have played in Wembley finals previously (and that was old Wembley, which is clearly a much bigger deal). Mansfield Town won the 1987 Freight Rover trophy, the first Wembley final to go to penalties, and their opponents have two losing playoff final appearances to their name. That name gives the tie all the romance and interest I need though, that's right, it's everyone's favourite non-league team Darlington.
You can check out how we got to this point by clicking here for my round by round preview/review, or for a more just the facts breakdown of all the results, go here to the magnificently thorough Soccerway.com.
Every Cup final needs an excruciating team song, so to get you in the mood, here's a Darlo one by the Speed Dinosaurs.
We once beat Mansfield in a friendly, now we're gonna beat them......at We-em-bley. genius!
For the sake of fairness, here's an equally bad one for Mansfield. Blue and Yellow, apparently a remake of some rap song. Becasue nothing says rap like Mansfield Town in the FA Trophy final! Still, better than Anfield Rap, I'll give it that.
As for the game itself, you can check out all the preview pieces from the proper media in the local rag here, and get a good preview as well as see all the different things the supporter's are talking about in the forum at Darlo Uncovered.
The Quakers are definitely on form, winning 5 of their last 7 games and riding a very good second half to the season to 7th place in the Conference, just outside the playoffs, but a very good stabilising season after all the financial problems and uncertainty that continues to hang over the club. Injury and eligibility problems mean top scorer Liam Hatch will probably have to play in defence, but Mansfield have similar issues of their own, to a worse extent and have had a poor run of form to finish the season, dropping down to 13th spot, so Darlo will be favourites going in to the game. Darlington's history in this sort of thing would suggest a 1-0 defeat, but I'll predict a glorious 2-0 win.
It'll be a nice day out, one that I'm gutted to have to miss, and another trophy for the cabinet would definitely be a good thing, but the main benefit could well be what it means to the long term future for Darlington. Ticket sales to Darlington fans are currently at about 9,000, way more than the average attendance this year of 2,051. Obviously there's a lot of people for whom it will definitely be just a one-off thing, but hopefully some of those will enjoy the experience enough to start attending games on a regular basis, or to get back into the habit of doing that.
Who knows exactly what crowds would be needed to make the club profitable at the ridiculous white elephant stadium, but with the ground up for sale and the Chairman Raj Singh making pleas for an increase in the season ticket base, hopefully this appearance will galvanize support and help get the club back on an even footing to support a push for promotion back to the Football league next year. After all, the FA Trophy's nice but given the choice of that, or the League Cup and Paint Pot, I know which I'd rather have Darlo regularly compete for.
That romantic narrative is spoiled somewhat by the fact that the two teams playing are traditional football league teams only recently entering the non-league abyss, both of whom have played in Wembley finals previously (and that was old Wembley, which is clearly a much bigger deal). Mansfield Town won the 1987 Freight Rover trophy, the first Wembley final to go to penalties, and their opponents have two losing playoff final appearances to their name. That name gives the tie all the romance and interest I need though, that's right, it's everyone's favourite non-league team Darlington.
You can check out how we got to this point by clicking here for my round by round preview/review, or for a more just the facts breakdown of all the results, go here to the magnificently thorough Soccerway.com.
Every Cup final needs an excruciating team song, so to get you in the mood, here's a Darlo one by the Speed Dinosaurs.
We once beat Mansfield in a friendly, now we're gonna beat them......at We-em-bley. genius!
For the sake of fairness, here's an equally bad one for Mansfield. Blue and Yellow, apparently a remake of some rap song. Becasue nothing says rap like Mansfield Town in the FA Trophy final! Still, better than Anfield Rap, I'll give it that.
As for the game itself, you can check out all the preview pieces from the proper media in the local rag here, and get a good preview as well as see all the different things the supporter's are talking about in the forum at Darlo Uncovered.
The Quakers are definitely on form, winning 5 of their last 7 games and riding a very good second half to the season to 7th place in the Conference, just outside the playoffs, but a very good stabilising season after all the financial problems and uncertainty that continues to hang over the club. Injury and eligibility problems mean top scorer Liam Hatch will probably have to play in defence, but Mansfield have similar issues of their own, to a worse extent and have had a poor run of form to finish the season, dropping down to 13th spot, so Darlo will be favourites going in to the game. Darlington's history in this sort of thing would suggest a 1-0 defeat, but I'll predict a glorious 2-0 win.
It'll be a nice day out, one that I'm gutted to have to miss, and another trophy for the cabinet would definitely be a good thing, but the main benefit could well be what it means to the long term future for Darlington. Ticket sales to Darlington fans are currently at about 9,000, way more than the average attendance this year of 2,051. Obviously there's a lot of people for whom it will definitely be just a one-off thing, but hopefully some of those will enjoy the experience enough to start attending games on a regular basis, or to get back into the habit of doing that.
Who knows exactly what crowds would be needed to make the club profitable at the ridiculous white elephant stadium, but with the ground up for sale and the Chairman Raj Singh making pleas for an increase in the season ticket base, hopefully this appearance will galvanize support and help get the club back on an even footing to support a push for promotion back to the Football league next year. After all, the FA Trophy's nice but given the choice of that, or the League Cup and Paint Pot, I know which I'd rather have Darlo regularly compete for.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
It was 20 years ago today. May
The last instalment of my look back at Darlington's 1990/91 season. Click here for August, September, October, November, December January February March and April. Or for the whole season in one handy post, check out this at the superb The Two Unfortunates.
Last away game, penultimate game of the season, Scunthorpe away. The symmetry was perfect, two years after the exact same fixture had seen Darlington relegated to the Vauxhall Conference, we returned with the chance for the ultimate redemption of clinching promotion. The away end was now all seater and it was pretty much packed with Darlo fans. It didn't work out as they hoped, of course it didn't it was Scunthorpe away. Darlo went 1-0 down, pulled a goal back with a Frank Gray penalty, but ended up having a goal disallowed and losing 2-1, and with repeated pitch invasions causing problems as well.
It all set up a nervous last game at home to Rochdale, with 5 teams still in with a chance of finishing top, Darlo knew a win would clinch the title, but a loss could see them drop into the playoffs. There was of course a big crowd and I ended up at the front against the advertising boards rather than my usual spot half way up the tin shed terrace.
An early goal was what was needed to calm the nerves and it arrived within 10 minutes, David Cork getting his first goal in 7 games, finding space in the box from a Frank Gray free kick and volleying the ball home. Gray himself got the second with a penalty in front of the tin shed and from then the result was never in doubt. The message came over the tannoy to stay off the pitch and the team would do a lap of honour with the trophy, but that was laughed at, and towards the end people started going over the boards and creeping further and further on to the pitch.
The final whistle eventually blew and the inevitable full scale pitch invasion happened. I was part of that and ended up in front of the main stand, at one point sitting on the shoulders of a friend and picking out my sister and freind in the East stand. Eventually the players came up to the Director's box, Kevan Smith got to lift another trophy, Dick Corden rubbed his hand at the big novelty cheque. For the second straight year, fans honoured an injured defender, last year Jimmy Willis, this year David Corner, it was all very emotional. The next day, for the second straight year, Kevan Smith took the trophy to see Roger Tames on 'the Back Page'. Hartlepool also won promotion in 3rd place, but it was just sweeter than when they finally did something good, we went two better.
Brian Little went on to Leicester where he took a team that just avoided relegation and got them to the playoffs three straight years, finally winning promotion to the Premier league, Jimmy Willis went with him and won the Man of the Match award in that playoff final. Little then moved on to Aston Villa and took them to a 4th place finish and a League cup trophy, before for whatever reason it all started to go wrong, eventually being fired form Villa, and then taking other jobs further and further down the league's without ever recapturing the same success.
Frank Gray took over from Little, and most of the team stayed together but the third division was a step too far, it didn't work out and Gray was fired within his first year as Darlo finished last and were relegated back down. As at every other moment of success in Darlo's history, it proved fleeting and now we're right back where this great team started, in the Conference.
Last away game, penultimate game of the season, Scunthorpe away. The symmetry was perfect, two years after the exact same fixture had seen Darlington relegated to the Vauxhall Conference, we returned with the chance for the ultimate redemption of clinching promotion. The away end was now all seater and it was pretty much packed with Darlo fans. It didn't work out as they hoped, of course it didn't it was Scunthorpe away. Darlo went 1-0 down, pulled a goal back with a Frank Gray penalty, but ended up having a goal disallowed and losing 2-1, and with repeated pitch invasions causing problems as well.
It all set up a nervous last game at home to Rochdale, with 5 teams still in with a chance of finishing top, Darlo knew a win would clinch the title, but a loss could see them drop into the playoffs. There was of course a big crowd and I ended up at the front against the advertising boards rather than my usual spot half way up the tin shed terrace.
An early goal was what was needed to calm the nerves and it arrived within 10 minutes, David Cork getting his first goal in 7 games, finding space in the box from a Frank Gray free kick and volleying the ball home. Gray himself got the second with a penalty in front of the tin shed and from then the result was never in doubt. The message came over the tannoy to stay off the pitch and the team would do a lap of honour with the trophy, but that was laughed at, and towards the end people started going over the boards and creeping further and further on to the pitch.
The final whistle eventually blew and the inevitable full scale pitch invasion happened. I was part of that and ended up in front of the main stand, at one point sitting on the shoulders of a friend and picking out my sister and freind in the East stand. Eventually the players came up to the Director's box, Kevan Smith got to lift another trophy, Dick Corden rubbed his hand at the big novelty cheque. For the second straight year, fans honoured an injured defender, last year Jimmy Willis, this year David Corner, it was all very emotional. The next day, for the second straight year, Kevan Smith took the trophy to see Roger Tames on 'the Back Page'. Hartlepool also won promotion in 3rd place, but it was just sweeter than when they finally did something good, we went two better.
Brian Little went on to Leicester where he took a team that just avoided relegation and got them to the playoffs three straight years, finally winning promotion to the Premier league, Jimmy Willis went with him and won the Man of the Match award in that playoff final. Little then moved on to Aston Villa and took them to a 4th place finish and a League cup trophy, before for whatever reason it all started to go wrong, eventually being fired form Villa, and then taking other jobs further and further down the league's without ever recapturing the same success.
Frank Gray took over from Little, and most of the team stayed together but the third division was a step too far, it didn't work out and Gray was fired within his first year as Darlo finished last and were relegated back down. As at every other moment of success in Darlo's history, it proved fleeting and now we're right back where this great team started, in the Conference.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
It was 20 years ago today. April
The latest instalment of my look back at Darlington's 1990/91 season. Click here for August, September, October, November, December January February and March. Or for the whole season in one handy post, check out this at the superb The Two Unfortunates.
Darlington kind of limped into April, winning only 1 of their last 6 games, and seeing their lead at the top of the table shrink slightly, but helped by other top teams like Burnley, Torquay and Northampton also struggling, they were still at the top.
April started with an Easter Monday trip to Chesterfield where I remember the Mansfield fanzine follow the yellow brick road selling copies to the away fans. It was an entertaining game and despite Darlo having to replace Gary Gill with Michael Trotter, they scored twice with goals from John Borthwick and David Cork, but that was only good enough for another draw.
That was followed up with a couple of home games, and remarkably despite being top of the table, there were grumblings at the time about the lack of entertainment and dull style of play. First up was Scarborough, and Darlo came away with three points, winning 2-1 with Andy Toman and Borthwick again providing the goals. Then a Tuesday night game against Lincoln was another disappointing 2 points dropped, Gary Gill scoring in a 1-1 tie.
We did get a crucial three points at Cardiff the next week thanks to an own goal, but could only get another draw at home against Maidstone after that, Toman scoring again in a 1-1 tie in front of over 4,000. That was a standard crowd for Darlo to finish the season off after February's great run.
All these draws meant what had been a big lead at the top of the table had dwindled to the point where automatic promotion was no longer a certainty, and we ended April by heading to Northampton. The Cobblers had had a very good season but it had fallen apart to the point where they were desperate for a result to stay in the playoff picture, so it was a big game for both sides and there was a very big contingent of nervous Darlo fans. We had no reason to be as Darlo absolutely destroyed Northampton in the first half.
Michael Trotter and John Borthwick scored two early goals, before Mitch Cook then scored one of the best goals I can remember from a Darlo player. From a Northampton attack, Prudhoe threw the ball out to Toman who took the ball forward before knocking it down the right wing to McJannett who crossed it to the left side of the box where Mitch Cook volleyed it first time back across the goalie into the net. Less than 10 seconds from Prudhoe to the goal, and finished off by a volley that would have been a great goal even without the impressive build up.
Disbelief on the terrace turned to relief and comfort as Darlo just shut up shop and very smoothly saw out the seconf half for the 3-0 win that all but secured a promotion spot. Celebrations of players and management on the pitch very much recalled the scenes at a similar point of the Vauxhall Conference winning season, when a win away at Stafford put Darlo within sight of the championship. With two games left, Darlo would need at least one win to secure the title, but had done just enough to get themselves to the brink of promotion.
Next up: May. Scunthorpe away, what could possibly go wrong with that? and finally, E-I-E-I-E-I-O, up the football league we go.
Darlington kind of limped into April, winning only 1 of their last 6 games, and seeing their lead at the top of the table shrink slightly, but helped by other top teams like Burnley, Torquay and Northampton also struggling, they were still at the top.
April started with an Easter Monday trip to Chesterfield where I remember the Mansfield fanzine follow the yellow brick road selling copies to the away fans. It was an entertaining game and despite Darlo having to replace Gary Gill with Michael Trotter, they scored twice with goals from John Borthwick and David Cork, but that was only good enough for another draw.
That was followed up with a couple of home games, and remarkably despite being top of the table, there were grumblings at the time about the lack of entertainment and dull style of play. First up was Scarborough, and Darlo came away with three points, winning 2-1 with Andy Toman and Borthwick again providing the goals. Then a Tuesday night game against Lincoln was another disappointing 2 points dropped, Gary Gill scoring in a 1-1 tie.
We did get a crucial three points at Cardiff the next week thanks to an own goal, but could only get another draw at home against Maidstone after that, Toman scoring again in a 1-1 tie in front of over 4,000. That was a standard crowd for Darlo to finish the season off after February's great run.
All these draws meant what had been a big lead at the top of the table had dwindled to the point where automatic promotion was no longer a certainty, and we ended April by heading to Northampton. The Cobblers had had a very good season but it had fallen apart to the point where they were desperate for a result to stay in the playoff picture, so it was a big game for both sides and there was a very big contingent of nervous Darlo fans. We had no reason to be as Darlo absolutely destroyed Northampton in the first half.
Michael Trotter and John Borthwick scored two early goals, before Mitch Cook then scored one of the best goals I can remember from a Darlo player. From a Northampton attack, Prudhoe threw the ball out to Toman who took the ball forward before knocking it down the right wing to McJannett who crossed it to the left side of the box where Mitch Cook volleyed it first time back across the goalie into the net. Less than 10 seconds from Prudhoe to the goal, and finished off by a volley that would have been a great goal even without the impressive build up.
