Tell me how am I supposed to live without you?

Darth Vader takes the Raivas Hscanovics news badly!

Alright, so the off season is well and truly under way, starting with an all action expansion draft.  Vancouver picked their ten players and then promptly traded 4 of them away, for international player spots and allocation money, which given how American players are no longer considered internationals for the Canadian clubs, suggests they've got something up their sleeve that's better than MLS castoffs.  Portland also traded away two of their picks for allocation money and a 2011 superdraft pick, one of which was Anthony Wallace, the Colorado full back, who they sold back to the Rapids, in a pre-arranged deal that also allowed Colorado to put Wells Thompson back into their protected list, and thus maintain the core of their cup winning side.  Colorado also picked up Seattle winger Sanna Nyassi via Vancouver, which when combined with Omar Cummings and Macoumba Kandji gives them three very fast and tricky players to work around Conor Casey, in what could be a very exciting attack next year.

There was only one TFC player taken and the big surprise for Reds fans was that O'Brian White was that man, picked by Vancouver and later traded to Seattle for allocation money.  What exactly was Seattle thinking?

“O’Brian is a forward with good pace and size” head coach Sigi Schmid said.  “He adds another option for us in our desire to be a club that scores goals.”

Owner/GM Adrian Hanauer said.  “O’Brian had a tremendous college career and he adds depth and competition at the forward position.  He can strike from distance with both feet and is a player that can be impact on our roster.”

Can be impact?  I presume that's just a transcription error, but if not, well there's your answer TFC fans, they were drunk.  Part of me wants to be fatalistic and say that White is now bound to become another player who does well after leaving and will score an important goal against TFC at least once next year, but I really can't figure out how that could possibly happen. 

After those formalities were out of the way, teams were free to start releasing their unwanted players, and TFC jumped into that with a lot of enthusiasm for a club that is still waiting to find out what it's philosophy and direction are.  Gabe Gala, Raivas Hscanovics, Maxim Usanov, Martin Saric and Mista were all let go, and all passed through the waiver draft to become full free agents available to any MLS club who might want them. 

Saric had moments where he looked useful, but hopefully we won't be playing more than one defensive midfielder next year, so he'd definitely be behind De Guzman and Sanyang for that role and therefore not worth keeping around.  Usanov also had his moments last year, but at over $100,000 was taking up way too much cap space for a player of his sporadic talents.  Hscanovics and Mista?  Don't care at all about either of them, and Gabe Gala?  Well it's a shame to see a young local kid who's been with the club since 2007 go, but he never really looked like breaking into the first team at all, at least he'll always have Real Madrid. 

So some quick and necessary thinning of last year's pitiful herd, with a few more decisions to come soon, Interim Gm Earl Cochrane confirming in a media conference call that they have 7 or 8 players whose options would need to be renewed or not by November 30th.  He also stated quite firmly that Dwayne de Rosario will be with TFC next season, and with reports saying that Bas Ent has already signed a deal with the club, it seems that they aren't letting the lack of a permanent management team get in the way of the decision making.

While in a way that's a good thing, it's also a bit disconcerting.  At the time of his press conference, Jürgen Klinsmann's remark that "maybe the right guys are already here" drew a snort of derision from me, but I was cynically resigned to the fact that Earl and Jimmy Brennan would probably be forced on to the new guy as assistants.  Now, with them so decisively starting the remodelling of the squad, that thought is growing into the fear that this is it, that 'EarlandJimmy' is our braintrust going forward, that Jürgen has come in and just told them what a great job they're doing and to carry on.  I hope I'm wrong, I wouldn't argue with any of the decisions made today, and won't be shedding any tears for the departed, but lettting players go is the easy part, rebuilding will hopefully be the responsibility of someone else.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Now the MLS Cup final is over, the off season got quickly under way with the release of the protected and unprotected lists that Vancouver and Portland get to sift through and pick from in the expansion draft.

A lot of teams seemed to take the view that those 2 teams wouldn't pick up the higher priced players, meaning some big names were left unprotected.  Designated players Freddie Ljungberg, Nery Castillo, Geovanni, Juan Pablo Angel, and Blaise Nkufo all joined TFC's Mista and Julian De Guzman in the available pile, meaning there's some interesting choices to be made when the draft happens on Wednesday.  I have no idea how much authority Interim Gm Earl Cochrane and Assistant Jim Brennan have to be making decisions before Jürgen Klinsmann figures out what type of club TFC's going to be, but I could definitely get behind some kind of sign and trade deal to bring Nkufo to town, or even Collins John, also left exposed by Chicago, who would be a bit of a risk, but with a lot of potential. 

