Thursday June 2nd 2011

Thursday June 2nd 2011

 

Afternoon Links

 

National Post - Toronto FC head coach Aron Winter needs to banish haughty talk of rebuilding and patience and replace it all with the truth:

 

Toronto Sun - Canada came away with a lucky 2-2 draw vs. Ecuador at BMO Field on Wednesday night

 

MLS - 50/50 Gordon may play; The Toronto FC forward, who has been out with a groin injury, trained with the team on Tuesday at Cherry Beach.

 

The Canadian Press - Adrian Cann will miss the remainder of Toronto FC's season after the defender suffered a knee injury during training Tuesday. "I can confirm that Adrian has torn his ACL and will miss the rest of the season," said Toronto FC Head Coach

 

Pirès thinks Philly is a shitty town

Robert Pirès thinks Philly is a shitty place to live. That is AWESOME! He wont play on Philly cause it's not nice. He would rather live in a nice place like Henry in New York. WOW. So I wonder how Toronto holds up? I wonder what cities meet his standards other than New York? maybe San Jose, Seattle, and L.A.

Anyways I read the following at the MLS website.

NEW YORK – Former French World Cup winner Robert Pirès, who was being pursued by the Philadelphia Union as a Designated Player, has come out publicly and stated that he will not be joining the MLS expansion club because the city’s not nice enough.
“[Philadelphia] is not very appealing to me,” the Frenchman told L’Equipe. “I don’t want to be difficult, but if I’m leaving to take my family far away, I prefer that it’s in a beautiful city.”
Making the matter worse for Philly fans is what Pirès had to say about the arrival of Thierry Henry in New York with the Red Bulls.
“I hope for him that he can go out there,” Pirès said of his former Arsenal teammate. “Now that’s a beautiful city.”
The 36-year-old told the French sports daily that he now waiting for other proposals and, if he does not receive any, he’s content to hang his boots. His preference, however, would be to take on one more challenge, possibly with a club in France.
Spanish club Villarreal decided not to renew his contract after the 2009-2010 European season although Pirès says that he would have wanted to stay.

BMO tightened security

This is from a post on the RPB website it was posted by someone in the TFC front office:

It was only a matter of time until we saw this coming. I want you to know that this is due to some people in the southwest corner who cannot keep their heads during a game. South east and north west corners generally get it. The display at the beginning of the Montreal game was great and will still be allowed.

But as a result of the numpty at the Seattle game (and previous pattern of stuff getting tossed) our staff at BMO Field will be instructed to have zero tolerance for items being thrown during the game to impact play. Mainly this is corner kicks but any other time in-game or at players as well.

Goal celebrations, kick-off displays are still cool.

here's the official word:
OBJECTS THROWN ONTO THE FIELD
From today’s game forward, there will be tightened security with regards to objects being thrown onto the pitch at BMO Field. Unfortunately, a bottle was thrown at one of the opposing players during our home match against Seattle Sounders and stadium officials will be strictly enforcing a policy that anyone seen throwing an object onto the pitch will be ejected from the stadium (streamers can still be thrown in celebration as long as they don’t impact the play). We want to keep the great atmosphere at BMO Field but also need to ensure the safety of other supporters and players during matches.

 Its pretty self explanatory. I guess it was only a matter of time before some jack ass ruins the fun for everyone else. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

Here is the Seattle "incident"

Philly keeper Chris Seitz

 Just to prove my point a little bit further about the Philly keeper Chris Seitz. I searched a wee bit on the Google. I came up with this little diddy its really only a week old the game was played on April the 10th against DC United. At the 18 second mark I am sure the broadcaster is saying " He is so crafty" referring to Moreno but I am sure he meant to say "He is so Crappy" referring to Seitz. TFC should have taken this fella for more then 2 goals.

Montreal in the MLS?

Doesn't it feel like every few months they are announcing a new team to the MLS? I kinda have been ignoring the stories about Montreal being the next team in but I don't have a lot to post so here it goes..

Montreal Impact are poised to become Major League Soccer's 19th team.

MLS commissioner Don Garber held meetings with the club’s president Joey Saputo, Quebec Minister of Finance Raymond Bachand and Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay to discuss the Impact joining the league.

"We are very happy with the visit of the MLS executives in Montreal,” Saputo said in a statement.

He said the meetings on Wednesday with Minister Bachand and Mayor Tremblay were “very positive”. “It's clear for us, and now more than ever, that the arrival of MLS in Montreal is only a question of time. We are hoping to have news in the first quarter of 2010.”

thats from World football insider and can probably be found all over the place cause the story is all over the place including here. now.

Will Edwards Start Again?

I know I did not write about it, by now you must know that Jim Brennan scored the goal that won us the game on the weekend. TFC took down Real Salt Lake despite poor officiating. Actually check that. Beyond poor, truly atrocious! The real hero of the game had to be Brian Edwards.