Disbelief on the terrace turned to relief and comfort as Darlo just shut up shop and very smoothly saw out the seconf half for the 3-0 win that all but secured a promotion spot. Celebrations of players and management on the pitch very much recalled the scenes at a similar point of the Vauxhall Conference winning season, when a win away at Stafford put Darlo within sight of the championship. With two games left, Darlo would need at least one win to secure the title, but had done just enough to get themselves to the brink of promotion.
Next up: May. Scunthorpe away, what could possibly go wrong with that? and finally, E-I-E-I-E-I-O, up the football league we go.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Big changes at Cruel Geography.
Ever since I started this about 6 months ago, it's always been a wierd combination of subjects really. Toronto FC, MLS and Canada stuff, awkwardly mixed in with stuff about Darlington and other things about lower league english clubs. It works great for me, but despite the obvious links (Jason de Vos AND Johann Smith), I can't imagine there's that many people who see it as a natural fit. I thought a few times about splitting it up into two blogs, or finding some other way of narrowing my focus, but ended up just keeping going.
I sometimes like to think there's a small bunch of Canadians who are a bit more interested in Darlo now, and vice versa, that there's English people out there who've adopted TFC as their MLS club. I highly doubt it, but hopefully some of you have enjoyed the mix, or at least weren't completely put off by having to filter through all the crap you're not interested in.
Anyway, where this is all leading is to the fact that going forward the awkward mix will be no more, as I'm excited to announce starting from today, I'll be writing about Toronto FC for SBNation at http://www.wakingthered.com/. Feel free to click on the link and go check it out, and I'll be putting a permanent link to there somewhere prominent here as well.
I guess all bloggers eventually find their niche, and TFC is definitely becoming my main priority, if only because I live here and can actually watch the games, but I'll be keeping Cruel Geography going for my English stuff, and once things have settled down with Waking the Red, I'll be changing a few things around here, and I'm hoping to get back to some more regular posting. I'm determined to not just let it die a slow death, but I probably won't have as much time as before, so if anyone wants to contribute anything, whether a one off piece or a regular contribution, I'll be delighted to consider anything really, whether it's about your club, or supporter culture in general. For example, did your team have a particularly memorable 1991-92 season? Want to write about it for my 20 years ago page, as a one off post, or a month by month thing like I'm doing with Darlington 1990-91? If so, or for any other idea you think would fit in, email me at the address at the top of the page.
Cheers
Duncan.
I sometimes like to think there's a small bunch of Canadians who are a bit more interested in Darlo now, and vice versa, that there's English people out there who've adopted TFC as their MLS club. I highly doubt it, but hopefully some of you have enjoyed the mix, or at least weren't completely put off by having to filter through all the crap you're not interested in.
Anyway, where this is all leading is to the fact that going forward the awkward mix will be no more, as I'm excited to announce starting from today, I'll be writing about Toronto FC for SBNation at http://www.wakingthered.com/. Feel free to click on the link and go check it out, and I'll be putting a permanent link to there somewhere prominent here as well.
I guess all bloggers eventually find their niche, and TFC is definitely becoming my main priority, if only because I live here and can actually watch the games, but I'll be keeping Cruel Geography going for my English stuff, and once things have settled down with Waking the Red, I'll be changing a few things around here, and I'm hoping to get back to some more regular posting. I'm determined to not just let it die a slow death, but I probably won't have as much time as before, so if anyone wants to contribute anything, whether a one off piece or a regular contribution, I'll be delighted to consider anything really, whether it's about your club, or supporter culture in general. For example, did your team have a particularly memorable 1991-92 season? Want to write about it for my 20 years ago page, as a one off post, or a month by month thing like I'm doing with Darlington 1990-91? If so, or for any other idea you think would fit in, email me at the address at the top of the page.
Cheers
Duncan.
It was 20 years ago today. March
The latest instalment of my look back at Darlington's 1990/91 season. Click here for August, September, October, November, December January and February. Or for the whole season in one handy post, check out this at the superb The Two Unfortunates.
Darlo came into March on a great run, undefeated and not scored against in all of February, and it was a very busy month, playing 8 games, a lot of them against other promotion chasing sides. They kept the winning run and clean sheet streak going with another win in their first game of the month against Stockport County, 6'7" Kevin Francis et al. This was quite possibly the best game Steve Mardenborough had for us, he played really well, had several chances, and ended up scoring the only goal of the game, topped off with a fabulous run/jump/dance celebration.
Next up was a Tuesday night home game against Wallsall, and yet another clean sheet for Mark Prudhoe. Gary Gill was back after missing a couple of games, and Lee Ellison was back again as John Borthwick's partner, but the glory and the only goal in this game went to Mick Tait. It's probably one of those things that my memory has embellished over time, but I remember it as him winning the ball at about the half way line, taking a couple of touches and a few yards forward before belting it from about 40 yards out and just inside the post in front of the Tin Shed. According to my Mother, my reaction was simply an astounded "Fucking Hell". It probably wasn't actually as good as I remember it now, but it's in the top 3 Feethams goals for me (Kevan Smith vs Cheltenham, Lee Ellison vs Hartlepool) and maybe it's for the best that it's not out there on youtube to make it less special.
By now Darlo had built a healthy lead at the top of the table, which is good because they were about to enter a fairly rough stretch, starting at Torquay where they finally let in a goal, and also let in a last minute winner, losing 2-1, with Ellison getting the goal. The goalless streak, stretching over 7 full games was a club record at the time, and presumably still is, a fitting tribute to a great goalie and defence.
Darlo set off on another unbeaten run, starting with another top of the table clash, this time in front of over 8,000 at Peterborough, and it ended in a 2-2 draw, Smith and David Cork with the goals. It had been over 2 months since Cork had been a regular in the team, but he'd play every game from this point on.
Next up was two home games against more of the top teams, Doncaster Rovers were first up and Darlo struggled, but got a 1-1 draw, Toman scoring and Smith with an own goal, but we still had an 8 point lead as other teams around us also struggled. That was followed by another 1-1 game, against Blackpool, Smith scoring again, and Prudhoe having another great game, I remember one diving reflex save from a header being particularly impresssive.
The run of draws continued as a Les McJannett goal got us a 1-1 draw at Hereford, before we finally got back to winning ways in the last game of the month at home against Aldershot. A 3-1 win sounds like it would be one of the better games, but it was one of the dullest games I can ever remember watching. Aldershot were a very poor team, and on the verge of going out of businesss, but we couldn't really take advantage and needed two Frank Gray penalties, as well as a Borthwick goal to get the three points. That game saw the debut of Mitch Cook, in his second go round with Darlo, a replacement for Paul Emson who we shipped off to Kettering. I'm fairly certain it was very early in this game, if not the first time the ball came to him that he went to kick the ball, completely missed and fell over. A cult hero was born, at least in my house, and we ended up naming our dog in his honour.
Coming up: April, the stumble towards the finish line continues, then that game at Northampton.
Darlo came into March on a great run, undefeated and not scored against in all of February, and it was a very busy month, playing 8 games, a lot of them against other promotion chasing sides. They kept the winning run and clean sheet streak going with another win in their first game of the month against Stockport County, 6'7" Kevin Francis et al. This was quite possibly the best game Steve Mardenborough had for us, he played really well, had several chances, and ended up scoring the only goal of the game, topped off with a fabulous run/jump/dance celebration.
Next up was a Tuesday night home game against Wallsall, and yet another clean sheet for Mark Prudhoe. Gary Gill was back after missing a couple of games, and Lee Ellison was back again as John Borthwick's partner, but the glory and the only goal in this game went to Mick Tait. It's probably one of those things that my memory has embellished over time, but I remember it as him winning the ball at about the half way line, taking a couple of touches and a few yards forward before belting it from about 40 yards out and just inside the post in front of the Tin Shed. According to my Mother, my reaction was simply an astounded "Fucking Hell". It probably wasn't actually as good as I remember it now, but it's in the top 3 Feethams goals for me (Kevan Smith vs Cheltenham, Lee Ellison vs Hartlepool) and maybe it's for the best that it's not out there on youtube to make it less special.
By now Darlo had built a healthy lead at the top of the table, which is good because they were about to enter a fairly rough stretch, starting at Torquay where they finally let in a goal, and also let in a last minute winner, losing 2-1, with Ellison getting the goal. The goalless streak, stretching over 7 full games was a club record at the time, and presumably still is, a fitting tribute to a great goalie and defence.
Darlo set off on another unbeaten run, starting with another top of the table clash, this time in front of over 8,000 at Peterborough, and it ended in a 2-2 draw, Smith and David Cork with the goals. It had been over 2 months since Cork had been a regular in the team, but he'd play every game from this point on.
Next up was two home games against more of the top teams, Doncaster Rovers were first up and Darlo struggled, but got a 1-1 draw, Toman scoring and Smith with an own goal, but we still had an 8 point lead as other teams around us also struggled. That was followed by another 1-1 game, against Blackpool, Smith scoring again, and Prudhoe having another great game, I remember one diving reflex save from a header being particularly impresssive.
The run of draws continued as a Les McJannett goal got us a 1-1 draw at Hereford, before we finally got back to winning ways in the last game of the month at home against Aldershot. A 3-1 win sounds like it would be one of the better games, but it was one of the dullest games I can ever remember watching. Aldershot were a very poor team, and on the verge of going out of businesss, but we couldn't really take advantage and needed two Frank Gray penalties, as well as a Borthwick goal to get the three points. That game saw the debut of Mitch Cook, in his second go round with Darlo, a replacement for Paul Emson who we shipped off to Kettering. I'm fairly certain it was very early in this game, if not the first time the ball came to him that he went to kick the ball, completely missed and fell over. A cult hero was born, at least in my house, and we ended up naming our dog in his honour.
Coming up: April, the stumble towards the finish line continues, then that game at Northampton.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
TFC 2-0 Timbers. Home sweet home.
Finally. Pre-season games on choppy streams are ok I suppose, watching away games on the TV is nice, but it's so much better to be able to see a game in person. Having a drink or two, then wandering over to the ground, taking in the atmosphere and watching the game live, there's nothing like it, here's my impressions of the day.
Starting with the peripheral issues, and yep, as advertised it was cold, especially in the second half when the wind seemed to really pick up, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. The attendance was also better than I expected, there were definitely empty spots here and there, with the North Stand in particular looking very sparse, but there was probably about 17-18,000 there, with an announced crowd of over 20,000. We also got confirmation of which way management are going to go to try and fix their attendance issues. It's not going back to the basics of what made TFC so popular back in the day, cheaper tickets and a supporter led "authentic football experience", nope it's going to be extra pizzazz and emotional manipulation, Leafs style. Thus we had Mounties, the academy kids and Danny Dichio all brought out for the anthem, followed by some fireworks let off after the anthem, and at half time, a live performance from Kardinal Offishall. I'd like to hope that's just a one off thing what with the home opener coinciding with the Junos in Toronto, but I don't really have much confidence in that theory. While I'm in grumpy old man mode, I really don't like the new electronic ad boards either.
Anyway, the game, well it wasn't all that pretty, but a win's a win and I was very encouraged by the appearance of something that I wasn't sure we were going to see much of this year - pragmatism. So far Aron Winter's given the impression that he's thinking long term, and that he's got one way of wanting his team to play, and that he's going to stubbornly stick with that until it works, and we'll just all have to be patient until that happens, even if it's not until next year. This impression was strengthened in the game against Vancouver when he didn't make positional changes even when it became obvious that they were desperately needed, and the ball was repeatedly turned over by defenders trying to keep possession. Against the Timbers though, the emphasis on possession and playing it carefully out of defence was a lot less pronounced, with a lot more long kicks from Frei, and no-nonsense clearances from the defence when the situation called for it. This may well have been due to the windy and icy conditions, as mentioned post game by Stefan Frei, rather than a permanent change in philosophy, and maybe it was the players taking things into their own hands and making those decisions, but it was a welcome display of pragmatism trumping idealism and gives me hope that Winter will be able to make the changes and compromises that will be required here and there in MLS.
Though this meant we didn't have as much possession as last week, it also dramatically reduced the giveaways in dangerous positions that occured so often against the Whitecaps, and was a huge factor in the defence looking a lot more solid and managing to keep a clean sheet. Two other big reasons for that though is that Portland looked a very poor team, and that Adrian Cann was back in the middle of defence. He looked a lot more comfortable at Centre Back, and had a good game, as Portland and Kenny Cooper were kept very quiet. An injury to Nana Attakora meant Ty Harden kept his place beside Cann, and he and Dan Gargan at Right Back did the basic defensive stuff just well enough, though Gargan's passing was terrible and his Right Back position is probably the one most in need of an upgrade at this point.
The biggest benefit of Cann moving back to Centre Back, is that we actually had a proper Left Back in Mikael Yourassowsky, and he had a great game, especially going forward, making several strong runs and working very well with Dwayne De Rosario at Left Wing, though his crossing definitely needs improvement. His day was marred by getting a second yellow card for taking too long to leave the pitch as he was substituted, which is the first time I've ever seen that happen.
Up front Alan Gordon made his debut as the centre forward, with De Ro on the left wing, Javier Martina on the right, with Maicon Santos playing further back, as an attacking midfielder, with Jacob Peterson and Nathan Sturgis completing the midfield. Sturgis was subbed off at half time, replaced by Alen Stevanovic, who looked a bit awkward and unfamiliar with his new teammates, but displayed enough flashes of quality to suggest he could be a very good player once he gets settled in and actually has some time to practice with the team.
Once again, TFC weren't great, there's definitely room for improvement and we look like we'll struggle against better teams than Portland. Fortunately our easy schedule continues with Chivas USA coming to town next week, so hopefully that's another game we can get points from as we continue our development. Like last week though, there was some good stuff mixed in with the bad, positive signs that however slowly, we are on the right track, and in different ways both goals provided evidence of that.
Javier Martina scored both goals, and it's his second that will get most attention and quite rightly, a very well taken first time lob over the goalie after a brilliantly accurate long ball from Stefan Frei after he caught a corner, that is quite possibly the best goal ever scored at BMO Field.
It's his first goal though that showed the benefits of what the team's learning under Winter, and gives me more hope for the season. Martina and Gargan forced a turnover just inside Toronto's half, on the right wing, Gargan quickly got the ball to Peterson, who showed great control and poise to hold on to the ball despite pressure from two Timbers midfielders before managing to get a pass off to Santos. Santos played a great ball through the defence to De Rosario, who unselfishly held it up before playing a perfect pass for Martina to run on to and slip the ball past the Portland Keeper. Much like the two goals against Vancouver, defence turned quickly into attack through short controlled passes and good off the ball running, suggesting a dangerous counter atttack is something we'll be able to count on throughout the season.
All in all, it's very much still a work in progress, there's still clear upgrades needed in a few positions and it'll be interesting to see what happens when we finally get to play against the better teams in MLS, but three points are always welcome, and will take some of the pressure off. My expectations for this season are fairly low, I'm not really thinking playoffs, but I'd consider it successful if we do well enough so that supporters and management don't panic and end up getting rid of Winter, avoiding the potential back to back defeats against expansion teams will really help with that goal. For a week at least, we can all relax.