As for who's on TFC's list, here it is in full.
Chad Barrett
Julian De Guzman
Gabe Gala
Nick Garcia
Raivas Hscanovics
Fuad Ibrahim
Milos Kocic
Mista
Joseph Nane
Amadou Sanyang
Martin Saric
Maxim Usanov
O'Brian White

Obviously the big name there is Julian De Guzman, though I imagine no other MLS club would want to be paying him that much money, hell, even hometown TFC probably don't want to pay him that much any more.  Chad Barrett is the biggest name with a chance of going, especially with his family ties to the West Coast.  On the one hand I hope it doesn't happen, I really like Chad Barrett, even in 2009 he was one of my favourite players, and after increasing his scoring rate this year, he's become a very valuable member of the squad.  On the other hand though, he is probably paid too much, and for the money he's set to earn, we should be able to find a player of equal or greater value, whether at striker or a different position.

I'd say the player most likely to be picked up is Amadou Sanyang, relatively cheap, young and athletic with the physicality needed for MLS, even if his passsing skills certainly have room for development.  Martin Saric and Milos Kocic would also be possibilities, but I really can't see any of the other players being considered by anyone else.

This is of course just the first step in what should be a very interesting off season for TFC, or at least could be if and when we get around to appointing a new management team, or even just annointing the current one with the permanent role.  It will be interesting to see which of these players who don't get drafted and which of those on the protected list will stay with the club, or are quietly shuffled off to the glue factory or move on to greener pastures.  Here's who I'd like to see stay from the current roster.

Goalkeeper
Frei.  A no-brainer really, unless a trade to Europe happens, he's the obvious first choice goalie.
Conway.  A competent back up and apparently a great guy to have in the dressing room.
Kocic.  A promising young kid who should get plenty of time in the reserve league, or on loan to the CSL again to develop further, one for the future.
Defence. 
Cann.  Team MVP ahead of De Rosario is maybe a bit much, but he had a great year, and will hopefully get the raise he deserves and stay.  Would make a great captain, though I can't see De Ro taking that well.
Attakora.  Reportedly turned down contract extensions over the past year so may be looking to explore his options overseas, but hopefully can be persuaded to stay.
Harden.  Competent back up for Cann and Attakora.
Henry.  Having the reserve league back is huge for youngsters such as him, hopefully he'll play a lot there with occasional first team appearances here and there, and be ready to step into the starting line up a year or two down the line.
Gargan.  A solid if unspectacular minimum wage player who can cover a bunch of positions and is popular with the fans. Well worth keeping.
Gomez.  Back in 2009 he showed promise before missing all of last year, deserves a chance to show what he can do.
Morgan.  Bring him up form the academy, then like Henry, let him play in the reserve league and develop further, with the occasional first team appearance.

Midfield
De Guzman.  Probably untradeable with his contract anyway, he deserves to stay around.  Should a DM be a DP?  Not really, but De Guzman should play his natural game, he looked at his worst last year when trying to be too ambitious with his passing, as if he was trying too hard to prove he could be a playmaker.  As a defensive player, and someone to make himself available for a pass and transition the ball from defence to midfield, he's not bad at all.
De Rosario.  Obviously depends on how his contract talks go, can be too selfish at times, but you can't  argue with 15 goals.
Sanyang.  Needs to improve his passing, but could grow to be a very good destructive DM in this league.
Peterson.  I'd hope he's not our first choice winger next year, but showed enough under Dasovic to be a good back up or second winger depending on our formation.  Ideally we can keep him for less money than last year to play that role.
Lindsay.  Showed great promise last year, hopefully can keep it going and establish himself ahead of Peterson in the pecking order, if he struggles, the reseve league is there to give him the necessary playing time.
Labrocca.  Another decent back up, who I'd hope won't be part of the starting line up, but can come in and do a job when asked.
Forwards.
Barrett.  Ideally he'd be getting less money, but proved he can be a valuable player, an injury free season would be nice as well.
Santos.  Showed some good skill either side of his summer injury.  Ideally one of Barrett and he would be up front alongside some as yet unknown star striker with the other as backup.

A lot of that list is strictly back up quality, if more than Frei, Cann, Attakora, De Guzman, De Rosario and either one of Barrett and Santos are part of our regular starting line-up next year, we'll be in trouble.  We could do with increasing the starting quality at every position except goal and Centre back.  I'd say our most pressing needs are at both full back positions, a good winger (Nyassi from Seattle is on the unprotected list, I'd dangle a draft pick at someone to pick him up) and a top class forward.  It would be a bonus if any of the academy kids or recent graduates can step up right away to be starters, but I really hope we're not counting on that. 

