Busy day in Winter's wonderland

When Toronto FC announced that they had signed Frings and Koevermans it was made clear that these two signings were just the beginning of the moves that we could expect from the club during the summer transfer window.  Today all that promise of activity came to life as the trade activity kicked off.  The first deal of the day saw TFC picking up Canadian midfielder Terry Dunfield from rival club Vancouver Whitecaps.  This deal saw Toronto sending allocation money and future considerations in exchange for the player.  The second move of the day was a big deal with the San Jose earthquakes that saw Toronto landing Jamaican international Ryan Johnson in exchange for Alan Gordon, Nana Attakora, and Jacob Peterson.

The first move to bring in Dunfield does two, or maybe even three, important things for Toronto FC.  Dunfield gives Toronto more depth in the centre of the midfield as the Canadian international is capable of slotting in to a number of different roles in the centre of the pitch.  Having cost Toronto very little this move seems to be a good piece of business.  The issue will be that Dunfield has shown all kinds of heart for Vancouver but often that covered up a number of shortcomings in his play.  He has often been at fault for turning the ball over and wasting chances.  Toronto will be hoping that he can thrive in a new city that will see him no longer playing in front of his own family and friends so often.  Dunfield will likely end up playing in the midfield in front of Frings or De Guzman which will give him freedom to help out the attack.

The second move of the day is by far the bigger one and the more important one.  While landing Dunfield helps the midfield bringing in Ryan Johnson gives an even bigger boost to the teams attack.  He will now be able to partner Koevermans in the attack in what shapes up to be a potentially lethal pairing.  Johnson is now 26 years old and had made 99 appearances for San Jose since joining the club back in 2008 as well as having made 13 international appearances for Jamaica.  Johnson was a part of the Jamaica side at this summers Gold Cup where he scored a pair of goals.  He gives TFC another proven attacker and hopefully he will be able to spend more time fit and in the lineup then Gordon did.  Speaking of Gordon he was one of the players that went the other way in this trade.  Along with Alan Gordon TFC gave up Nana Attakora and Jacob Peterson which to some might seem like a bit of a steep price to pay.  The fact of the matter is that Peterson has had more then his share of struggles this season and has been out of the lineup for a fair bit of time.  Nana has found himself completely out of favour and no matter how many people were out injured he still seemed to be unable to get a place in the starting lineup.  Gordon was Toronto's top scorer but he also had a lot of injury issues that saw him miss a number of games already this season.  To me the core of this deal is Toronto trading Gordon for Johnson which I think is a good deal for the club since they still get a scoring threat but hopefully Johnson does not develop the same sort of fitness issues.  The other key factor in this second deal is that Toronto was able to pick up an international roster spot which in my opinion would be a decent return for Peterson and a clearly unwanted Nana.  I think in the end Toronto have done well in this deal as long as it is not the end of the moves they are making since they now need to strengthen the side and get deeper in other areas.

The move to trade Nana means that of the players on the teams first season roster no one remains.  Nana had been the last player left around from season 1 but now it is like the club have completely made a fresh start.  In some ways we can say that on thursday one chapter of TFC's history came to an end and now the era of Winter has truly begun.  He has come good on his promise to shake up the roster and make changes and it was clear that he was not done yet.

On Friday the wheeling and dealing continued as TFC made another deal this time with Columbus Crew.  This move I am a bit less of a fan of since it saw Toronto sending Tony Tchani the other way and in my opinion he has been one of the clubs best players in recent weeks.  I guess in the eyes of the people in charge at TFC the move to bring in Dunfield meant that Tchani was extra to the needs in the centre of the park.  Granted there was a clear need to get some help in defence which is exactly what they did by acquiring Andy Iro in return.  Iro, who is 26 years old and from Liverpool, had been with the crew since 2008 where he played in over 50 matches having joined the team out of college being drafted 6th overall.  Since making his debut against none other then TFC Iro has gone on to develop in to a strong and confident defender.  At 6 foot 5 he will give the team a lot more strength and heading ability in the back line.  He is just the kind of player that TFC were in need of to strengthen the back line and more important he will bring them skill and not just serve as another body.  The second player that TFC got in return is Leandre Griffit who has only been in the MLS for a short time but at 27 years old he has had a lot of experience around the Europe including stops at Southampton, Crystal Palace, and IF Elfsborg.  He will come in as a depth player for the most part helping to round out the clubs midfield and fill the spot left by Tchani.  He only made a handful of appearances for Columbus so I do not really know what to expect from him and as such I am expecting him to just end up coming in as a role player who we will see from time to time.

