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.

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.

A really good year for TFC.

My usual cynicism and pessimism will soon return, but buoyed by a 2 game winning streak to end the season, and in the spirit of reconciliation, with MLSE playing nice, I'm going for a positive season review, so here we go, the 8 reasons why this was the best year yet for TFC.

1. We won the home opener.  The home opener is always a special day in it's own right.  The end to 5 months or so of not going to games, the chance to hold aloft a new scarf, try the new food options (mmmm, poutine) meet up with old friends, or check out the view from your new seats, and just get back into whatever your matchday routine and way of supporting the club is.  The anticipatory buzz around the ground, the optimism not yet beaten out of the crowd, an enthusiastic singing of the anthem even in the prawny sections.  For the second straight year we got an expansion side to kick things off, but whereas last years game against Seattle was a real downer, this year we won.  OK, we didn't play all that well, and were lucky to be gifted both our goals, but what the hell.  The home opener, a win, excellent stuff.

2.  We won our first 5 home games.  Though the weather was terrible pretty much every game, we kept building on that feel good first win, making it into June before we even drew a game at home.  The peak of this run was the 4-1 win over Chicago.  Heavy winds and intermittent rain provided a trial for the real supporters to get through and led to a freak opener from Nick Labrocca, and a Jersey Shore celebration (how together the team seemed, how much fun they appeared to be having).  The second half saw Chad Barrett score twice against his old club, and even O'Brian White scored, though he nearly messed up an almost impossible to mess up chance. The combination of the weather and the result launched the brief "shirts off" phenomenom, for better or worse.

3.  We won the Voyageurs cup with the minimum of fuss.  This time there was no Miracle needed, we beat Montreal twice and drew in Vancouver, and that was enough for the cup to be clinched before we even played the last game.  That led to a pressure free game with academy kids playing and supporters able to celebrate throughout the game, with no need to worry about the result.  A trophy presented at home for the first time, players diving into the corners to celebrate, good times.

4.  We had a 2 month unbeaten streak.  Between May 1st and July 17th, we went 11 games without a loss in all competitions, including away wins at San Jose and Montreal, and important away draws at LA and Vancouver.  At the end of this stretch, even Fuad Ibrahim scored, to give us a 1-0 win over Colorado.

5.  We beat Motagua over two legs.  The first game, we played really well but only got a 1-0 win to show for it, so we would have a hard time to defend that.  Yeah, Motagua were only just out of pre season, but a Canadian side went to Honduras needing a result, went down early, but still got it, Dwayne De Rosario and Barrett with the goals, both set up by an excellent Maicon Santos.  I watched this game at Shoeless Joe's and the Red Patch Boys "qualifiers! qualifiers! ole, ole, ole!" chant was as inspired as it was emotional.

6.  We went 14 games unbeaten at home to start the year.  Our away form was nothing special again, but BMO Field really was a fortress, 21 goals scored and only 6 conceded giving us a record of 9 wins and 5 draws in those first 14 games.

7.  We beat Cruz Azul over two legs.  The game at home is probably my favourite TFC game so far, an early goal, 2-0 before half time and then defending comfortably before letting in a goal from a very good free kick that was too late to cause real worry.  Again, we beat Cruz A-fricking-zul, in a game that counted.  The second leg, after the firing of Preki but with Champions League progress still a real possibility was an excellent backs to the wall performance, grinding out a 0-0 that never really felt in danger.

8.  We've got some good academy kids.  Doneil Henry was the first player to be signed to the big club from the academy, Ashtone Morgan put in a great performance against Arabe Unido, but the real find was Nicholas Lindsay.  Signed to the first team late in the season, he put together a series of good games that suggest we might finally have ourselves a dangerous winger.

So there you go, without even having to resort to " there's hope for the future under a new regime" or "at least things got bad enough that they finally got rid of Mo" there's a lot of things that happened on the pitch that, despite the way the season unravelled, made 2010 a very enjoyable year.