The team overall looked good, but I truly believe Brian Edwards was the decisive man in the line-up. Edwards posted his first shutout of the season and his 3rd in his MLS career. Without him Toronto would not have won that game.

So I guess going into the weekend the big question will be who plays in goal this weekend. Stefan Frei is a great goal-tender but Brian Edwards owns this team right now. In my opinion Edwards should be the man in front of the mesh against the Red Bulls this Saturday.

TFC is currently sitting in a playoff spot due to some weird and funky tie-breaking rule. A win will help this weekend but they may also need a prayer.

Frei please stay injured.

GRASS!!

PRESS RELEASE

Oct. 9, 2009

Plan to increase access to soccer facilities, lay grass at BMO Field get final approvals

Toronto Mayor David Miller today announced that with Provincial and Federal government approvals now in place, a plan by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment to increase public access to year-round soccer facilities and install grass at BMO Field can proceed.

"The agreement of our government partners means tremendous things for soccer at both the community and professional levels," Mayor Miller said. "Since BMO Field (Canada's National Soccer Stadium) was built with public money from all three orders of government, their support was necessary to allow this plan to proceed. I want to thank Federal Infrastructure Minister John Baird and Provincial Health Promotion Minister Margarett Best for recognizing this tremendous opportunity and working with the City and MLSE to make it happen.

"This is a terrific example of the public and private sectors working together to build our city and the sport of soccer and also means good things for the community and for the players on Toronto FC and all our National teams."

With the final government approvals - including a unanimous Sept. 30 City Council decision - and the required building permits now secured, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment will invest $5.5 million and manage the work required to advance the sport in Toronto including investments of:

• $3.5 million to replace the Field Turf at BMO Field with a natural grass field.

• $2.0 million investment in community sports facilities; including an estimated $1.2 million to upgrade Allan Lamport Stadium with a winter bubble and an $800,000 investment in another artificial turf soccer field in the city.

"Converting BMO Field into a natural grass surface will have tremendous benefits for our community, our city, Toronto FC and soccer in Canada," said Bob Hunter, executive vice-president of venues and entertainment for Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. "BMO Field's natural grass surface will support growing and developing soccer at amateur, national and professional levels, by creating greater levels of access and opportunity. It will also help attract high-profile soccer events to our stadium, creating a positive economic impact for our city."

Hunter added "There are so many people to thank for their support and approval of this positive initiative including represents from all three levels of government and especially Mayor David Miller and Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone."

The upgrades to these three facilities will result in more than 2,500 more hours available for community sport use and have met with support from the Canadian and Ontario soccer associations as well as residents and businesses near Lamport Stadium in Liberty Village.

It is expected that the bubble will be installed at Lamport by the end of November with work to install grass at BMO Field taking place this fall with completion next spring in time for the start of Major League Soccer's 2010 regular season.

Pat Phelan

Here is a little summary of some stuff I read on the interweb today

New England picked up Pat Phelan from Toronto FC in June 2008 in exchange for an international roster spot.

Pat this season has 18 games played 11 started and 953 minutes. New England now has to lean on him a little as Shalrie Joseph is out with an injury.

"I got drafted out of Wake to Toronto and never played a game, never got a shot with the first team," said Phelan. "Fair enough, that’s what happens a lot of times if you’re a rookie, you’ve got to pay your dues. They needed the international roster spot, they needed to bolster their roster."

"When I first heard about the trade I thought they just thought I was an unhappy kid who just wanted to go home," said Phelan, (this Blogger believed that to be just the case) "which wasn’t the case at all, but it’s nice to be close to home – my parents are close, my wife’s here. I’m a local kid and think New England might have drafted me had I been available, so it worked out well for both parties. I was also playing center back there which I didn’t really want to, so I was really excited to jump at the chance to come down here and start contributing. Fortunately, I’ve been able to stay within the top 15 players."

"There’s really no way to replicate the way Shalrie plays," said Phelan, "and that's usually when I’m in there - when he’s playing forward or suspended."

"I’ve got to wear this cast till about the middle of December, three months - it’s a long time and pretty obnoxious. I ran into the boards and lost my footing on the asphalt and landed on my wrist with all my weight and broke my scaphoid, which is an area that doesn’t get a lot of blood flow which is why it takes so long to heal. Instead of opting for surgery and missing a couple weeks I’m just going to wait it out in a cast."

It's nice to see Pat did not have anything negative to say about Toronto and he is doing well in the MLS for a second year player. His success says something about our scouting but not a whole lot about our General Manager.