One final note. After the game, De Rosario took a black banner from the fans, and it turns out that the banner was to honour a supporter who had recently passed away, he took it into the dressing room for all the players to sign before taking it back out to be given to the supporter's family. De Ro gets a lot of shit at times for his off-field antics, including here in this blog, so it's only right to acknowledge what was a really classy moment. RIP Rodrigo Novoa.
Starting with the peripheral issues, and yep, as advertised it was cold, especially in the second half when the wind seemed to really pick up, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. The attendance was also better than I expected, there were definitely empty spots here and there, with the North Stand in particular looking very sparse, but there was probably about 17-18,000 there, with an announced crowd of over 20,000. We also got confirmation of which way management are going to go to try and fix their attendance issues. It's not going back to the basics of what made TFC so popular back in the day, cheaper tickets and a supporter led "authentic football experience", nope it's going to be extra pizzazz and emotional manipulation, Leafs style. Thus we had Mounties, the academy kids and Danny Dichio all brought out for the anthem, followed by some fireworks let off after the anthem, and at half time, a live performance from Kardinal Offishall. I'd like to hope that's just a one off thing what with the home opener coinciding with the Junos in Toronto, but I don't really have much confidence in that theory. While I'm in grumpy old man mode, I really don't like the new electronic ad boards either.
Anyway, the game, well it wasn't all that pretty, but a win's a win and I was very encouraged by the appearance of something that I wasn't sure we were going to see much of this year - pragmatism. So far Aron Winter's given the impression that he's thinking long term, and that he's got one way of wanting his team to play, and that he's going to stubbornly stick with that until it works, and we'll just all have to be patient until that happens, even if it's not until next year. This impression was strengthened in the game against Vancouver when he didn't make positional changes even when it became obvious that they were desperately needed, and the ball was repeatedly turned over by defenders trying to keep possession. Against the Timbers though, the emphasis on possession and playing it carefully out of defence was a lot less pronounced, with a lot more long kicks from Frei, and no-nonsense clearances from the defence when the situation called for it. This may well have been due to the windy and icy conditions, as mentioned post game by Stefan Frei, rather than a permanent change in philosophy, and maybe it was the players taking things into their own hands and making those decisions, but it was a welcome display of pragmatism trumping idealism and gives me hope that Winter will be able to make the changes and compromises that will be required here and there in MLS.
Though this meant we didn't have as much possession as last week, it also dramatically reduced the giveaways in dangerous positions that occured so often against the Whitecaps, and was a huge factor in the defence looking a lot more solid and managing to keep a clean sheet. Two other big reasons for that though is that Portland looked a very poor team, and that Adrian Cann was back in the middle of defence. He looked a lot more comfortable at Centre Back, and had a good game, as Portland and Kenny Cooper were kept very quiet. An injury to Nana Attakora meant Ty Harden kept his place beside Cann, and he and Dan Gargan at Right Back did the basic defensive stuff just well enough, though Gargan's passing was terrible and his Right Back position is probably the one most in need of an upgrade at this point.
The biggest benefit of Cann moving back to Centre Back, is that we actually had a proper Left Back in Mikael Yourassowsky, and he had a great game, especially going forward, making several strong runs and working very well with Dwayne De Rosario at Left Wing, though his crossing definitely needs improvement. His day was marred by getting a second yellow card for taking too long to leave the pitch as he was substituted, which is the first time I've ever seen that happen.
Up front Alan Gordon made his debut as the centre forward, with De Ro on the left wing, Javier Martina on the right, with Maicon Santos playing further back, as an attacking midfielder, with Jacob Peterson and Nathan Sturgis completing the midfield. Sturgis was subbed off at half time, replaced by Alen Stevanovic, who looked a bit awkward and unfamiliar with his new teammates, but displayed enough flashes of quality to suggest he could be a very good player once he gets settled in and actually has some time to practice with the team.
Once again, TFC weren't great, there's definitely room for improvement and we look like we'll struggle against better teams than Portland. Fortunately our easy schedule continues with Chivas USA coming to town next week, so hopefully that's another game we can get points from as we continue our development. Like last week though, there was some good stuff mixed in with the bad, positive signs that however slowly, we are on the right track, and in different ways both goals provided evidence of that.
Javier Martina scored both goals, and it's his second that will get most attention and quite rightly, a very well taken first time lob over the goalie after a brilliantly accurate long ball from Stefan Frei after he caught a corner, that is quite possibly the best goal ever scored at BMO Field.
It's his first goal though that showed the benefits of what the team's learning under Winter, and gives me more hope for the season. Martina and Gargan forced a turnover just inside Toronto's half, on the right wing, Gargan quickly got the ball to Peterson, who showed great control and poise to hold on to the ball despite pressure from two Timbers midfielders before managing to get a pass off to Santos. Santos played a great ball through the defence to De Rosario, who unselfishly held it up before playing a perfect pass for Martina to run on to and slip the ball past the Portland Keeper. Much like the two goals against Vancouver, defence turned quickly into attack through short controlled passes and good off the ball running, suggesting a dangerous counter atttack is something we'll be able to count on throughout the season.
All in all, it's very much still a work in progress, there's still clear upgrades needed in a few positions and it'll be interesting to see what happens when we finally get to play against the better teams in MLS, but three points are always welcome, and will take some of the pressure off. My expectations for this season are fairly low, I'm not really thinking playoffs, but I'd consider it successful if we do well enough so that supporters and management don't panic and end up getting rid of Winter, avoiding the potential back to back defeats against expansion teams will really help with that goal. For a week at least, we can all relax.
One final note. After the game, De Rosario took a black banner from the fans, and it turns out that the banner was to honour a supporter who had recently passed away, he took it into the dressing room for all the players to sign before taking it back out to be given to the supporter's family. De Ro gets a lot of shit at times for his off-field antics, including here in this blog, so it's only right to acknowledge what was a really classy moment. RIP Rodrigo Novoa.
Friday, March 25, 2011
TFC v Portland Timbers: Panic on the streets of Toronto?
So here it is finally, after 5 long months, the return of TFC to BMO Field, the home opener. The chance to meet up with old friends in the seats next to you, or see the stadium from a new vantage point if you've swapped seats. The chance to check out the new food options (though I'll be sticking with my poutine and only poutine plan, the only choice is sausage, pulled pork or maybe some new exotic option) and hold aloft a new scarf. The chance to see what tifo ideas the supporters groups have come up with over the last few months. The chance to be excited just to be seeing a game again, without being weighed down by another failed season. On the more cynical side, it's also the chance to welcome yet another new management team, and yet another team that's half way towards being rebuilt, hopefully it's the last time we do that one for a few years.
There'll be the chance for a couple of of new experiences this year as well, firstly the chance to try out a whole bunch of different seats, as sales have been reported as sluggish, and it's very unlikely to be a sellout. If you're curious about how the game looks from the North stand, or from the expensive dark grey or red seats in the East or West stands, you should have no problem going to check it out, the big maple leaf in the middle of the East stand will be very visible.
Another fun new thing to experience this year? Frostbite. Here's the dates of our home openers so far: April 28th, April 19th, April 4th, April 15th. Up to now we've played a grand total of 5 games on or before April 23rd, which for some reason will be the date of our 5th home game this year. For Saturday, the current forecast is -9 with the windchill, and it's always colder by the lake, so let's say -15, fun.
Anyway, getting away from my schmaltz and grumbling, there'll actually be a game taking place, and despite it only being the second game of the season, it's become quite a crucial one for Toronto. The Reds have always struggled to start the season, whether due to long road trips to avoid the cold weather, or comically unprepared squads thrown together at the last minute, or both, it's just a fact of life TFC fans have sadly become used to. If you take the first two games of each season so far, Toronto's record is won 1, drawn 1 (both in 2009) and lost 6.
This year, whether deliberately or not, the schedule makers gave them a real chance to break out of that rut, with TFC having to wait until the 4th game of the season before facing a team that finished outside the bottom 2 last year. Obviously the first of those games didn't go well in Vancouver last week, and this Saturday it's the other expansion team Portland Timbers coming to Toronto. It's unfair to Aron Winter and co that they inherited a fanbase with it's patience and goodwill massively tested from the last 4 frustrating years, but unfortunately that is the case, and were TFC to lose again, to another expansion team, at home, well things could get ugly, there could be panic, if not on the streets, at least on the messageboards of Toronto.
Will they lose? I'm optimistic that they won't, as I really don't think we can play as badly on the defensive side of things as we did against Vancouver. Surely there won't be a repeat of the confusing Adrian Cann at Left Back experiment and he'll be reunited with Nana Attakora in the centre of defence which should help solidify things, and having an actual Left Back playing in that position should also help.
With no news of a return for Julian De Guzman or Elbekay Bouchiba, there aren't really many options to change the midfield, maybe Gianluca Zavarise will get a start after an impresssive substitution performance against the Whitecaps. Someone who I'd doubt will be playing this weekend, but should be a great option going forward is Alen Stevanovic, who officially signed on Thursday, on loan from Italian side Torino, though somewhat confusingly he's owned by both Torino and Inter Milan. It's been over a week now since his name started being mentioned as coming over on loan, so it's good that it's finally resolved. A Serbia under 21 international, good enough to be signed by Inter Milan, he's the first really impresive signing from Winter. He may or may not work out, maybe he'll turn out to be the next Pablo Vitti, tantalisingly talented but unproductive, but for me this is the first concrete evidence of Winter being able to seriously increase the quality of our squad, hopefully he'll be able to play very soon if not tomorrow.
As for Portland, well it's difficult to know what to expect from them. They were given a very tough start with an away game to Colorado last week, so it would be very harsh to draw conclusions. Playing against the MLS Cup champs, who fielded the exact same staring lineup as they did in that final so also had continuity on their side, in their first home game since winning, with all the extra emotion that would bring, I don't think there's any MLS team I would have backed to win that game.
Portland's one big name player is Kenny Cooper, back in MLS after an unsuccessful stint in Germany, and he's the biggest argument for the return of Adrian Cann to Centre Back, as Cooper could easily dominate Ty Harden, and in general if the defence plays like it did against Vancouver, he'll have a field day. His strike partner Jorge Perlaza is new to MLS after scoring 15 goals in the Colombian league last year, so he could also be dangerous, and has the pace to put pressure on TFC's defenders as they try to work the ball out of defence, which was an area they struggled with against Vancouver.
Defensively, the Timbers struggled against Colorado, but after taking off Kevin Goldthwaite at half time, who they played as a Centre Back, they kept the Rapids off the scoresheet in the second half, so maybe they aren't as bad as that 3 goals in 30 minutes stat suggests. Eric Brunner reportedly looked good as the other Centre Back, and in midfield Jack Jewksbury is a solid defensive midfielder by MLS standards.
As for a prediction, I think it'll be an exciting game, with more than it's fair share of defensive mishaps, and the icy conditions will probably stop it from being a classic of flowing football, but Toronto will renew the supporters hope and make them forget the cold by just edging it overall, 3-2.
There'll be the chance for a couple of of new experiences this year as well, firstly the chance to try out a whole bunch of different seats, as sales have been reported as sluggish, and it's very unlikely to be a sellout. If you're curious about how the game looks from the North stand, or from the expensive dark grey or red seats in the East or West stands, you should have no problem going to check it out, the big maple leaf in the middle of the East stand will be very visible.
Another fun new thing to experience this year? Frostbite. Here's the dates of our home openers so far: April 28th, April 19th, April 4th, April 15th. Up to now we've played a grand total of 5 games on or before April 23rd, which for some reason will be the date of our 5th home game this year. For Saturday, the current forecast is -9 with the windchill, and it's always colder by the lake, so let's say -15, fun.
Anyway, getting away from my schmaltz and grumbling, there'll actually be a game taking place, and despite it only being the second game of the season, it's become quite a crucial one for Toronto. The Reds have always struggled to start the season, whether due to long road trips to avoid the cold weather, or comically unprepared squads thrown together at the last minute, or both, it's just a fact of life TFC fans have sadly become used to. If you take the first two games of each season so far, Toronto's record is won 1, drawn 1 (both in 2009) and lost 6.
This year, whether deliberately or not, the schedule makers gave them a real chance to break out of that rut, with TFC having to wait until the 4th game of the season before facing a team that finished outside the bottom 2 last year. Obviously the first of those games didn't go well in Vancouver last week, and this Saturday it's the other expansion team Portland Timbers coming to Toronto. It's unfair to Aron Winter and co that they inherited a fanbase with it's patience and goodwill massively tested from the last 4 frustrating years, but unfortunately that is the case, and were TFC to lose again, to another expansion team, at home, well things could get ugly, there could be panic, if not on the streets, at least on the messageboards of Toronto.
Will they lose? I'm optimistic that they won't, as I really don't think we can play as badly on the defensive side of things as we did against Vancouver. Surely there won't be a repeat of the confusing Adrian Cann at Left Back experiment and he'll be reunited with Nana Attakora in the centre of defence which should help solidify things, and having an actual Left Back playing in that position should also help.
With no news of a return for Julian De Guzman or Elbekay Bouchiba, there aren't really many options to change the midfield, maybe Gianluca Zavarise will get a start after an impresssive substitution performance against the Whitecaps. Someone who I'd doubt will be playing this weekend, but should be a great option going forward is Alen Stevanovic, who officially signed on Thursday, on loan from Italian side Torino, though somewhat confusingly he's owned by both Torino and Inter Milan. It's been over a week now since his name started being mentioned as coming over on loan, so it's good that it's finally resolved. A Serbia under 21 international, good enough to be signed by Inter Milan, he's the first really impresive signing from Winter. He may or may not work out, maybe he'll turn out to be the next Pablo Vitti, tantalisingly talented but unproductive, but for me this is the first concrete evidence of Winter being able to seriously increase the quality of our squad, hopefully he'll be able to play very soon if not tomorrow.
As for Portland, well it's difficult to know what to expect from them. They were given a very tough start with an away game to Colorado last week, so it would be very harsh to draw conclusions. Playing against the MLS Cup champs, who fielded the exact same staring lineup as they did in that final so also had continuity on their side, in their first home game since winning, with all the extra emotion that would bring, I don't think there's any MLS team I would have backed to win that game.
Portland's one big name player is Kenny Cooper, back in MLS after an unsuccessful stint in Germany, and he's the biggest argument for the return of Adrian Cann to Centre Back, as Cooper could easily dominate Ty Harden, and in general if the defence plays like it did against Vancouver, he'll have a field day. His strike partner Jorge Perlaza is new to MLS after scoring 15 goals in the Colombian league last year, so he could also be dangerous, and has the pace to put pressure on TFC's defenders as they try to work the ball out of defence, which was an area they struggled with against Vancouver.
