THEY LOST....

Against the worst team in the MLS. New York Shit Bulls pummeled TFC 5-0. The Fan590 Blog summed it up pretty good calling it the "Manhattan Meltdown" I like it, very fitting. The Globe and Mail calling it "Canada's Soccer Shame" also very fitting.

I truly thought I would see the team give there best effort. Instead I watched a team of individuals showcase there talent. I think some of them are unsure of the future they hold with the team and do not understand they need to play as a team to stay on it!... What a mess. Hopefully next season will not be as glum.

I wish Chris Cummins the best for the future. Looks like he will be out of Toronto when the dust settles. He is claiming that TFC reneged on some of the promises they made when he first took over for quitter Carver. "There were things promised me" when they first came over that were never fulfilled.

Anyways I will try me hardest to keep up to date with the MLS playoffs as clearly TFC is not in them. Below is a chart with the playoff teams. I will try to make a Bracket with dates and stuff if I have time ( I doubt it).




I guess from here on out it is all Celtic, Arsenal, and Republic Of Ireland news! The Occasional TFC off season update and MLS cup action minus..

cheers

Edwards Back In...

This weekend TFC have a very important match against Real Salt Lake. They need to win to keep the play-off drive alive.

A lot of tough decisions will need to be made by the Interim manager Chris Cummins. Goal-keeper Stefan Frei is still out with finger injury. Edwards will make his second straight start.

Defender Marvell Wynne returned to training yesterday after suffering from a thigh injury. Cummins choice here will probably be to yank Garcia and take a chance on Wynne. Frankly if I was on the team I would probably kick Garcia in the thigh and make Cummins decision a little easier. Wynne would be in for sure then.

Amado Guevara is back from international duty after helping Honduras secure a spot in the World Cup. Now hopefully Cummins feels the man is match fit (I mean he was playing when he was gone) and puts him into the line-up. Our squad looks a lot better with DeRo, Guevara, DeGuzman, and (hate to say it) Cronin in the midfield.

I think the last big decision that Cummins needs to make before the weekend is which motivational speaker to bring in and talk to the team. Tony Robbins is a no brainer! This team needs to learn NOW! how to hold onto the lead.

A hypnotist might not be a bad Idea either.

Weekend match VS. SanJose

I was at the game on the weekend, the atmosphere going in was not that great. You can feel it in the air no one on the team believes they will make the playoffs. I am sure of this. If you watch these guys play there are only a few men on the team that play with any sort of urgency. Dero clearly wants to prove that this team belongs in the playoffs. Nana Attakora has an undying love of solid play. Aside from that everyone else is a one man team out for personal stats or acceptance.

I liked the play of Lesley Felinga, he handled the ball well and looked like he belonged. It is to bad they waited so long to start this guy. You can not expect a guy to gel with the team so late in the season.

Barrett looked like Barrett. I truly believe we should keep this guy he is still a young fella and maybe with better coaching he will provide us with some exciting play in seasons to come. This season was way to unstable for any players playing up front. No rhythm was set because of the coaching staffs inability to show confidence in any of the strikers up front.

I found Cummins said something interesting about his limited substitute options. He talked about not having "a defensive midfielder on the bench." But wasn't Amadou Sanyang there? And didn't the young Gambian make three starts at defensive midfielder just a few weeks ago, with reasonable effectiveness by most accounts?

The nice thing about the weekend is that New England lost against Columbus so that still gives us playoff hopes. The Revolution in the last 2 games need to beat Columbus and Chicago. 2 teams that they definitely will struggle with.

Let the playoff PRAYERS continue!

Here's the highlights of the game.

I still dis-like Cummins

It has been awhile since I have had anything to post here. So lets try to bang this out in order.

First the Game on the weekend with the attendance at 32,679 it was the largest crowd Toronto has played in front of all season. Given that 0-0 is a shit result. The game was embarrassing as usual coach Cummins never fails to display his incompetence when it comes to running this team. Toronto FC displayed a relentless attack in the first half as Seattle struggled to control the ball. Dwayne DeRosario missed a wide open net in the first half, Guevara dinged one off the crossbar and Chad Barrett lost his concentration as he made an incredible dive to try and head the ball in. Sanyang in my opinion was the star of the game, he managed to torment midfielder Freddie Ljungberg all game long . Freddie Ljungberg received a yellow card in the 73rd minute for unsporting behavior and arguing with the referee when he came racing across the field to engage in a scuffle that was ignited after a hard tackle by defender Jhon Kennedy Hurtado on Dwayne DeRosario. The booking is Ljungberg’s fifth, meaning he is suspended for the next league match. Seattle really had the best chances to win the game in the second half as it looked like TFC shot everything they had in the first half. After the break it looked as if there were entirely 2 different teams out on the pitch. Seattle was dominant with the ball and made some strong offensive pushes. When Barrett was subbed out for Gerba in the second half he was clearly pissed at coach Cummins. If my lip reading skills are as good as I think they are, Chad was questioning the coach while walking off the pitch. He was the only TFC substitution of the match. after leaving Danny at home vs. Chivas I guess because of public backlash the club felt compelled to fly Dichio to the west coast game and nail his ass to the bench. We still haven’t had a look at Lesley Felinga. Looks like things are still shitty in the TFC locker room.

I am a terrible writer.