As for the rest, Garcia, Hscanovics, Usanov, Gala, Nane, Saric, White, Ibrahim and especially Mista, hopefully we'll be saying goodbye and good luck to them.

Beautiful friend, the end.

Alright, well at least we can relax now, and just concentrate on the Concacaf Champions League instead.  The brief hope we got after De Rosario's 2 free kicks saved a crappy performance and got us 3 points against Houston is now gone, after another home defeat, this time against San Jose. 

There's a lot of different things running through my head, so this post is going to be a collection of individual thoughts that when put together may come together to be more then the sum of their parts, or may be a bit of a disjointed mess, I'm not really sure.  So kind of like TFC then.

This game really shows that Preki the coach wasn't really all that bad, things certainly haven't improved since he left.  It also shows that Mo the GM and Preki the co-GM really have left behind a squad that just isn't good enough. 

What's going on with Mista?  Dasovic is trying to play a more attacking style, he's theoretically our most talented forward and he's left on the bench, after not playing at all in the last two games?  If Preki had made that choice he'd be getting all sorts of questions about why he can't get along with the talented players. 

After Mista came on in the second half, and towards the end when we were desperate and basically playing 6 upfront, why was Mista one of the few left back to defend.  I get that we had the tall defenders forward for the desperation long balls, but wasn't Mista supposed to be a targetman with a bit of skill?  Surely ideal for that purpose.

Jacob Peterson actually looked like a winger again.  Not a really good one, but he got in a few crosses and played quite wide, he definitely seems improved under Dasovic.  Having said that, in my opinion, after the season he's had and the thin ice he must already be on, that awful late miss put the definitive stamp on his flight out of town at the end of the season.

The north end elite did a good job with their silent protest and simple dollar signs banners.  Tom Anselmi and Paul Beirne were a lot less conspicuous than usual in that corner of the stadium.

Chad Barrett was probably our best player out there, he was all over the place, in a good way, getting on the end of long balls, and creating chances, really showed what we missed while he was injured.

De Rosario?  Didn't have a great game, but clearly gave it his all in his own way out there, and scored a great goal.  His "celebration" miming writing a cheque as a way of protesting that he feels underpaid was a bit crass and horribly timed though, given that he's the captain and we're 2-1 down in a crucial game.  Does he deserve more money?  He's got a very valid argument, and with the club looking to avoid negative publicity at season ticket renewal time, it's probably a very good time to be making that argument, but in the middle of the game?  Awful.

So now we need to win our last 4 games.  What are our chances?  The body language of our two best players at the final whistle will tell you all you need to know about that.

Boooooooooooo!

The general tone and theme of this blog, and my life as a sports fan, if there is one, while not exactly a celebration of sporting failure and bumbling incompetence, is certainly an indulgence and acceptance of it as the natural lot of the local team follower.

Maybe years from now I'll chuckle at the shitshow that was TFC's game against DC, and hold it up as some kind of badge of honour to show how I deserve whatever hypothetical success may arrive in the future.  Right now though, I'm not really feeling all that indulgent, after watching one of the worst performances I've ever seen, and believe me, I've seen a lot of bad games.

Where to start?  I guess with the result.  That must win and most winnable game against the worst team in the league I was talking about?  We lost 1-0, and we got lucky, 4-0 wouldn't have been a flattering result for DC.  It pretty much guarantees we'll miss the playoffs, but I'll leave some kind of season review for later and focus on just this game.

The line-up.  Maicon Santos starting up front?  Excellent, but with Mista?  He hasn't looked like a good forward all year, and he certainly didn't correct the impression today.  When he wasn't wasting half chances by dribbling into defenders rather than trying a quick shot, he was dropping deep, thus leaving Santos on his own, as well as getting in De Ro's way at the top of the midfield diamond, who'd have thought signing a DP striker would create our very own Gerrard/Lampard conundrum in midfield.  And who was on the sides of this midfield diamond, why noted dangerous wingers Martin Saric and Dan Gargan of course.  No offence to either of them, they're both good MLS level players in their own way, but they certainly don't suggest creativity, or a threat that DC had to take seriously thus opening up space for the central players.  In defence, I can only presume Ty Harden is injured, even though he was on the subs bench, as all of a sudden, there's Raivas Hscanovics at left back.

The game .   Aside from De Ro's early effort, a fantastic dribble through three defenders and shot from outside the box that hit the post, we were absolutely terrible, saved only by DC's ineptness in front of goal.  There's just too much that went wrong to even try and analyse it. 