Defensively, the Timbers struggled against Colorado, but after taking off Kevin Goldthwaite at half time, who they played as a Centre Back, they kept the Rapids off the scoresheet in the second half, so maybe they aren't as bad as that 3 goals in 30 minutes stat suggests. Eric Brunner reportedly looked good as the other Centre Back, and in midfield Jack Jewksbury is a solid defensive midfielder by MLS standards.
As for a prediction, I think it'll be an exciting game, with more than it's fair share of defensive mishaps, and the icy conditions will probably stop it from being a classic of flowing football, but Toronto will renew the supporters hope and make them forget the cold by just edging it overall, 3-2.
Monday, March 21, 2011
TFC killed the possession stat.
After watching the TFC/Whitecaps game live at Shoeless Joes, I finally got the chance to rewatch the game, which I wanted to do to be able to check out how TSN was going to handle their MLS coverage (not bad I suppose, but nothing groundbreakingly new or thorough), as well as look at the game in a bit more detail. I was a bit shellshocked by the defensive shambles, so thought I might not have given enough credit for the things that TFC had done well in my initial post game report.
So, how did they look, well I think the barrage of defensive breakdowns and Vancouver chances towards the end of the first half did blind me to how well TFC played going forward in the first half hour or so. The Reds had a lot of possession, as they did throughout the game, but in that first part of the game it seemed a lot more effective, focussed and played in Vancouver's third of the field. There was a lot of crisp short passing, as well as longer balls to switch the ball from one side to another, as they were able to get the ball into dangerous positions often. The obvious problem with that style of play though is that you need real quality through the whole team. The more patient and deliberate the build up play and the more passes involved, the more opportunities there are for the move to break down, whether through a misplaced pass or a good defensive play, especially the further up the pitch you get, and so it proved for TFC as though promising at times, and often quite pretty, it rarely worked out.
It did work very nicely in a more direct but still controlled way for the first goal which came after a Vancouver attack, the ball moving in 4 passes from Stefan Frei to Maicon Santos, who had dropped deep, dragging Jay DeMerit out of position with him, leaving a hole in the middle for Dwayne De Rosario to run through to latch on to Santos' longer pass over the top.
Vancouver's first half goals were also from more direct plays, both resulting from long kicks by Jay Nolly and Eric Hassli outjumping Adrian Cann to win possession. Whether Cann was instructed to be jumping for those balls despite being named left back, or whether he took it into his own hands to do that, who knows, but surely that's the Centre Back's job, and both times Cann was then out of position and the Whitecaps were able to attack down their right wing and the goals came from that. Whether from more traditional long ball play like that, or as was more often the case from well timed through balls from the likes of Davide Chiumiento, or longer balls played behind the defence for their forwards to run on to, Vancouver's more direct style very easily exposed TFC's defensive limitations.
The decision to play Cann at Left Back is still a very curious one and has yet to be fully explained as Aron Winter sidestepped questions about that in his post game press scrum. Before the game, it would be obvious that the big tough Centre Back best equipped to handle a strong forward like Hassli was Cann, and whether as part of TFC's plan or not, he played that role throughout the game. As noted above Cann was jumping with Hassli to try and win long balls pumped forward, though more than likely that wasn't planned, but was instead due to Hassli smartly drifting out to that side of the pitch just for that purpose, to draw him out of position and create space for his right midfielders. However you'd hope TFC had worked on their plan to defend corners, and at all of Vancouver's 12 corners, it was Cann battling with Hassli, if you're going to ask him to do all the Centre Back stuff, why have him at Left back? Absolutely baffling, and a major reason why we looked so hopeless at the back.
In the second half, as well as the defensive comedy continuing, Toronto's forward momentum really didn't continue, the patient passing, slow build up game generated nothing in the way of chances, and most of their longer spells of possession were limited to the back line passing amongst themselves. This was exemplified best in the 78th minute, when, already down 4-2 and with a throw in about 10 yards into the Vancouver half the ball was thrown backwards, and then kept for just under a minute, a move involving 15 passes without the ball ever crossing the half way line, with Frei receiving the ball 4 times, before on the 5th occasion he just hoofed the ball long anyway.
More direct moves did again provide some chances though, and Santos' goal came from a counter attacking quick move forward, the ball going from Frei to Santos at the top of the box in 4 passes and 14 seconds, all well controlled and along the ground, and the speed involved helped Santos take advantage of bad marking and organisation, he had a lot of time and space to turn and get a shot off.
After Seattle's opening day loss to LA, Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said in an article in the Seattle Times "Our league is a league where the team that usually has more possession loses because it's a counter-attacking league. That's the way they are set-up to play." He was talking about the Galaxy, but both Vancouver and Toronto also proved that point on Saturday.
Toronto actually had 66% of the possession, a shade under two thirds, but aside from that first 30 minutes or so, never looked like doing anything with it, as of right now they don't have the skill to be able to break down on a consistent basis a defence that has had time to organise itself. Obviously Toronto will continue with this style of play, and quite right too as it's far too early to be dismissing the experiment, but if they don't dramatically improve and develop the cutting edge needed to convert possession into solid chances, then the 2011 version of TFC may be on their way to being the best argument ever for the redundancy of the possession % statistic.
So where do TFC go from here? Well the big problems were in defence and surely Winter recognises that Cann has to move back to the middle, especially with Portland's Kenny Cooper coming to town this weekend. That will allow a player more suited to left back, such as Mikael Yourassowsky or Ashtone Morgan to play there, which would help with both the defence and attack. Demetrious Omphroy could well be worth a try at Right Back as well, in pre-season he looked good going forward and showed a good ability to put crosses in from out wide. There may be issues on the defensive side of things, but it's not as if Dan Gargan was particularly impressive there anyway. Having two more mobile fullbacks, as well as Julian De Guzman eventually replacing Nathan Sturgis who didn't look good, will definitely help. Possession's all very nice, but you have to be able to move the ball quickly and directly when the opportuntity presents itself to be effective, and TFC on Saturday and throughout pre-season, haven't looked good enough to be able to do that on any kind of consistently dangerous basis.
In midfield and up front, there's not really that many options for change, though Gianluca Zavarise looked good when he came on in the second half, so could well get a start, probably instead of the unimpressive Nick Soolsma, either as a direct swap, or with Zavarise in midfield pushing Jacob Peterson into Soolsma's spot. Bringing in Alan Gordon to be a more physical spearhead up front is another option, though Santos and De Rosario worked very well together, so I wouldn't recommend changing that.
As Dan Gargan said post game, "we've got 33 games left but it's going to be a process". All we know for sure is that TFC have blown their chance to break the 100 point barrier, there's a lot of time left this season, which is a good thing as despite the early signs of hope, Toronto has a long way to go to be able to effectively control the game and create chances through patient passing. However, if TFC's increased passing skills can translate into a more effective counter attack, along with improved defensive organisation which is obviously the main priority, then we may be able to remain competitive this season until that happens. Straw grasping? Maybe, but I'll take any hope I can get right now.
So, how did they look, well I think the barrage of defensive breakdowns and Vancouver chances towards the end of the first half did blind me to how well TFC played going forward in the first half hour or so. The Reds had a lot of possession, as they did throughout the game, but in that first part of the game it seemed a lot more effective, focussed and played in Vancouver's third of the field. There was a lot of crisp short passing, as well as longer balls to switch the ball from one side to another, as they were able to get the ball into dangerous positions often. The obvious problem with that style of play though is that you need real quality through the whole team. The more patient and deliberate the build up play and the more passes involved, the more opportunities there are for the move to break down, whether through a misplaced pass or a good defensive play, especially the further up the pitch you get, and so it proved for TFC as though promising at times, and often quite pretty, it rarely worked out.
It did work very nicely in a more direct but still controlled way for the first goal which came after a Vancouver attack, the ball moving in 4 passes from Stefan Frei to Maicon Santos, who had dropped deep, dragging Jay DeMerit out of position with him, leaving a hole in the middle for Dwayne De Rosario to run through to latch on to Santos' longer pass over the top.
Vancouver's first half goals were also from more direct plays, both resulting from long kicks by Jay Nolly and Eric Hassli outjumping Adrian Cann to win possession. Whether Cann was instructed to be jumping for those balls despite being named left back, or whether he took it into his own hands to do that, who knows, but surely that's the Centre Back's job, and both times Cann was then out of position and the Whitecaps were able to attack down their right wing and the goals came from that. Whether from more traditional long ball play like that, or as was more often the case from well timed through balls from the likes of Davide Chiumiento, or longer balls played behind the defence for their forwards to run on to, Vancouver's more direct style very easily exposed TFC's defensive limitations.
The decision to play Cann at Left Back is still a very curious one and has yet to be fully explained as Aron Winter sidestepped questions about that in his post game press scrum. Before the game, it would be obvious that the big tough Centre Back best equipped to handle a strong forward like Hassli was Cann, and whether as part of TFC's plan or not, he played that role throughout the game. As noted above Cann was jumping with Hassli to try and win long balls pumped forward, though more than likely that wasn't planned, but was instead due to Hassli smartly drifting out to that side of the pitch just for that purpose, to draw him out of position and create space for his right midfielders. However you'd hope TFC had worked on their plan to defend corners, and at all of Vancouver's 12 corners, it was Cann battling with Hassli, if you're going to ask him to do all the Centre Back stuff, why have him at Left back? Absolutely baffling, and a major reason why we looked so hopeless at the back.
In the second half, as well as the defensive comedy continuing, Toronto's forward momentum really didn't continue, the patient passing, slow build up game generated nothing in the way of chances, and most of their longer spells of possession were limited to the back line passing amongst themselves. This was exemplified best in the 78th minute, when, already down 4-2 and with a throw in about 10 yards into the Vancouver half the ball was thrown backwards, and then kept for just under a minute, a move involving 15 passes without the ball ever crossing the half way line, with Frei receiving the ball 4 times, before on the 5th occasion he just hoofed the ball long anyway.
More direct moves did again provide some chances though, and Santos' goal came from a counter attacking quick move forward, the ball going from Frei to Santos at the top of the box in 4 passes and 14 seconds, all well controlled and along the ground, and the speed involved helped Santos take advantage of bad marking and organisation, he had a lot of time and space to turn and get a shot off.
After Seattle's opening day loss to LA, Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said in an article in the Seattle Times "Our league is a league where the team that usually has more possession loses because it's a counter-attacking league. That's the way they are set-up to play." He was talking about the Galaxy, but both Vancouver and Toronto also proved that point on Saturday.
Toronto actually had 66% of the possession, a shade under two thirds, but aside from that first 30 minutes or so, never looked like doing anything with it, as of right now they don't have the skill to be able to break down on a consistent basis a defence that has had time to organise itself. Obviously Toronto will continue with this style of play, and quite right too as it's far too early to be dismissing the experiment, but if they don't dramatically improve and develop the cutting edge needed to convert possession into solid chances, then the 2011 version of TFC may be on their way to being the best argument ever for the redundancy of the possession % statistic.
So where do TFC go from here? Well the big problems were in defence and surely Winter recognises that Cann has to move back to the middle, especially with Portland's Kenny Cooper coming to town this weekend. That will allow a player more suited to left back, such as Mikael Yourassowsky or Ashtone Morgan to play there, which would help with both the defence and attack. Demetrious Omphroy could well be worth a try at Right Back as well, in pre-season he looked good going forward and showed a good ability to put crosses in from out wide. There may be issues on the defensive side of things, but it's not as if Dan Gargan was particularly impressive there anyway. Having two more mobile fullbacks, as well as Julian De Guzman eventually replacing Nathan Sturgis who didn't look good, will definitely help. Possession's all very nice, but you have to be able to move the ball quickly and directly when the opportuntity presents itself to be effective, and TFC on Saturday and throughout pre-season, haven't looked good enough to be able to do that on any kind of consistently dangerous basis.
In midfield and up front, there's not really that many options for change, though Gianluca Zavarise looked good when he came on in the second half, so could well get a start, probably instead of the unimpressive Nick Soolsma, either as a direct swap, or with Zavarise in midfield pushing Jacob Peterson into Soolsma's spot. Bringing in Alan Gordon to be a more physical spearhead up front is another option, though Santos and De Rosario worked very well together, so I wouldn't recommend changing that.
As Dan Gargan said post game, "we've got 33 games left but it's going to be a process". All we know for sure is that TFC have blown their chance to break the 100 point barrier, there's a lot of time left this season, which is a good thing as despite the early signs of hope, Toronto has a long way to go to be able to effectively control the game and create chances through patient passing. However, if TFC's increased passing skills can translate into a more effective counter attack, along with improved defensive organisation which is obviously the main priority, then we may be able to remain competitive this season until that happens. Straw grasping? Maybe, but I'll take any hope I can get right now.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Whitecaps 4-2 TFC. Not a good start.
One game into the season is way too early to be jumping to any conclusions, but what the hell, I'm going to do it anyway, and there were two main things I'll confidently predict going from today's game.
1- The Vancouver Whitecaps won't look that good again all season.
2- Toronto FC won't look that bad again all season.
Expansion teams are supposed to be poor, naive, learning harsh lessons while waiting for the deficiencies in their roster to be upgraded over their first season or two. Think TFC, back when they were an expansion team in name as well as in spirit. Think Portland Timbers, 3-0 down within 30 minutes against Colorado in their season opener on Saturday.
But no, in their first ever MLS game, Vancouver looked comfortable at the back despite letting in two goals, and positively lethal going forward, scoring 4 and creating many other chances. Some of that is due to the good decisions they've made in building a team, for example Jay De Merit is a better defender than TFC have ever had in their 4 and a bit years so far, and on the evidence of this game, striker Eric Hassli certainly looks a better striker than TFC has ever had as well as a better designated player than TFC has ever had.
Mainly though it was due to how poorly TFC played, and the sorry state of their roster going in to the first game of the season. Most of the kids were left on the bench to start the game as Aron Winter went with the most experienced lineup available to him right now. Unfortunately that still meant a lot of weak options, and the problem was compounded by some strange positional decisions.
First of all, was playing Adrian Cann at left Back and Ty Harden at Centre back. I think three things that even the most casual TFC observer would agree on is that Adrian Cann isn't a left back, that Cann is better than Harden at centre back, and that Cann and Nana Attakora as our centre back partnership was one of the few things that was a success last season. In the last pre-season game it seemed that Winter was making a point, that Cann couldn't expect to just walk back into the side at his preferred position. Fair enough, if a bit on the petty side, messages need to be sent every now and then, but he's going to keep that going in the regular season? When it actually counts? Cann looked very out of place at Left Back, as shown in Vancouver's first goal and Harden was just plain terrible, so hopefully that's the end of that particular lesson. Dan Gargan and Attakora didn't look great in defence either, and neither did Nathan Sturgis who was thoroughly outclassed by David Chiumiento, and allowed Terry Dunfield to run by him easily for the Whitecaps second goal. Jacob Peterson was ineffective in midfield, as was Nick Soolsma further up the field on the wing in Peterson's more natural position.