Second thing I would like to address is the Red Patch Boys have decided to make a strong push to make Danny’s last 3 games of the season as comfortable as possible. The September 12th home game vs. Colorado will be the beginning of it. Here is a quote from the Red Patch website

“We will use the last few home games of the season to draw support from all areas. This campaign will be topped off at the end of the season by marking October 17th Danny Dichio Day.That is also the game that the south end supporter groups will unveil the Year end banner!!! On September 12 please be sure to support the Terry Fox foundation where some members will shave their heads in support of the Terry Fox Foundation.Be sure to support the year end banner by donating in person or by buying a very limited Danny Dichio t-shirt. The shirt will cost $10 and $5 will cover the production and $5 will cover the end of year banner. There will be a special Raffle on September 12th to raise funds for the year end banner at Shoeless Joe's after the game. More info will be provided here. Also, be sure to check the boards as we will have special pub nights set up so that members can get together and finally put that face to the board name. We will have special prizes and raffles as the dates draw closer.”

I think that this is a great idea. Danny Dichio is a great ambassador for the game in Toronto.

I lost my train of thought work has interrupted me. Anyways I am very much looking forward to the Celtic match on Wednesday at BMO field Vs. Benfica. WOOO hOOOOO

Is Cummins or Goings

It feels like we have offensive power but there is no way to harness the power. What is the Deal with Coach Cummins? I think it is way to late in the season to make a coaching change unless we get eliminated mathematically from the playoffs. On the Red Patch Boys website a lot of the talk in the forums is to chase after any MLS assistant coach Paul Mariner being the funniest looking one. I do not buy into this strategy. If Toronto have to start looking for a new coach I think they should try something like stealing a successful coach from another team OR try using a coach from another league with experience on a winning team.


I guess I should mention a little about the shitty game played over the weekend. First they LOST! 2-0 to Chivas and NO Jesús was not the deciding factor in the defeat. In fact it was the bum Sacha Kljestan. Ya that’s right Sacha! If you travel to Chivas website you will see that Sacha only has 2 goals this season, and yes they were against us on Saturday. What a bummer. For the life I me I could not understand why Coach Cummins screws with our line-up so much. Danny Dichio apparently did not make the trip because he has a mysterious injury that does not allow him to fly to the west coast. Sanyang came on late in the game at the 79 minute mark. Gerba came on to replace Amado at the 53 minute mark not sure why. Amado is very good at controlling the ball so without him on the field how on earth would Gerba ever expect to get the ball fed to him? Putting Barrett out to start the second half and taking O’Brian White out well that is understandable. Apparently O’Brian white had some work permit problems at the border the day before and spent a lot more time travelling to L.A. then the rest of the team. I would love to know what happened to Lesley Felinga I figured we would get to see him a little. In a game that spiralled out of control pretty quick why not play him? Argh… I guess this just brings me around to my original thoughts. Lets FIRE the COACH!!!

Toronto FC... Limp

As Travis stated earlier..Toronto FC managed to knock themselves out of Concacaf Champions League play last night. The Puerto Rican Islanders keeper Bill Gaudette looked stellar last night as he faced wave after wave after wave of useless attempts on goal from outside the box. Toronto sent everything they had but just like an impotent old man they were unable to rise to the occasion. I do not understand why they would not play Marco Velez against his former team. That should have been a no-brainer. I would be the first to jump on the get Velez out of town band wagon but this guy used to play for PRI! He has something to prove put him out there and let him prove it! I have no idea why Cronin showed up for the game he was shit and if he’s not going to play then don’t waste the money on a plane ticket. We needed goals last night and by the time Coach Cummins realized it was to late. The team pounded in shot after seemed like everyone was trying to win the game from a distance. Some of those shots had a real chance. Gerba had a nice attempt on a free-kick; DeRo had a nice strike that was deflected over the bar. Vitti had some nice headers. The Ref was totally useless making some horrific calls and non calls last night. If you looked at PRI’s Delgado the wrong way last night he was going down and getting the call. There were fouls called in the game were no contact was made at all with that guy. Vitti was tripped up in the box by the keeper and there was no call and Gerba was molested in the box and there was a no call. ARGH!!.. I guess best not harp on this loss to long really this team was not going to go very far anyways even if they did make it past PRI.

TFC vs. New England Revolution... tonight

Today is an almost soccer filled day for me as I am watching Arsenal play Athletico Madrid for the Emirates cup (on GOL TV) this morning. Tonight TFC faces off against the New England Revolution (the Rev’s). I am almost at a lose for words when it comes to TFC now. Do I want them to put out there best line-up tonight. YES. But will that mean we are going to get ousted from Champions league on Tuesday against PRI? I hope not. It would be nice if our man MO would give us some depth that we desperately need. If Amado is not at 100% I do not think we have a chance in either game. It clearly looks to me that Serioux is Seriouxly injured right now and probably needs a bit of a break. He looks a little ginger walking on and off the field before and after games.

Chris Cummins commented on the game tonight “I don’t think it’s a must-win, but I do think it’s a game that we can’t lose, just to keep that distance between us, By all means we’d love to go there and get the three points but if we go there and get a point, we can build on that. What we can’t do is go in there gung-ho, and go all-out attacking and lose the game. It’s important we come away with something — even if it’s a point, it gives us a bit of confidence going into the next game.”

I’d say every game is crucial especially when there is no sign of any help on the way to the team. They are looking pretty desperate right now. With a game tonight against the REV’s, then Tuesday against PRI, then Friday against Real Madrid, and just coming off the midweek lose to PRI. Can’t wait to see Ibrahim back in the line-up at least he shows promise.