Chad Barrett MVP. Seriously.

If you've read some of my other posts, especially this one you'll know I feel Preki was fired very harshly, and that we were doing ok until injuries hit, especially to Chad Barrett.  After seeing us win in his first game starting since he got injured, my curiosity was further piqued, so I decided to check out the stats for this season (and they say bloggers don't do research, ha!).

Here's TFC's record in games which Chad Barrett started, in all competitions, excluding the useless Bolton friendly.  Won 9, Lost 4, Tied 5.  In games he didn't start?  3-8-5.

Add in his substitute appearances and the trend is even more pronounced, 11-6-7 when he plays at least part of the game, and 1-6-3 when he doesn't.

So translate that into 3 points for a win, and TFC with Barrett has 40 points in 24 games, which would be a 50 point season, which even the most ardent Preki-hater would have to accept as a bloody good one.

Without Barrett, 6 points in 10 games, or 18 points over 30 games.

Now I'm not about to suggest Barrett is as talented a player as Dwayne De Rosario, or that this sort of results would translate to another side, or a new style of play under Nick Dasovic, but it seems pretty clear that he was the crucial part of the team that made TFC under Preki work.  As well as his vastly improved goal scoring record, his impact is a very important indirect one, causing problems for the defence that allows others like De Rosario more room to do their own thing.  It's no co-incidence that the goals also dried up for De Ro, and everyone else, when O'Brien White was the main striker for the defence to contend with.

Best player? No.  Most valuable?  Absolutely.

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.

Please, please, please, let me get what I want.

“We will see how Maicon is doing tomorrow,” said Toronto coach Preki. He has trained today and looked o.k. but he hasn’t played for quite some time. If he plays against Chicago we will have to limit his minutes because he is not at his full speed and we don’t want to take any risks.”

The above quote, from Luke Wileman on the tfc website fills me with pessimism for tonight's must win game against Chicago, meaning as it does that O'Brian White will once again be leading the line, a job that right now he really isn't cut out for given the lack of support Preki's favoured formations and system will give him.

In the last month, since Maicon Santos was injured against Chivas followed by Chad Barrett's injury against New York, we've still been playing the same formation, with the hard work and discipline that Preki stresses, and in a way it's worked well.  Aside from that crazy game against New York when a whole bunch of irregular things happened and we lost 4-1, we've been very good defensively, letting in only 1 against New York, Cruz Azul, Arabe Unido and Dallas, and keeping a clean sheet against Salt Lake.

At the other end however it's a different story, in those games, we've scored 0 against New York, an unexpected 2 against Cruz Azul, 1 against New York, 0 against Arabe Unido, 0 against Salt Lake, and 0 against Dallas.  Given those stats, unless we change our approach, I'd suggest 1-0 Chicago is a likely result.  If TFC has good luck and gets a few bounces, then maybe we'll get a tie, or an outrageous 2-1 win.  Following Preki's complaining about bad luck after the Dallas game, I'm beginning to think that's what he's playing for, keep it tight and hope something happens.  And who knows, maybe we are due some luck, but I'd rather we weren't relying on it as our main hope.

Personally, as our defence and Frei in goal have proven themselves to be reliable, I'd go for something more attcking.  Play Gargan at RB rather than the more, erm, mercurial Maxim Usanov to solidify it as much as possible, if Harden's comfortable at LB, he can replace Garcia as his reward for a couple of good performances while Nana was out, then let the midfield be much more attacking than usual to help the forwards out and maybe we'll score some goals.  Have Joseph Nane as a dm, then let De Guzman, De Ro and Mista play as fairly free roving attacking midfielders supporting White and Ibrahim up front.

It's maybe a bit on the reckless side, and therefore not something Preki would be likely to do, but I'd rather take it to them and try and score some goals, and potentially lose 3-2 rather than sit back, before they inevitably score and we never ever look like equalising, I've had too many of those matches recently.

And oh, White, if you get the ball in space in the box, for god's sake SHOOT!

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.