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.

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.

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.

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

@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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.