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.