On the positive side of things, as there was in pre-season, there were occasional moments when things came together well and you could see the promise of what we're trying to do. In the first ten minutes or so before Vancouver scored, TFC looked good, very positively taking the game to the Whitecaps. Maicon Santos played a good ball through to set up Dwayne De Rosario's goal, and then scored a great goal out of nothing to bring it back to 4-2. Javier Martina had an ok game as well, causing quite a few problems on the left wing, and Gianluca Zavarise looked useful after coming on in the second half.
As for De Ro? Well it was a typical De Ro day really, even though it wasn't a great all round game from him, he scored TFC's first with a clinical finish, and until TFC's squad improves and the team becomes more comfortable and effective playing Winter's system, we're going to be relying on him a lot to create and score chances. Unfortunately his propensity to shoot himself in the foot on the pr side of things also surfaced with this tweet
Anyway, as I said at the start of this, it's way too soon to be jumping to conclusions, and the team is very much still a work in progress. Of course it would be nice if we weren't once again going into the season putting the squad together as we go, but unfortunately that's the reality right now due to the amount of time that was taken before bringing Winter on board. Hopefully the patience and time taken in the job search will prove worth it and this is the start of a long streak of stability and continuity meaning this is the last time we have to go into a season this unprepared.
While everyone at TFC has been preaching patience and stressing the long term, for the long sufffering supporters, it'd also be nice if we could at least be competitive this year. On Saturday, we really weren't, but I'm confident that things will improve. New signings are surely on the way, and even if that doesn't happen any time soon, the current players we have will get better with further exposure to Winter's new style of play, Winter will learn which players he can rely on and where their best positions are, and hopefully some of the draft picks and academy graduates can stake a claim for a place in the starting eleven. It would be great if, just for once we could have those issues sorted out during pre-season, but alas that didn't happen again this year. Oh well, long term, 2012 and beyond, I'm confident we'll look good. This season? Well things can only get better from here.
1- The Vancouver Whitecaps won't look that good again all season.
2- Toronto FC won't look that bad again all season.
Expansion teams are supposed to be poor, naive, learning harsh lessons while waiting for the deficiencies in their roster to be upgraded over their first season or two. Think TFC, back when they were an expansion team in name as well as in spirit. Think Portland Timbers, 3-0 down within 30 minutes against Colorado in their season opener on Saturday.
But no, in their first ever MLS game, Vancouver looked comfortable at the back despite letting in two goals, and positively lethal going forward, scoring 4 and creating many other chances. Some of that is due to the good decisions they've made in building a team, for example Jay De Merit is a better defender than TFC have ever had in their 4 and a bit years so far, and on the evidence of this game, striker Eric Hassli certainly looks a better striker than TFC has ever had as well as a better designated player than TFC has ever had.
Mainly though it was due to how poorly TFC played, and the sorry state of their roster going in to the first game of the season. Most of the kids were left on the bench to start the game as Aron Winter went with the most experienced lineup available to him right now. Unfortunately that still meant a lot of weak options, and the problem was compounded by some strange positional decisions.
First of all, was playing Adrian Cann at left Back and Ty Harden at Centre back. I think three things that even the most casual TFC observer would agree on is that Adrian Cann isn't a left back, that Cann is better than Harden at centre back, and that Cann and Nana Attakora as our centre back partnership was one of the few things that was a success last season. In the last pre-season game it seemed that Winter was making a point, that Cann couldn't expect to just walk back into the side at his preferred position. Fair enough, if a bit on the petty side, messages need to be sent every now and then, but he's going to keep that going in the regular season? When it actually counts? Cann looked very out of place at Left Back, as shown in Vancouver's first goal and Harden was just plain terrible, so hopefully that's the end of that particular lesson. Dan Gargan and Attakora didn't look great in defence either, and neither did Nathan Sturgis who was thoroughly outclassed by David Chiumiento, and allowed Terry Dunfield to run by him easily for the Whitecaps second goal. Jacob Peterson was ineffective in midfield, as was Nick Soolsma further up the field on the wing in Peterson's more natural position.
On the positive side of things, as there was in pre-season, there were occasional moments when things came together well and you could see the promise of what we're trying to do. In the first ten minutes or so before Vancouver scored, TFC looked good, very positively taking the game to the Whitecaps. Maicon Santos played a good ball through to set up Dwayne De Rosario's goal, and then scored a great goal out of nothing to bring it back to 4-2. Javier Martina had an ok game as well, causing quite a few problems on the left wing, and Gianluca Zavarise looked useful after coming on in the second half.
As for De Ro? Well it was a typical De Ro day really, even though it wasn't a great all round game from him, he scored TFC's first with a clinical finish, and until TFC's squad improves and the team becomes more comfortable and effective playing Winter's system, we're going to be relying on him a lot to create and score chances. Unfortunately his propensity to shoot himself in the foot on the pr side of things also surfaced with this tweet
@dwaynederosario 8,000th goal in MLS HISTORY! Thanks to all the players/staff and fans for helping me achieve that goal...Yep, that's right De Ro, captain, never mind that we lost, it's all about you.
Anyway, as I said at the start of this, it's way too soon to be jumping to conclusions, and the team is very much still a work in progress. Of course it would be nice if we weren't once again going into the season putting the squad together as we go, but unfortunately that's the reality right now due to the amount of time that was taken before bringing Winter on board. Hopefully the patience and time taken in the job search will prove worth it and this is the start of a long streak of stability and continuity meaning this is the last time we have to go into a season this unprepared.
While everyone at TFC has been preaching patience and stressing the long term, for the long sufffering supporters, it'd also be nice if we could at least be competitive this year. On Saturday, we really weren't, but I'm confident that things will improve. New signings are surely on the way, and even if that doesn't happen any time soon, the current players we have will get better with further exposure to Winter's new style of play, Winter will learn which players he can rely on and where their best positions are, and hopefully some of the draft picks and academy graduates can stake a claim for a place in the starting eleven. It would be great if, just for once we could have those issues sorted out during pre-season, but alas that didn't happen again this year. Oh well, long term, 2012 and beyond, I'm confident we'll look good. This season? Well things can only get better from here.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Pre game: Toronto FC at Vancouver Whitecaps. We're going to lose aren't we?
So here we are finally, at the end of camp, new faces have come and gone, big cheques have been offered and then ripped up, baby has been put in the corner (no, wait, nevermind, that's just wee Joao Plata, bless him) and there was just time for one more dramatic performance from the star of the show. They had the time of their lives, but now it's back to real life with the start of the new season. 2011 MLS First Kick is finally upon TFC.
A flurry of activity in the last week or so means Toronto can actually field a full starting eleven and substitution bench, and it's nice to be finally able to say that. After the signing of Gianluca Zavarise, the return of Adrian Cann and the trade for Alan Gordon, the new additions were all young, draft pick Demetrious Omphroy, and academy graduates Ashtone Morgan, Oscar Cordon, Matt Stinson and Keith Makubuya bringing the average age of TFC's squad down to an alarmingly low level, and generally increasing the "pre-season 2012" feel of things.
(edit: Late Friday, Belgian defender Mikael Yourassowsky and draft pick Matt Gold were also officially signed up as well.)
So it is that TFC's rebuilding project, hoping for good things but really preparing for 2012 and beyond arrives in Vancouver for the game this saturday. How are the Whitecaps, actually an expansion team, looking? Well, ok I suppose. To me, a not always paying attention observer from Toronto, Vancouver seem like the anti-TFC. They've been running along competently for a long time as a USL team, and since confirming their ascension to MLS, they've methodically and dull-ly gone about building a strong behind the scenes team, with a wealth of football knowledge. No drama or rash decisions here, they kept Bob Lenarduzzi in the picture, kept Teitur Thordarsen as coach, rewarding him for a job well done at USL level and maintaining a sense of continuity the like of which TFC haven't been able to come close to even dreaming about yet.
They then built a team in a similar fashion, steadily adding pieces, some from their USL team, some from the expansion draft, and also adding players from overseas such as USMNT defender and new captain Jay De Merit. They topped it off with a bunch of late signings of draft picks or homegrown players. Even their DP signing was on the dull side, striker Eric Hassli, probably a good signing, but with no marketing pizzazz at all.
Though they've definitely had their issues with ticketing and supporter relations, the important on the pitch stuff has been, if unspectacular, competent and professionally put together. That's as good a description of any as the team itself, they look like they'll be solid at the back, but could have worries with scoring goals, Thordarson is a decent coach who'll have them well organised, but they're unlikely to be all that adventurous. Expect a lot of 0-0 games for them this year, they'll be a bit on the boring side, but probably they'll be getting results and success, if not this year, then probably quite quickly, as I said, the anti TFC whose reactionary incompetence over their first 4 years was entertaining and distressing in equal measures. I'd like to think it's a bright new era for TFC, with new attitudes and winning mentalities, but this off season has shown we've still got a long way to go in that regard.
So what does it all mean for this game? Well what probably seemed like a good idea at the time, a big Canadian match-up, combined with a winnable game against an expansion team, could well become, if not their worst nightmare, a very bad dream for TFC. For a supporter base soured by the first 4 years but very ready to give Aron Winter a chance, looking forward to some more attractive football, and still tentatively hoping for good things despite an unimpressive pre-season, losing to an expansion team, a Canadian expansion team at that, in their first ever MLS game would not be a good way to kick things off, but that's more than likely what will happen.
While there's a few obvious and definite starters, Stefan Frei, Adrian Cann, Nana Attakora, Dwayne De Rosario and Maicon Santos, the rest of the team should be very interesting. Up front, Alan Gordon only met up with the team in Vancouver, so probably won't be thrown into action right away, so we're more than likely looking at Santos with Jacob Peterson and Javier Martina out wide. In midfield and at the full back positions, well it depends on just how pragmatic Winter wants to be, how much he wants to chase points in this particular game. Does he go with experienced MLS players like Dan Gargan, Ty Harden or Nathan Sturgis, or does he go with the chance to let some youngsters get valuable experience and play Omphroy, Morgan, Stinson or Cordon.
It'll probably be a bit of both, but either way, I don't really see it working well for Toronto. Vancouver will be able to sit back, keep their defensive shape and organisation and watch TFC pass it around and hope to hit them on the break, and if TFC's pre-season is anything to go by, more than likely that strategy will work well. With home field advantage, and taking advantage of the emotion of their first MLS game and all that, Vancouver will do well, and as well as stifling TFC, will probably create plenty of chances. TFC will be reliant on Frei keeping the Whitecaps out and De Ro creating something out of nothing to be able to get something out of the game. I'd love to say otherwise, but I'll predict a 1-0 win for Vancouver.
A flurry of activity in the last week or so means Toronto can actually field a full starting eleven and substitution bench, and it's nice to be finally able to say that. After the signing of Gianluca Zavarise, the return of Adrian Cann and the trade for Alan Gordon, the new additions were all young, draft pick Demetrious Omphroy, and academy graduates Ashtone Morgan, Oscar Cordon, Matt Stinson and Keith Makubuya bringing the average age of TFC's squad down to an alarmingly low level, and generally increasing the "pre-season 2012" feel of things.
(edit: Late Friday, Belgian defender Mikael Yourassowsky and draft pick Matt Gold were also officially signed up as well.)
So it is that TFC's rebuilding project, hoping for good things but really preparing for 2012 and beyond arrives in Vancouver for the game this saturday. How are the Whitecaps, actually an expansion team, looking? Well, ok I suppose. To me, a not always paying attention observer from Toronto, Vancouver seem like the anti-TFC. They've been running along competently for a long time as a USL team, and since confirming their ascension to MLS, they've methodically and dull-ly gone about building a strong behind the scenes team, with a wealth of football knowledge. No drama or rash decisions here, they kept Bob Lenarduzzi in the picture, kept Teitur Thordarsen as coach, rewarding him for a job well done at USL level and maintaining a sense of continuity the like of which TFC haven't been able to come close to even dreaming about yet.
They then built a team in a similar fashion, steadily adding pieces, some from their USL team, some from the expansion draft, and also adding players from overseas such as USMNT defender and new captain Jay De Merit. They topped it off with a bunch of late signings of draft picks or homegrown players. Even their DP signing was on the dull side, striker Eric Hassli, probably a good signing, but with no marketing pizzazz at all.
Though they've definitely had their issues with ticketing and supporter relations, the important on the pitch stuff has been, if unspectacular, competent and professionally put together. That's as good a description of any as the team itself, they look like they'll be solid at the back, but could have worries with scoring goals, Thordarson is a decent coach who'll have them well organised, but they're unlikely to be all that adventurous. Expect a lot of 0-0 games for them this year, they'll be a bit on the boring side, but probably they'll be getting results and success, if not this year, then probably quite quickly, as I said, the anti TFC whose reactionary incompetence over their first 4 years was entertaining and distressing in equal measures. I'd like to think it's a bright new era for TFC, with new attitudes and winning mentalities, but this off season has shown we've still got a long way to go in that regard.
So what does it all mean for this game? Well what probably seemed like a good idea at the time, a big Canadian match-up, combined with a winnable game against an expansion team, could well become, if not their worst nightmare, a very bad dream for TFC. For a supporter base soured by the first 4 years but very ready to give Aron Winter a chance, looking forward to some more attractive football, and still tentatively hoping for good things despite an unimpressive pre-season, losing to an expansion team, a Canadian expansion team at that, in their first ever MLS game would not be a good way to kick things off, but that's more than likely what will happen.
While there's a few obvious and definite starters, Stefan Frei, Adrian Cann, Nana Attakora, Dwayne De Rosario and Maicon Santos, the rest of the team should be very interesting. Up front, Alan Gordon only met up with the team in Vancouver, so probably won't be thrown into action right away, so we're more than likely looking at Santos with Jacob Peterson and Javier Martina out wide. In midfield and at the full back positions, well it depends on just how pragmatic Winter wants to be, how much he wants to chase points in this particular game. Does he go with experienced MLS players like Dan Gargan, Ty Harden or Nathan Sturgis, or does he go with the chance to let some youngsters get valuable experience and play Omphroy, Morgan, Stinson or Cordon.
It'll probably be a bit of both, but either way, I don't really see it working well for Toronto. Vancouver will be able to sit back, keep their defensive shape and organisation and watch TFC pass it around and hope to hit them on the break, and if TFC's pre-season is anything to go by, more than likely that strategy will work well. With home field advantage, and taking advantage of the emotion of their first MLS game and all that, Vancouver will do well, and as well as stifling TFC, will probably create plenty of chances. TFC will be reliant on Frei keeping the Whitecaps out and De Ro creating something out of nothing to be able to get something out of the game. I'd love to say otherwise, but I'll predict a 1-0 win for Vancouver.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
MLS 2011 Eastern Conference Preview
Time for part 2 of my First Annual Half Arsed And Proud Of It MLS Season Predictions, and this time it's the Eastern Conference. Click here for my Western Conference preview, where Seattle took less than half a game to make a mockery of my optimism for Blaise Nkufo and O'Brian White. Like how I did it with the West, it's another no research, no googling, gut instinct kind of thing, here we go.