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 manages to Draw New England

In Foxborough last night TFC squeaked out a draw. DeRosario gave the team the lead in the 34 minute of the game netting his 8^th MLS goal of the season. Chad Barrett was sent off the pitch with his second yellow card in the 50^th minute of the game leaving TFC a man short for the rest of the game. The Gambian kids were subbed on in the 2^nd half and I got to say... wow I was impressed. I take back all the bad things I have ever said about them. Can’t wait to see them play more. Looks like Serioux will be out on Tuesday vs PRI he looked like he re-aggravated his injury. Also DeRo looked like he may have suffered an injury against the revs as well. What’s the deal in New England the stadium looked empty! Well it’s the long weekend so im not going to write much more.

Thought maybe I would comment on Arsenal briefly. Arshavin had one of the nicest goals I have ever watched against Athletico Madrid. This morning Arsenal vs. Rangers. Andrei continues to impress and Wilshere (the kid) looks like he could be a starter for the team… or maybe that’s just pre-season play getting the best of me. J

Canadian soccer needs a boost

Nigel Reed wrote a nice Blog post yesterday bringing back memories of the 93 Maple Leafs and 92,93 Blue Jays. Back in the days when "Toronto" was a bad word but people across the country were able to get behind the team. He believes that All Canadians should get behind TFC in there Concacaf Campaign. you can check out the blog HERE!

This Blog gives fans more reason to get behind the country.. Looking forward to the weekend when TFC will face the REVs in New England Pat Decola writes on his Blog the following " Why Canada was even given a soccer team, I don’t think I’ll ever understand. Regardless, it’s a big match. " you can read the blog here but its really not worth it.

Claudio Lopez 60 Yards Goal - LA Galaxy vs Kansas City Wizards

Nice Goal on you tube.. Claudio Lopez 60 Yards Goal - LA Galaxy vs Kansas City Wizards..
Beckham had one as well against Kansas last season... 70 Yards out

Gerba playing like Barrett

I read this story this morning on the CBC Website Toronto FC falls to River Plate in friendly .

I found it a little frustrating. Using the terms "Talk about the Christians being thrown to the lions" and " Buenos Aires powerhouse " I think are used very loosely. River Plate the 33-time champions of Argentina finished dead last in Primera División Argentina 2008–09. They Mustered up a beautiful 2 wins in the season. I think the Article should have been on the FACT that Gerba missed golden opportunities last night looking a lot like Chad Barrett. We may have a TFC striker jinx in the making. Looking at past strikers that have played the position for the Red's, Cunningham, Samuel, Eskandarian, now Barrett, and Vitti.. I think the team needs to do some serious research in shaking jinx. Otherwise Gerba could be the next in a long list of strikers to follow in those footsteps.

MLS POWER RANKINGS

Toronto FC drops to 8th in the MLS power rankings this week as L.A. (Beckham's) Galaxy rises to 5th. The 2 teams were tied in last week's rankings. So what happened well.. TFC tied an undermanned Houston team in Toronto. That should not really make a difference though because TFC essentially is missing key players according to MLSE management. Gerba and O'Brian White were both missing for that game. If you watched the game at home or in Toronto you would have noticed Toronto way outplayed the Dynamo. In my opinion the rankings people just do not like to have ties. No teams really moved up very much other than L.A. and don't tell me they moved up because Beckham came back. Anyways if you want to check out the rankings click HERE!

River Plate Invades Toronto

In 2007 Toronto FC announced that they will play Benfica and Aston Villa in friendlies. In 2008 Toronto FC announced two international friendlies to be played against Pachuca of Mexico and Independiente of Argentina.

This year

TFC has brought River Plate of Argentina that just suffered a BRUTAL season. Thanks MLSE for putting together some top flight entertainment! River Plate is scheduled to play Toronto FC in an exhibition game on Tonight! at BMO Field. Then they travel back to Edmonton to face English Premier side Everton in an exhibition match on July 25 at Commonwealth Stadium.
They'll stay in Edmonton and hold their training camp at Millennium Place in Sherwood Park.
Originally, River Plate was going to hold their training camp in Montreal.
They will go to Montreal for an Aug. 3 game against the Impact the following day and make their way back to Buenos Aires from there. Originally River was slated for a 3 game tour of Canada they were supposed to play Italy's Juventus. BUT Juventus Kicked River in the nuts and now they have to play the Montreal Impact.

From What I can gather River Plate sucked the Big one last season which would explain why they are playing TFC in a friendly. Just like Independiente from last season MLSE brings us more cellar dwellers.

I am really not sure how I feel about all these "Friendlies". There is nothing to be gained other than to see how Gerba, White, and Edwards may play against "top level opposition". Possibly scout River Plate to see if they have any garbage players they would like to dump on us in some sort of loan deal. Friendlies should not be played in the middle of the season the whole world has them in the off season to avoid injuries and to prep players for a new season. Yesterday I was way stoked about the match today not so much. Possibly cause its going to rain but realistically cause the match does not mean a whole lot.

That's a whole lot of nothing from me for today. maybe tomorrow I will be more creative especially after the game has been played..