The post game excuses.  Preki blamed tiredness and the schedule and the rigours of having to play at 4pm after an evening game on Wednesday.  There's probably an element of truth in that, but it's a feeble excuse.  The squad just isn't good enough, and if there's a silver lining right now it's that surely it's time for Mo Johnston's to go back to Scotland.  As for Preki, I've been on his side generally, thinking he was doing a good job until injuries and lack of depth killed our momentum, but there's been a few games where I thought he's got his line up and strategy all wrong, and this is another one to add to the list.  Should he go as well as Mo?  I still don't think I'm prepared to call for that, if only because I really don't want to blow things up completely, but I'm closer than I've ever been.

So what now?  Concentrate on the champions league?  I suppose, but we're already in trouble there, having blown a glorious opportunity to be in control of the group by taking Arabe Unido too lightly.  There's a very good chance that by the time we play Real Salt Lake at home, we'll still be stuck on 3 points while Cruz Azul and RSL have 9.  Not to worry though, Mo Johnston made clear in his pre-game interview that TFC feels merely qualifying for the group stage is mission accomplished as far as the CCL is concerned.

To sum up:  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Mmmmmmm cliches.

So, it's squeaky bum time, 7 games left, at least 4 wins, probably 5 wins needed to make the playoffs, and we're at home to the worst team in the league.  Games don't come more must winnish that this one.  They also don't come much more winnable.  If we don't win tomorrow, then we're not going to make the playoffs, if we can't win, then we really don't deserve to.

In his pre game interview Preki talks about the need for the midfield to step up and share the load offensively, saying they've only accounted for 2 goals all season.  While this is arguably true, if you don't consider De Rosario to have been playing in midfield at all this year, it's also a bit rich considering it's his tactics that have led to that stat, as well as the welcome reduction in goals against.  Hopefully this means he's ready to go with a more attacking formation to try and get some goals and put the game away early, then rest players for the midweek ccl game against Salt lake.

In fairness to Preki, he put out an attacking line-up against Chicago, unfortunately, it had Jacob Peterson up front, so was always unlikely to bear fruit.  With that in mind, I'd love to see Maicon Santos start the game.  If he's not fit enough for the whole game then take him off, but let's start with our strongest line-up rather than have to throw him on later if we're struggling.  With Chad Barrett probably still not fit enough, I'd keep O'Brian White in the team with him up front, as I feel he's been looking much better in the last couple of games, following up a hard working game against Dallas with more of the same against Chicago, and actually looking like a threat to score a couple of times.

The status of Mista remains a mystery, Preki saying he's been having trouble with his leg, but if he's fit, I'd like to see him in the centre of an attacking midfield trio with De Ro and LaBrocca, with De guzman as the holding midfielder.  If Mista isn't fit, then, for want of a better alternative, put Peterson on the wing with De Ro tucked in behind the strikers.

The defence is fairly straight forward, just replace the suspended Usanov with Gargan, and keep Harden at left back rather than Garcia.

4-1-3-2, it's risky but it's do or die time, balls to the wall, death or glory, win or bust, go big or go home, choose your cliche really.  I predict a 3-0 TFC win, with White and De Ro scoring early and shockingly, Peterson getting a third in the second half.

That's a mega juggling act!

It certainly was a mega juggling act by Chicago tonight, two handballs in the box, both accidental, sure, but both very clear and the sort of thing that regularly gets called.  Both penalties not given.  Not to cast aspersions on the ref or the Fire, they'd never get involved with this sort of thing, but can someone check the ref's bag on the wayout to see if Nery Castillo's shirt is in there.

Joking aside, this time I'd agree with Preki that we didn't get the breaks we deserved, I thought overall, even though the result was another 0-0 that leaves our playoff chances hanging by an even slimmer thread than before, we played well today, and played a well coached team to the best of our ability given the players at our disposal.

Given the extra quality Chicago have, with Freddie Ljungberg, Nery Castillo and Collins John all starting and Brian McBride on the bench, sitting back to absorb the pressure would have been suicidal, and thankfully we didn't do that.  We went with two up front with De Ro and De Guzman pushing up, and Usanov and Harden getting forward from both full back positions.  We'd also obviously been told to be aggresive and not let them play, as we quickly racked up the fouls.   That it came to nothing in the first half is down to the fact that the two we played up front, Peterson and White, is probably the most insipid forward line in MLS history, that and the non-penalties, but hey at least we were trying.