1 New York Red Bulls. Juan Pablo Angel could be a big loss, but having a full season of Thierry Henry should work out nicely for them. Not really much competition in the East, so they should sew up first fairly easily, before shockingly and amusingly losing to the wild card Colorado Rapids.
2 Sporting Kansas City. A new name, almost a new stadium, and Omar Bravo as their new DP. Things are looking up in KC. A long road trip could kill their season, but I think they'll do just about well enough to hang on, and then really make up ground in the 2nd half of the season, before making it to the Conference final and losing.
3 D.C United. Charlie Davies is a great signing and if Andy Najar can repeat or improve upon his showing of last year, they should help restore DC, if not to their former championship winning glories, at least back to respectability and a playoff position.
4 Philadelphia Union. Faryd Mondragon's a great name, and a decent signing as well. Carlos Ruiz seems like a bit of a desperate gamble, but things will come together and the Union will get the last wild card spot, where they'll lose to Colorado
5 Chicago Fire. Lost a few big name players in Cuahtemoc Blanco Brian McBride and Nery Castillo, so will wallow in mediocrity, flirt with the playoffs all season, but not make it.
6 Houston Dynamo. Houston benefit with the move to the weaker Eastern Conference, but won't really be able to take advantage. With no big names coming in over the off-season, they'll once again be relying on Brian Ching, and he won't be able to do it on his own.
7 Columbus Crew. Lost a lot of their best and most experienced players, like Schelotto and Hejduk, and their days of being a contender are over. They'll actually lose a game to Toronto, but will still finish above them.
8 Toronto FC. Ah, Toronto. New management, new hope, no good new players yet though. If some academy kids/draftees or as yet unknown new signings don't come along and impress, we'll be in trouble. We're finally on the right track but we're a long way back, 2012 should be better but this year will be long and frustrating, it'll be interesting at least.
9 New England Revolution. If only because I couldn't bring myself to put Toronto dead last. If Shalrie Joseph can keep himself out of trouble and out of rehab, they'll maybe do ok, but I think they'll struggle and it may be the end of the Nicol era.
So overall, in one magnificent single table format, your standings will be;
1 Real Salt Lake
2 Seattle Sounders
3 New York Red Bulls
4 LA Galaxy
5 Colorado Rapids
6 FC Dallas
7 Sporting Kansas City
8 DC United
9 Portland Timbers
10 Philadelphia Union
11Chicago Fire
12 San Jose Earthquakes
13 Houston Dynamo
14 Columbus Crew
15 Chivas Usa
16 Toronto FC
17 Vancouver Whitecaps
18 New England Revolution.
Wild cards, Colorado beats Philadelphia, Portland beats Dallas.
Conference semi finals, RSL beats Portland, Seattle beats LA, Colorado beats New York and Kansas City beats DC.
Conference finals, Seattle beats RSL and Colorado beats Kansas City
MLS Cup, Seattle beats Colorado.
1 New York Red Bulls. Juan Pablo Angel could be a big loss, but having a full season of Thierry Henry should work out nicely for them. Not really much competition in the East, so they should sew up first fairly easily, before shockingly and amusingly losing to the wild card Colorado Rapids.
2 Sporting Kansas City. A new name, almost a new stadium, and Omar Bravo as their new DP. Things are looking up in KC. A long road trip could kill their season, but I think they'll do just about well enough to hang on, and then really make up ground in the 2nd half of the season, before making it to the Conference final and losing.
3 D.C United. Charlie Davies is a great signing and if Andy Najar can repeat or improve upon his showing of last year, they should help restore DC, if not to their former championship winning glories, at least back to respectability and a playoff position.
4 Philadelphia Union. Faryd Mondragon's a great name, and a decent signing as well. Carlos Ruiz seems like a bit of a desperate gamble, but things will come together and the Union will get the last wild card spot, where they'll lose to Colorado
5 Chicago Fire. Lost a few big name players in Cuahtemoc Blanco Brian McBride and Nery Castillo, so will wallow in mediocrity, flirt with the playoffs all season, but not make it.
6 Houston Dynamo. Houston benefit with the move to the weaker Eastern Conference, but won't really be able to take advantage. With no big names coming in over the off-season, they'll once again be relying on Brian Ching, and he won't be able to do it on his own.
7 Columbus Crew. Lost a lot of their best and most experienced players, like Schelotto and Hejduk, and their days of being a contender are over. They'll actually lose a game to Toronto, but will still finish above them.
8 Toronto FC. Ah, Toronto. New management, new hope, no good new players yet though. If some academy kids/draftees or as yet unknown new signings don't come along and impress, we'll be in trouble. We're finally on the right track but we're a long way back, 2012 should be better but this year will be long and frustrating, it'll be interesting at least.
9 New England Revolution. If only because I couldn't bring myself to put Toronto dead last. If Shalrie Joseph can keep himself out of trouble and out of rehab, they'll maybe do ok, but I think they'll struggle and it may be the end of the Nicol era.
So overall, in one magnificent single table format, your standings will be;
1 Real Salt Lake
2 Seattle Sounders
3 New York Red Bulls
4 LA Galaxy
5 Colorado Rapids
6 FC Dallas
7 Sporting Kansas City
8 DC United
9 Portland Timbers
10 Philadelphia Union
11Chicago Fire
12 San Jose Earthquakes
13 Houston Dynamo
14 Columbus Crew
15 Chivas Usa
16 Toronto FC
17 Vancouver Whitecaps
18 New England Revolution.
Wild cards, Colorado beats Philadelphia, Portland beats Dallas.
Conference semi finals, RSL beats Portland, Seattle beats LA, Colorado beats New York and Kansas City beats DC.
Conference finals, Seattle beats RSL and Colorado beats Kansas City
MLS Cup, Seattle beats Colorado.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
MLS 2011 Western Conference Preview.
Well here we are again, the new season kicking off, anticipation rising with supporters dreaming of success, however that may be defined, whether it's trophies, playoffs, respectably competing, or just seeing the odd glimpse here and there of some potential future success. It's a clean slate, everyone's excited, hell even David Beckham's deigned to be here for the start of the season this time.
Obviously that means it's preview time in the media, so here I go. I haven't done much research for this, to be honest I've done no research, I'm just going by my impressions from last season, and whatever news was big enough for me to notice and remember over the last few months, I'm not going to look anything up while writing this, I'm just going with a gut feeling, Tom Anselmi style, that always works right? So here we go, my First Annual Half-Arsed And Proud Of It MLS Season Predictions. The FAHAAPOIMLSSPs. Catchy. Due to First Kick involving two western teams, I'll start with the West.
1 Real Salt Lake. A really good team who should keep going. Due to Champions league play, they'll be more ready than most teams to start the season, so should get good results early, and from there on in, they can coast on the home advantage they get at Rio Tinto stadium. Fatigue from extra cup games will cost them towards the end of the season, they'll win the West, and the Supporters Shield, but will lose in the conference final.
2 Seattle Sounders. A very successful start as an expansion club, with two US Opens and good regular season success maintaining that momentum, and this year they'll make it really count. Blaise Nkufo should do really well, and they'll somehow even manage to make O'Brian White look like a decent player again. MLS Cup champs.
3 LA Galaxy. Another successful regular season, with Donovan and Beckham playing well and Juan Pablo Angel adequately replacing Edson Buddle, the real interest lies in seeing if the notoriously sweaty Chad barrett manages to avoid completely evaporating over the course of a long hot LA season. It will hilariously end with a first round playoff defeat, Seattle gaining their revenge for last year.
4 Colorado Rapids. The 2010 MLS cup champs should be strong again, with new signing Nyassi from Seattle combining with Kandji if and when he's fit to take some of the scoring pressure off Casey and Cummings. Basically though it's all going to come down to those two, and they'll do alright, securing the top wild card seed and once again representing the East in the final, where they'll lose.
5 FC Dallas. Bloody hell, there's a lot of good teams in the West. Last year's losing finallists will do ok, mainly on the back of another good season from David Ferreira. Due to being in the West, they'll only secure a wild card spot, and will lose at that stage.
6 Portland Timbers. As an expansion side, they'll be closer to Seattle than Toronto, and Kenny Cooper will pick up where he left off with Dallas and score plenty of goals. They'll beat Dallas in the wild card game, then lose to RSL.
7. San Jose Earthquakes. Wondolowski won't score half as many goals as he did last year, and they'll muddle along at the edge of the wild card spots all season before falling short.
8 Chivas USA. A new coach, some new players, Nick Labrocca. They'll be better than last year, but still not good enough.
9 Vancouver Whitecaps. More out of spite than anything. In a way, they're the anti TFC, what seems to be blandly professional behind the scenes, with continutiy in the coaching ranks, and slowly putting together what might eventually be a decent team, and no sign that they'll make a lot of panic moves if it doesn't start out right. The team generally reflects that, they'll be ok, tough to beat, but unexciting, hopefully their DP Hassli can score them some goals.
So there you have it, by far the stronger conference, 3 of the 4 wild card spots will go to Western teams, as will the Supporter's shield, both MLS Cup final spots and the MLS Cup winners.
Coming sometime in the next couple of days, the mediocrity that will be the Eastern Conference.
Obviously that means it's preview time in the media, so here I go. I haven't done much research for this, to be honest I've done no research, I'm just going by my impressions from last season, and whatever news was big enough for me to notice and remember over the last few months, I'm not going to look anything up while writing this, I'm just going with a gut feeling, Tom Anselmi style, that always works right? So here we go, my First Annual Half-Arsed And Proud Of It MLS Season Predictions. The FAHAAPOIMLSSPs. Catchy. Due to First Kick involving two western teams, I'll start with the West.
1 Real Salt Lake. A really good team who should keep going. Due to Champions league play, they'll be more ready than most teams to start the season, so should get good results early, and from there on in, they can coast on the home advantage they get at Rio Tinto stadium. Fatigue from extra cup games will cost them towards the end of the season, they'll win the West, and the Supporters Shield, but will lose in the conference final.
2 Seattle Sounders. A very successful start as an expansion club, with two US Opens and good regular season success maintaining that momentum, and this year they'll make it really count. Blaise Nkufo should do really well, and they'll somehow even manage to make O'Brian White look like a decent player again. MLS Cup champs.
3 LA Galaxy. Another successful regular season, with Donovan and Beckham playing well and Juan Pablo Angel adequately replacing Edson Buddle, the real interest lies in seeing if the notoriously sweaty Chad barrett manages to avoid completely evaporating over the course of a long hot LA season. It will hilariously end with a first round playoff defeat, Seattle gaining their revenge for last year.
4 Colorado Rapids. The 2010 MLS cup champs should be strong again, with new signing Nyassi from Seattle combining with Kandji if and when he's fit to take some of the scoring pressure off Casey and Cummings. Basically though it's all going to come down to those two, and they'll do alright, securing the top wild card seed and once again representing the East in the final, where they'll lose.
5 FC Dallas. Bloody hell, there's a lot of good teams in the West. Last year's losing finallists will do ok, mainly on the back of another good season from David Ferreira. Due to being in the West, they'll only secure a wild card spot, and will lose at that stage.
6 Portland Timbers. As an expansion side, they'll be closer to Seattle than Toronto, and Kenny Cooper will pick up where he left off with Dallas and score plenty of goals. They'll beat Dallas in the wild card game, then lose to RSL.
7. San Jose Earthquakes. Wondolowski won't score half as many goals as he did last year, and they'll muddle along at the edge of the wild card spots all season before falling short.
8 Chivas USA. A new coach, some new players, Nick Labrocca. They'll be better than last year, but still not good enough.
9 Vancouver Whitecaps. More out of spite than anything. In a way, they're the anti TFC, what seems to be blandly professional behind the scenes, with continutiy in the coaching ranks, and slowly putting together what might eventually be a decent team, and no sign that they'll make a lot of panic moves if it doesn't start out right. The team generally reflects that, they'll be ok, tough to beat, but unexciting, hopefully their DP Hassli can score them some goals.
So there you have it, by far the stronger conference, 3 of the 4 wild card spots will go to Western teams, as will the Supporter's shield, both MLS Cup final spots and the MLS Cup winners.
Coming sometime in the next couple of days, the mediocrity that will be the Eastern Conference.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Gordon Heavyelbow and Cann the Comedian.
A busy weekend for Toronto FC saw them play the last game of their pre-season, against DC United in the Carolina Challenge Cup, as well as continue with the all of a sudden rapid progress in adding to their squad. After signing Gianluca Zavarise, and welcoming Adrian Cann back to the team, a trade was announced on Friday afternoon, Nick Labrocca going to Chivas USA with striker Alan Gordon coming back to Toronto. Aged 29, Gordon's been an intermittent starter over 7 years in MLS, mainly with LA Galaxy, where he scored 16 goals in 99 games, before being traded to Chivas, with whom he scored 1 goal in 9 games.
So, a tall striker who doesn't really score that many goals, but gets quite a few assists, acts as a target man, holding the ball up for other players, and as Adrian Cann's nose can attest after meeting his elbow in the game at Chivas last year, is a, erm, physical presence. The obvious comparison is Danny Dichio, and while I doubt he'll have as big an impact, he'll bring some welcome physicality to a team that throughout pre-season seemed to be lacking it. Unless there's more additions to the forward line in the next week, he should be starting as the middle of the three forwards, with Maicon Santos and one of Jacob Peterson or Javier Martina playing wide.
One feature of pre-season seemed to be that TFC didn't seem quite good enough to be able to take their possession play into the final third and penetrate the defence. This meant the final ball into the box was more often than not a cross from out wide, and more often than not, nothing came of that, so a big man in the box should definitely help that default option become a more successful one. Before we have to fall back on that default option though, Gordon should be able to use his size to hold the ball up in the final third and bring the other forwards, or Dwayne De Rosario coming from midfield, into the play in more dangerous areas. If this works and he fits in well, he would be a very important part of any success TFC might have this season.
As for Labrocca, he's a competent if unspectacular midfielder, but won't really be missed. With Julian De Guzman and Elbekay Bouchiba coming back soon from injuries and academy player Oscar Cordon also getting a lot of time in midfield, Labrocca fell victim to the numbers game as more options were needed up front.
After Friday's trade action, there was a game to be played on Saturday, the final game in Charleston and it ended 2-2, Dwayne De Rosario and Maicon Santos with the goals, and TFC holding on for the draw despite being down to ten men after Mikael Yourrasowsky was sent off for two yellow cards in two minutes in the first half. I didn't see the game, but actually scoring a goal from open play has got to be a good sign, and most importantly De Ro proved his fitness after missing the last couple of games.
As part of Adrian Cann's return to training Camp, Aron Winter made it known an apology to his teammates was needed, and it turns out that that was going to be a public apology, as he was wheeled out to take part in Winter's post game media interviews. Cann, as meek as a chastised schoolboy with Winter the stern Principal looking on, apologised to the fans and everyone in the organisation, acknowledged he made a mistake by leaving, calling it a mental lapse, and said he now wants to concentrate on the season and getting off to a good start against Vancouver. He then added a much needed moment of levity to the interview by adding "and win a championship".
More painful than the public show of contrition would be the financial hit Cann took for his actions, as the details of the reason for Cann's walkout was revealed in this article from the Star's Daniel Girard, and it turns out it was another unwelcome leftover from Mo Johnston's reign of error. Cann's salary last year was a very low $65,342, apparently as much as TFC could afford under the salary cap, and there was an unwritten promise that this season's salary would be topped up to make up for that. So after Winter's appointment, Cann went looking for that top up, asking for a $175,000 deal for this year. TFC countered with an offer of $160,000, not to Cann's satisfaction, and thus he eventually left camp to force negotiations along. TFC called his bluff, and now Cann is back on his original $124,000 deal, so in effect his principled stand has ended up costing him $36,000.
Turning down that $160,000 compromise probably wasn't the smartest move by Cann, but hopefully, he and the team can put everything behind them and move forward. Cann should have motivation to play as well as possible so as to help him with future negotiations when this season is done, whether with TFC or another club. This situation, along with the broken promises made to Dwayne De Rosario are big indictments of how TFC used to be run, hopefully from here on in things will get a lot more professional, and hopefully there's no more ticking time bombs that the new management regime will have to deal with.
So, a tall striker who doesn't really score that many goals, but gets quite a few assists, acts as a target man, holding the ball up for other players, and as Adrian Cann's nose can attest after meeting his elbow in the game at Chivas last year, is a, erm, physical presence. The obvious comparison is Danny Dichio, and while I doubt he'll have as big an impact, he'll bring some welcome physicality to a team that throughout pre-season seemed to be lacking it. Unless there's more additions to the forward line in the next week, he should be starting as the middle of the three forwards, with Maicon Santos and one of Jacob Peterson or Javier Martina playing wide.
One feature of pre-season seemed to be that TFC didn't seem quite good enough to be able to take their possession play into the final third and penetrate the defence. This meant the final ball into the box was more often than not a cross from out wide, and more often than not, nothing came of that, so a big man in the box should definitely help that default option become a more successful one. Before we have to fall back on that default option though, Gordon should be able to use his size to hold the ball up in the final third and bring the other forwards, or Dwayne De Rosario coming from midfield, into the play in more dangerous areas. If this works and he fits in well, he would be a very important part of any success TFC might have this season.
As for Labrocca, he's a competent if unspectacular midfielder, but won't really be missed. With Julian De Guzman and Elbekay Bouchiba coming back soon from injuries and academy player Oscar Cordon also getting a lot of time in midfield, Labrocca fell victim to the numbers game as more options were needed up front.
After Friday's trade action, there was a game to be played on Saturday, the final game in Charleston and it ended 2-2, Dwayne De Rosario and Maicon Santos with the goals, and TFC holding on for the draw despite being down to ten men after Mikael Yourrasowsky was sent off for two yellow cards in two minutes in the first half. I didn't see the game, but actually scoring a goal from open play has got to be a good sign, and most importantly De Ro proved his fitness after missing the last couple of games.
As part of Adrian Cann's return to training Camp, Aron Winter made it known an apology to his teammates was needed, and it turns out that that was going to be a public apology, as he was wheeled out to take part in Winter's post game media interviews. Cann, as meek as a chastised schoolboy with Winter the stern Principal looking on, apologised to the fans and everyone in the organisation, acknowledged he made a mistake by leaving, calling it a mental lapse, and said he now wants to concentrate on the season and getting off to a good start against Vancouver. He then added a much needed moment of levity to the interview by adding "and win a championship".
More painful than the public show of contrition would be the financial hit Cann took for his actions, as the details of the reason for Cann's walkout was revealed in this article from the Star's Daniel Girard, and it turns out it was another unwelcome leftover from Mo Johnston's reign of error. Cann's salary last year was a very low $65,342, apparently as much as TFC could afford under the salary cap, and there was an unwritten promise that this season's salary would be topped up to make up for that. So after Winter's appointment, Cann went looking for that top up, asking for a $175,000 deal for this year. TFC countered with an offer of $160,000, not to Cann's satisfaction, and thus he eventually left camp to force negotiations along. TFC called his bluff, and now Cann is back on his original $124,000 deal, so in effect his principled stand has ended up costing him $36,000.
Turning down that $160,000 compromise probably wasn't the smartest move by Cann, but hopefully, he and the team can put everything behind them and move forward. Cann should have motivation to play as well as possible so as to help him with future negotiations when this season is done, whether with TFC or another club. This situation, along with the broken promises made to Dwayne De Rosario are big indictments of how TFC used to be run, hopefully from here on in things will get a lot more professional, and hopefully there's no more ticking time bombs that the new management regime will have to deal with.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Can we actually fill out our bench now?
The haircut's some kind of rookie hazing thing right?
Well, things are really picking up pace now in TFC's long delayed race to have a full squad before the season starts. After the announcement earlier in the week about the signings of Javier Martina, Nick Soolsma and Elbekay Bouchiba, another trialist was confirmed as officially one of the boys today, Gianluca Zavarise.
Zavarise is Canadian, from Burnaby B.C, but his playing career has been almost entirely in Europe, with a few appearances here and there in stops in Italy, Germany and Greece, and two international caps for Canada. Much like Soolsma and Martina, his career never really got going over there, but he's still young and hopefully a fresh start will work out for him. He's been training with TFC since their Turkey trip and has obviously impressed enough to make the squad, ideally he'll provide good depth and a different attacking option off the bench, and eventually press for a first team spot.
A better addition to the squad is Adrian Cann, who has rejoined training camp after deciding to end his contract dispute. A busy work day before an upcoming weekend away means I've no time to write fully about that, whether he made a good decision, how much of a snake Mo Johnston is and all that, hopefully I'll tackle that later. For now I'll say welcome back, given how bad the defence has looked and how low on numbers we are, it's a very good thing he's back.
Sweet FA Trophy, semi-finals
The FA Trophy semi-finals happen over the next two weekends, and all the upsets are over as it's 4 Conference teams playing off for the place at Wembley for the final.
Chasetown took Mansfield Town to a replay before a 3-1 defeat saw them bow out, and Mansfield now face Luton Town in the first semi final, with the first leg this Friday at Mansfield. Luton are rightly the favourites to win the trophy, as they currently sit 3rd in the Conference and seem fairly certain of a promotion playoff place for the second straight year, whereas Mansfield are currently 13th. In their one meeting so far this season, back in September Luton won 2-0.
Both teams have previously won trophies at Wembley, Mansfield won the 1987 Freight Rover trophy (now the Johnstone's Paint Trophy) after a penalty shootout against Bristol City. Luton have made it to Wembley finals 5 times, losing the FA Cup final in 1959, as well as the League Cup final in 1989, and the short lived Simod Cup in 1988. They won the Johnstone's Paint Trophy in 2009, the same year they were relegated to the Conference mainly due to a huge 30 point deduction for financial problems. Most famously of course they won the League Cup final against Arsenal in 1988, a late comeback sealing a 3-2 victory, which you can see the highlights of here. Luton were the underdogs that day, but if they make the final they'll be the prohibitive favourites, quite frankly they're too good and too big of a team to be at the non-league level much longer.
The other semi final is a North Eastern Derby with Gateshead, winners over their local rivals Blyth Spartans playing against everyone's heroes Darlington, the first leg at Darlo on Saturday. The teams have played twice this year, Darlington winning 2-0 at home in August, and then just this Tuesday they drew 2-2 in Gateshead, Darlington letting in an injury time goal, throwing away points in that fashion for the 5th time this year.
Gateshead are currently 12th while Darlington sit in 8th after a good recent run that has them eyeing a playoff place. They are unbeaten in 9 games in all competitions since a 4-0 defeat to Luton, though any feel good factor is deflated somewhat by their precarious financial position, with a "help save your club" season ticket appeal being launched to try and take advantage of the extra crowds expected for the semi-final matchup.
The Wembley final is a very big prize for both these teams, Gateshead have never been to Wembley, so will be making history just by making the final. Darlington have just two losing division 4 playoff finals, 1996 and 2000, at the old Wembley in their history, and while it would be nice to get back there and hopefully win something, the economic benefits of qualifying for the final will probably be the most important factor for them. With Chairman Raj Singh putting out an appeal to get the season ticket base up to 2,000 adult season tickets (currently there are 1,200 and that's including children and other concessions) it's going to need something big like the chance of a Wembley final to get the locals energised and willing to give the club another chance. If it's not just a slightly desperate, blackmail based sales pitch, then without those numbers Singh is likely to walk away from the club, putting it's entire existence in jeapordy, so Darlo have a bit more than a fun day out and shiny trophy to be playing for.
Prediction time, I maintained my 75% success rate in the quarter finals, getting 3 out of the 4 ties correct. In the semis, Luton will use the Stag's antlers as a hat stand, and easily make the final, and Darlington will just squeak past Gateshead.
Chasetown took Mansfield Town to a replay before a 3-1 defeat saw them bow out, and Mansfield now face Luton Town in the first semi final, with the first leg this Friday at Mansfield. Luton are rightly the favourites to win the trophy, as they currently sit 3rd in the Conference and seem fairly certain of a promotion playoff place for the second straight year, whereas Mansfield are currently 13th. In their one meeting so far this season, back in September Luton won 2-0.
Both teams have previously won trophies at Wembley, Mansfield won the 1987 Freight Rover trophy (now the Johnstone's Paint Trophy) after a penalty shootout against Bristol City. Luton have made it to Wembley finals 5 times, losing the FA Cup final in 1959, as well as the League Cup final in 1989, and the short lived Simod Cup in 1988. They won the Johnstone's Paint Trophy in 2009, the same year they were relegated to the Conference mainly due to a huge 30 point deduction for financial problems. Most famously of course they won the League Cup final against Arsenal in 1988, a late comeback sealing a 3-2 victory, which you can see the highlights of here. Luton were the underdogs that day, but if they make the final they'll be the prohibitive favourites, quite frankly they're too good and too big of a team to be at the non-league level much longer.
The other semi final is a North Eastern Derby with Gateshead, winners over their local rivals Blyth Spartans playing against everyone's heroes Darlington, the first leg at Darlo on Saturday. The teams have played twice this year, Darlington winning 2-0 at home in August, and then just this Tuesday they drew 2-2 in Gateshead, Darlington letting in an injury time goal, throwing away points in that fashion for the 5th time this year.
Gateshead are currently 12th while Darlington sit in 8th after a good recent run that has them eyeing a playoff place. They are unbeaten in 9 games in all competitions since a 4-0 defeat to Luton, though any feel good factor is deflated somewhat by their precarious financial position, with a "help save your club" season ticket appeal being launched to try and take advantage of the extra crowds expected for the semi-final matchup.
The Wembley final is a very big prize for both these teams, Gateshead have never been to Wembley, so will be making history just by making the final. Darlington have just two losing division 4 playoff finals, 1996 and 2000, at the old Wembley in their history, and while it would be nice to get back there and hopefully win something, the economic benefits of qualifying for the final will probably be the most important factor for them. With Chairman Raj Singh putting out an appeal to get the season ticket base up to 2,000 adult season tickets (currently there are 1,200 and that's including children and other concessions) it's going to need something big like the chance of a Wembley final to get the locals energised and willing to give the club another chance. If it's not just a slightly desperate, blackmail based sales pitch, then without those numbers Singh is likely to walk away from the club, putting it's entire existence in jeapordy, so Darlo have a bit more than a fun day out and shiny trophy to be playing for.
Prediction time, I maintained my 75% success rate in the quarter finals, getting 3 out of the 4 ties correct. In the semis, Luton will use the Stag's antlers as a hat stand, and easily make the final, and Darlington will just squeak past Gateshead.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Blackbaud, cry.
New TFC trialist (Billy) D. Williams knows what TFC fans are in need of.
Tonight was the second game of this year's Carolina Challenge Cup for Toronto FC, as they took on hosts Charleston Battery at the Blackbaud Stadium. Charleston, of the 3rd tier USL Professional Division, haven't won a game in this competition since 2008 when they beat Toronto FC, and well, I think you know where that sentence is going.
It was another poor performance from another experimental line-up, with Julian De Guzman, a few weeks away from starting apparently, joined off the pitch by Dwayne De Rosario and Maicon Santos, meaning the 3-3 in TFC`s 4-3-3 was Nathan Sturgis, Nick Labrocca, Oscar Cordon, and now officially signed up Javier Martina, Jacob Peterson, and Keith Makabuya. Defensively, Ty Harden was at Right Back, Mikael Yourassowsky at Left Back and Nana Attakora was joined in the middle by TFC`s latest trialist Dicoy Williams, a Jamaican international Centre back.
In the first half TFC played OK, once again keeping possession well, though spending way too much time passing it around between the defenders and Stefan Frei in goal, and without looking quick or incisive enough to cause Charleston any serious worries. We did actually score a goal, Sturgis converting a penalty after a handball in the box, but chances were few and far between, and once again the opposition was able to defend comfortably. Charleston equalised late in the first half with a goal very similar to Chicago`s goal on Saturday, a defensive breakdown on the left, a low cross only partially cleared, and no-one picking up the opposition man at the top of the box who was able to knock home the rebound.
The main positive for me in the first half was the play of Nana Attakora, who much like the last game against Chicago showed an encouraging willingness and aptitude for bringing the ball forward from the back. That will be a big boost for the Reds if he can continue that in the regular season, leaving the midfielders to provide him with options further forward, rather than one of them having to drop deep to pick up the ball from the defence as De Guzman had to do so often last year.
The second half saw the usual flood of substitutions and though my stream was too choppy to make any reliable observations, it didn't look pretty, and Charleston scored a winner with a rebound from a penalty that was saved by Frei.
All in all, I liked some parts of it, where you can see what they're trying to do, but the line-up out there tonight wasn't good enough to do it successfully, there just isn't yet the speed of thought and quickness of movement and quality first touch required to make it work. Obviously it wasn't our first choice line-up, it's just pre-season and all that, but the time to improve that squad is rapidly running out. De Guzman, De Rosario and Santos will make a difference, but more quality is needed throughout the squad if we're going to be able to compete in any sense this season.
The other big news of the day was the confirmation of the signing of the three Dutch players that Aron Winter informed everyone of a few weeks back. Elbekay Bouchiba hasn't really played much at all due to injury, so I haven't really been able to form any opinion on him, Javier Martina has played a fair bit, and has confirmed my initial opinion that he's going to excite and frustrate the crap out of me in equal measures, he often looks good, very tricky and skillful, but there's rarely much productive end product. Nick Soolsma, well he's looked unimpressive so far, but again, to judge on the little I've seen would be unfair. Those extra 3 players take us up to 15 players, not including Nicholas Lindsay and Adrian Cann, so not quite enough for a starting eleven and a full bench yet. Not to worry though, plenty of time.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Dude, where's my Cann?
With less than two weeks until TFC's first game against Vancouver and with a roster that I'd hesitate to even call 'bare bones', one of the players that seemed to have a place in the starting line up firmly locked down, Adrian Cann, remains away from the squad, while a contract dispute is sorted out.