In the second half, we brought on Maicon Santos for Peterson and things immediately improved, with a bit of quality to go with the added numbers we were throwing forward, we looked a lot more fluid and dangerous up front, even if our best chances were still coming from set pieces.   He obviously wasn't fully fit though and soon faded, and when Garcia and Nane were brought on, it was obvious we were settling for the point.

So overall a good game for Preki the coach in my opinion and a much more entertaining game than we've seen recently, with Chicago also having their chances.

Now the fact that we had Peterson and White up front, is quite the damning indictment of Mo and Preki's personnel decisions, our squad just isn't good enough to withstand a few injuries, in contrast look at the forwards Chicago has as mentioned above, and you can add Guatemalan international Marco Pappa to that list who also scored a bunch of goals for them this year as well.

As for our DP, Mista wasn't playing, not even on the bench, it was mentioned that he took a knock, and I'm very eager to see what stories come out of the woodwork as far as this is concerned.

What's that Jim Mora, you want me to talk about playoffs?  Ok then.  Much like the black Knight we're not dead yet, but we're pretty much at the "I'll bite your legs off" stage. 




With 7 games left we need at least 4 wins and a draw, probably 5 games, and while it's a weak schedule so it's just about plausible, I can't see Santos and Barrett coming back quickly enough to enable us to do it.  I await the North End Elite's banner selection for the DC game on saturday with baited breath.

Losing. So nice we did it twice! part two.

So after the Canada game, I headed to Shoeless Joe's to watch TFC vs Dallas with little expectation of a result given we were missing 5 of our best players to injury and international call-ups (despite being announced in the starting line up, Attakora didn't even play due to "an error on the paper"  thanks Stephen Hart).  The game went pretty much as I would have predicted really, we were generally solid defensively, and stopped them from doing much, but we never really looked like doing something ourselves.  While we did create a few chances, they were generally from set pieces or Dan Gargan's long throws.  The few chances we created out of open play fell to either O'Brian White or Jacob Peterson and were unsuprisingly wasted.  On the other hand, Dallas didn't really create many chances until late in the game when we were pressing more, but one of the few chances they got fell to (an offside) Jeff Cunningham, who despite his many faults, and despite the impression he gave when with TFC, does know how to score.

In his post game interview, Preki bemoaned our bad luck and that the ball didn't bounce for us, which to me is ridiculous.  Cunningham scoring a chance and White missing multiple chances isn't bad luck, that's something that's going to happen 9 games out of 10, it would be good luck if the reverse happened.  This was all about our strength in depth, with De Ro, Barrett and Santos missing, we don't have a real scoring threat who'd be able to make something out of nothing, which is what we need to be able to score within the confines of Preki's defensive system.

White actually had one of his better games recently, pressuring their defence and goalie into the odd mistake, and getting a few chances, but he just doesn't look likely to score, and he looks like he knows that.  The best example of this isn't with his easiest chance, the header from Usanov's great tackle run and cross, but a half chance shortly after Cunningham scored, he got the ball on the edge of the area with a couple of yards of space.   Did he let fly with a hard shot on goal to at least force a save?  Nope.  Did he cut in towards goal to get a better angle, or maybe draw contact to win a penalty?  Nope.  He went further wide, and slowed down enough for the defender to catch him and the chance was gone.  That was really symptomatic of his play recently when he gets the ball near goal and has a chance.  There's no sense of urgency or dynamism, he just seems so timid and unsure of himself, which means he can hustle and run as much as he likes, but he really isn't doing his job.

You could ackowledge the "bad luck" that led us to the point where we have to have White out there as our main striker - injuries to Barrett and Santos coming at the same time as De Ro getting called up for Canada.  But a) every team has to deal with that sort of thing at some point, and b) Preki knew all along that that was the case for this game.  You can't call something that you've had a week to prepare for bad luck, it's your job Preki to come up with a plan that works with what you have.  A defensive system can work well with players out, even missing Attakora and De Guzman, we looked solid, which is a testament to the discipline and focus on defence that Preki has brought.  But if the only players who can create something within that system aren't playing, then you have to change things around, which Preki didn't do, a starting midfield of Nane, Labrocca, Saric and Gargan really isn't going to create much.

Mista had a nice touch here or there but was generally anonymous.  Without other quality players causing problems for the defence to give him room to create, he's easily stifled, he doesn't have the power or pace to create things for himself, and for the money he's being paid he should be able to do that.

All in all, we got what we played for, we went to play a team on a roll, away from home, and we only conceded one goal, that's a good result.  But to suggest it's only bad luck and bad bounces that stopped us from scoring is just a cop-out on Preki's behalf.  Those players playing that sytem were always going to struggle, it's a coach's job to give them a chance, not to blame bad luck.