Since leaving training camp last week, Cann has maintained his silence, with no articles showing his side of the story, or even quotes to balance out an article that takes a more pro-management view. Given how much of a soap opera TFC's existence has been so far, with plenty of dirty laundry aired, keeping quiet and allowing negotiations to take place behind closed doors can certainly be admired and applauded. The problem is, if the other side has no qualms about putting out information, then the PR war for the hearts and minds of supporters becomes a very unfair fight, especially after taking such drastic action as leaving training camp, as Cann did.
That's the situation Cann now finds himself in, as after the initial article on the clubs website that cast him as the bad guy by putting out the info that he was only one year into a four year contract, Aron Winter cast TFC firmly in the role of the good guys with quotes in this Gareth Wheeler article, saying that TFC have made two different offers to Cann, who has refused them, and which they have now withdrawn, saying he can come back on his old contract or not at all.
So TFC's side of the story is that Cann is very much under contract for another three years, so there's no need to renegotiate, but recognising his 2010 MVP efforts, they've made him new offers anyway, which he's had the temerity to turn down. What's Cann's side? Well that's the part we don't know, what his current contract calls for him to be paid, and what offers have been made. The Wheeler article also mentions that the terms initially reported (4 years at $65,000) were incorrect, though there's no mention of whether it's the length or the dollar value that is wrong, or both.
Until this situation blew up, most supporters seemed to be firmly behind Cann, with most bloggers and forum commenters aware that, whether under a long term contract or not, (and more than one respected TFC reporters have recently said that he was out of contract) negotiations were taking place over the off season, with most people agreeing that Cann was worthy of a raise. In the big debates when Dwayne De Rosario's situation blew up, Cann was even offered up by many including myself (magnificently ironically in hindsight) as an example of someone whose contract was up for renewal but who wasn't making a big deal of it.
Now though, supporters are taking the report of a 4 year contract as gospel, a certainty that Cann has no right to walk out on, and without any information at all as to what the new offers included, are saying he should be gratefully signing on and getting his ass back into training camp asap. Many supporters are taking things even further and saying that they simply don't want Cann back at all, saying that as opposed to De Ro, he's easily replaceable, even though we haven't even got close to replacing everyone else let go from last year's squad yet.
Obviously the biggest part of that reaction is the fact that Cann did more than just pretend to write a cheque and grumble to the media, he literally walked out on the team until the situation is resolved one way or another. But the way that supporters have reacted to the one-sided information presented so far can only strengthen MLS's and TFC management's resolve to hold a firm line, indeed Adrian Cann is now listed on MLSsoccer.com as retired.
It may well be that new management within TFC means a new attitude, that they are acting very honourably and telling the full truth in all this, but given all the rumours of foul play involved in Cann's previous contract, I can't help but think that there's more to this than meets the eye, that there's another side to the story. Walking out of training camp is a very high stakes move, one that Cann won't have taken lightly, so he must feel he's being seriously short changed. Maybe he is, or maybe his sense of his own worth is way too high, I'd personally be comfortable seeing him earn about $100,000 to $120,000 but not much more that that.
We'll probably never know the details of what numbers are being discussed, but that isn't stopping many people from rushing to judgement. By keeping a dignified silence while negotiations happen, Cann may well be taking the high road and acting professionally, but in the court of supporter opinion, he's doing himself no favours at all.
Since leaving training camp last week, Cann has maintained his silence, with no articles showing his side of the story, or even quotes to balance out an article that takes a more pro-management view. Given how much of a soap opera TFC's existence has been so far, with plenty of dirty laundry aired, keeping quiet and allowing negotiations to take place behind closed doors can certainly be admired and applauded. The problem is, if the other side has no qualms about putting out information, then the PR war for the hearts and minds of supporters becomes a very unfair fight, especially after taking such drastic action as leaving training camp, as Cann did.
That's the situation Cann now finds himself in, as after the initial article on the clubs website that cast him as the bad guy by putting out the info that he was only one year into a four year contract, Aron Winter cast TFC firmly in the role of the good guys with quotes in this Gareth Wheeler article, saying that TFC have made two different offers to Cann, who has refused them, and which they have now withdrawn, saying he can come back on his old contract or not at all.
So TFC's side of the story is that Cann is very much under contract for another three years, so there's no need to renegotiate, but recognising his 2010 MVP efforts, they've made him new offers anyway, which he's had the temerity to turn down. What's Cann's side? Well that's the part we don't know, what his current contract calls for him to be paid, and what offers have been made. The Wheeler article also mentions that the terms initially reported (4 years at $65,000) were incorrect, though there's no mention of whether it's the length or the dollar value that is wrong, or both.
Until this situation blew up, most supporters seemed to be firmly behind Cann, with most bloggers and forum commenters aware that, whether under a long term contract or not, (and more than one respected TFC reporters have recently said that he was out of contract) negotiations were taking place over the off season, with most people agreeing that Cann was worthy of a raise. In the big debates when Dwayne De Rosario's situation blew up, Cann was even offered up by many including myself (magnificently ironically in hindsight) as an example of someone whose contract was up for renewal but who wasn't making a big deal of it.
Now though, supporters are taking the report of a 4 year contract as gospel, a certainty that Cann has no right to walk out on, and without any information at all as to what the new offers included, are saying he should be gratefully signing on and getting his ass back into training camp asap. Many supporters are taking things even further and saying that they simply don't want Cann back at all, saying that as opposed to De Ro, he's easily replaceable, even though we haven't even got close to replacing everyone else let go from last year's squad yet.
Obviously the biggest part of that reaction is the fact that Cann did more than just pretend to write a cheque and grumble to the media, he literally walked out on the team until the situation is resolved one way or another. But the way that supporters have reacted to the one-sided information presented so far can only strengthen MLS's and TFC management's resolve to hold a firm line, indeed Adrian Cann is now listed on MLSsoccer.com as retired.
It may well be that new management within TFC means a new attitude, that they are acting very honourably and telling the full truth in all this, but given all the rumours of foul play involved in Cann's previous contract, I can't help but think that there's more to this than meets the eye, that there's another side to the story. Walking out of training camp is a very high stakes move, one that Cann won't have taken lightly, so he must feel he's being seriously short changed. Maybe he is, or maybe his sense of his own worth is way too high, I'd personally be comfortable seeing him earn about $100,000 to $120,000 but not much more that that.
We'll probably never know the details of what numbers are being discussed, but that isn't stopping many people from rushing to judgement. By keeping a dignified silence while negotiations happen, Cann may well be taking the high road and acting professionally, but in the court of supporter opinion, he's doing himself no favours at all.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
2012 pre-season looking good.
Toronto FC continued it's preparations for the 2012 season with the first game of the Carolina Challenge Cup in Charleston on Saturday against the Chicago Fire.
With some of the very few officially signed players missing through injury (Julian De Guzman still, and now also Dwayne De Rosario with what was described as a tweak) or through contract disputes (Adrian Cann), the game provided plenty of opportuntities for those looking to impress enough to nail down a position in the squad or the starting line up just over 12 months from now.
Mikael Yourassowsky joined Nana Attakora in central defence, with Dan Gargan at right back and academy player Ashtone Morgan at left back. Another academy kid Oscar Cordon joined Jacob Peterson and Nick Labrocca in midfield with Joao Plata and Javier Martina playing upfront with Maicon Santos. Plenty of substitutions meant appearances for a few other new signees, trialists and academy players, including Andrew Ornoch, previously rejected but back for a second try, and Nathan Sturgis, trying to work his way out of the coach's doghouse after not impressing in Turkey.
So how did it all look, well not great frankly, but that's ok, we've got over a year to be working on things. Sloppy defending led to Chicago scoring after 6 minutes, but aside from that Yourassowsky looked alright in the middle, making a couple of really good tackles in the second half. Attakora looked comfortable bringing the ball out of defence, and in general, the team was passing the ball about and keeping possession nicely, though they definitely lacked a cutting edge.
Chicago allowed that to happen really, happily letting Toronto pass it around in their own half while blocking things up in midfield in front of their defence. That tendency was increased after Chicago had a player sent off after 35 minutes, but even then, TFC, curiously still playing in practice jerseys rather than the official new kit, created very few chances against the ten men. It's obviously very early, and though we didn't look great, there were a few moments here and there yesterday where you could see the potential of what Aron Winter's trying to do and what it could all become with an improved squad, even adding De Guzman and De Rosario back into the line-up should make a big difference.
Fortunately there's plenty of time to give the current trialists a fair go and see which of them has what it takes to make the starting lineup for First Kick a year or so from now. Those who don't make the grade can be replaced between now and then, maybe in July when the European transfer window opens. Also the 40 odd practice games we'll have in 2011 will give plenty of opportunities to blood the youngsters from the academy, giving them valuable experience for when it counts. All in all, pre-season's off to a good start and the future is certainly bright.
What's that? How's the squad looking for the 2011 season? Oh, believe me, you really don't want to ask that question.
With some of the very few officially signed players missing through injury (Julian De Guzman still, and now also Dwayne De Rosario with what was described as a tweak) or through contract disputes (Adrian Cann), the game provided plenty of opportuntities for those looking to impress enough to nail down a position in the squad or the starting line up just over 12 months from now.
Mikael Yourassowsky joined Nana Attakora in central defence, with Dan Gargan at right back and academy player Ashtone Morgan at left back. Another academy kid Oscar Cordon joined Jacob Peterson and Nick Labrocca in midfield with Joao Plata and Javier Martina playing upfront with Maicon Santos. Plenty of substitutions meant appearances for a few other new signees, trialists and academy players, including Andrew Ornoch, previously rejected but back for a second try, and Nathan Sturgis, trying to work his way out of the coach's doghouse after not impressing in Turkey.
So how did it all look, well not great frankly, but that's ok, we've got over a year to be working on things. Sloppy defending led to Chicago scoring after 6 minutes, but aside from that Yourassowsky looked alright in the middle, making a couple of really good tackles in the second half. Attakora looked comfortable bringing the ball out of defence, and in general, the team was passing the ball about and keeping possession nicely, though they definitely lacked a cutting edge.
Chicago allowed that to happen really, happily letting Toronto pass it around in their own half while blocking things up in midfield in front of their defence. That tendency was increased after Chicago had a player sent off after 35 minutes, but even then, TFC, curiously still playing in practice jerseys rather than the official new kit, created very few chances against the ten men. It's obviously very early, and though we didn't look great, there were a few moments here and there yesterday where you could see the potential of what Aron Winter's trying to do and what it could all become with an improved squad, even adding De Guzman and De Rosario back into the line-up should make a big difference.
Fortunately there's plenty of time to give the current trialists a fair go and see which of them has what it takes to make the starting lineup for First Kick a year or so from now. Those who don't make the grade can be replaced between now and then, maybe in July when the European transfer window opens. Also the 40 odd practice games we'll have in 2011 will give plenty of opportunities to blood the youngsters from the academy, giving them valuable experience for when it counts. All in all, pre-season's off to a good start and the future is certainly bright.
What's that? How's the squad looking for the 2011 season? Oh, believe me, you really don't want to ask that question.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The wrath of Cann
If like me, TFC's lack of action on the player acquisition front, both qualitatively and quantitavely speaking is getting you a little worried with the season fast approaching, well get ready to reach for the anti-depressants, as things got worse today with the news that 2010 team MVP and one of the few nailed down starters in the squad Adrian Cann has walked out of training camp. Cann and TFC have been trying to negotiate a new contract, which apparently isn't going well, so Cann has decided to return to Toronto rather than go to Charleston for the team's next training camp and pre-season games. Details are very scarce right now, with no numbers being made public with regards to years or dollar amounts being discussed, though TFC did make a point of saying that Cann is currently one year into a four year deal. This was a bit surprising as it's been widely known that a new contract is being discussed, and this article from Duane Rollins claimed that Cann was actually out of contract.
Without knowing details of what has been offered to him, and how much he's holding out for, and indeed if he is or isn't currently under contract (and I certainly don't trust an article on the team's official website to be 100% truthful), it's difficult to take sides. I have a lot more sympathy for the argument that a player has to make as much money as they can in their short career when it's made on behalf of someone who made just over $65,000 last year, as opposed to someone on Dwayne de Rosario's salary. However to walk away from pre-season training is a much worse action to take than pretending to write a cheque, trying out for another club in the off-season and making some inflammable statements to the press. I guess we'll have to see what statements and clarifications come out in the next few days before rushing to judgement.
It's a very interesting gamble by Cann though, despite his MVP award, he's by no means a star player, he's a good solid MLS level defender, but that's all he is, and that's a lot more replaceable than De Ro's goals. Having said that, with TFC very much in a rebuilding phase, and with a very thin roster already, the last thing they'd want to do is have to find another player to come in and fill a position that was one of the few that was already filled, Cann must be banking on a sense of urgency leading to the club giving in to his demands. If so that's a very risky ploy, as that's not a precedent any club wants to set, though depending on what's happening with De Ro's contract, maybe it already has been set.
It's just all so very depressing, all this sort of soap opera-esque drama was supposed to have left when Mo Johnston did. The De Ro saga was being kept quiet very nicely and it seemed like all contract negotiations were being handled behind closed doors, with the sort of professional winning culture that Paul Mariner talked about back in January. Now this. Without knowing more detail it's difficult to lay blame, but with just two and a half weeks to go until the season starts, more drama and a further shrinking of the roster was the last thing TFC needed.
Without knowing details of what has been offered to him, and how much he's holding out for, and indeed if he is or isn't currently under contract (and I certainly don't trust an article on the team's official website to be 100% truthful), it's difficult to take sides. I have a lot more sympathy for the argument that a player has to make as much money as they can in their short career when it's made on behalf of someone who made just over $65,000 last year, as opposed to someone on Dwayne de Rosario's salary. However to walk away from pre-season training is a much worse action to take than pretending to write a cheque, trying out for another club in the off-season and making some inflammable statements to the press. I guess we'll have to see what statements and clarifications come out in the next few days before rushing to judgement.
It's a very interesting gamble by Cann though, despite his MVP award, he's by no means a star player, he's a good solid MLS level defender, but that's all he is, and that's a lot more replaceable than De Ro's goals. Having said that, with TFC very much in a rebuilding phase, and with a very thin roster already, the last thing they'd want to do is have to find another player to come in and fill a position that was one of the few that was already filled, Cann must be banking on a sense of urgency leading to the club giving in to his demands. If so that's a very risky ploy, as that's not a precedent any club wants to set, though depending on what's happening with De Ro's contract, maybe it already has been set.
It's just all so very depressing, all this sort of soap opera-esque drama was supposed to have left when Mo Johnston did. The De Ro saga was being kept quiet very nicely and it seemed like all contract negotiations were being handled behind closed doors, with the sort of professional winning culture that Paul Mariner talked about back in January. Now this. Without knowing more detail it's difficult to lay blame, but with just two and a half weeks to go until the season starts, more drama and a further shrinking of the roster was the last thing TFC needed.
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