So when Toronto FC take to the field in their next match against FC Dallas fans may just have a bit of a tough time recognizing any of the players.  Tchani, Gordon, Peterson, and Attakora will all be gone and instead the club will have Frings, Koevermans, Johnson, Dunfield, Griffit, and Iro.  That of course is assuming that they do not make any more deals before that game comes along.

TFC's Big Day

Toronto FC fans everywhere knew that we would be able to expect a fair bit of activity once the summer window opened as it was clear that the club was in need of improvement, and in some cases just more bodies, in almost every position.  It was also clear that some of the clubs under performing players were in danger of being moved on.  With that in mind today's announcement by the club that they had gone out and secured two new designated players really should not be a shock.  Even more so when you consider that both signings had been strongly linked to the club by almost every media outlet that offers speculation on the team.

For Toronto FC today was a big day and many fans are going to be hoping that this serves as some sort of turning point in the future of the club and from here on out it will all be looking up.  I personally think that these two signings are a great beginning but it is nothing more then that.  A lot more needs to be done to address the teams needs.  They have still not replaced the scoring that they lost when the traded away De Rosario or found a striker to take some of the pressure to score off of Alan Gordon.  They also still need to go out and at least do some sort of patch job on the back line as injuries and other factors have left the team short on defenders able to play at the MLS level.  Today in the press conference announcing the signings Aaron Winter made it quite clear that this was only the beginning as he indicated that the team would be looking to make a number of trades which could see the club moving out any number of players included De Guzman who has consistently under performed since joining the club.

The first of today's signings that was announced was former German international Torsten Frings.  He has played much of his career as a defensive midfielder, same position as De Guzman, and was capped 79 times by Germany.  Most recently he played for Werder Bremen where he played in over 300 games in his two stints with the club.  Frings is now 34 years old and in the later stages of his career but it is clear that he still has loads of ability.  Despite being a defensive midfielder Frings has a proven ability to chip in some goals from time to time having scored 67 of them in his career that spans over 500 games now.  He will bring composure and experience to the centre of the park for Toronto FC and the club will be hoping that he is able to play on for at least a few more years despite his age.  He joins the club on a multiyear deal as a free transfer and will be eligible for selection on the 20th against FC Dallas.

The second signing of the day starts to address the scoring needs of the club.  Danny Koevermans is a Dutch striker and he also joins the club on a free transfer having signed a multiyear deal as a designated player.  Kovermans is a former Dutch international, even though he only played 4 games for the Netherlands, who has a proven scoring record in the Eredivisie.  In his club career he has scored 136 goals in 253 matches which is a good rate for a striker but his pace has fallen off a bit since he joined PSV in 2005.  Toronto FC will probably be looking for him to chip in a goal every other game and provide a veteran presence in the attack as well as giving a much needed increase to the depth.  His arrival will hopefully also make Alan Gordon and Maicon Santos better as they will be under slightly less pressure now to do all of the scoring.

Lost in the big news of the signings was the fact that TFC had a match tonight against their Canadian rivals in the Vancouver Whitecaps.  I was unable to watch the game but having seen the highlights I got the sense that it was a very even battle with neither team generating much in terms of offensive chances.  The only breakthrough in the game came as Soolsma cut inside and then out before Janicki brought him down just inside of the box.  The referee showed no hesitation in awarding the penalty and I have to say that it was the right call.  Soolsma was given the chance to finish off his play by taking the spot kick which he calmly converted to the left of the keeper.  It was the only goal of the game as TFC were able to bag a 1-0 win over the White Caps which is only their 3rd win of the season but it was enough to see them jump over three teams and into 5th in the East.  It also means that TFC are now 4 points up on Vancouver in the battle for the best Canadian team.  That battle will continue on the weekend when the Nutrilite Cup finally wraps up with the second leg being replayed at BMO Field.

Canadian Excitement in the MLS!

I really hope that for our readers on the eastern side of the country you stayed up past your normal bedtime on Saturday night to watch either, or hopefully both, of the Canadian teams in MLS action.  Toronto FC found themselves as massive underdogs going into their road match against the Los Angeles Galaxy while Vancouver White Caps were focused on trying to snap their winless streak against rivals Seattle Sounders FC.

The first game that I am going to talk about, since I watched more of it, is the Toronto FC match.  The sense among most TFC fans was that this was not going to be a good outing for the team and they were just hoping to keep things close.  Recent history though would suggest that when these two teams meets it is likely to end in a draw but if you look at the forms of the two teams Toronto's chances looked slim.  The Galaxy came into the match unbeaten in 7 games and on their second longest run in franchise history without conceding a goal.  So when Chris Birchall opened the scoring only 2 minutes into the game I for one was thinking here we go again assuming that things were going to get ugly for TFC.  Things would settle down though and TFC slowly seemed to be getting in to the game.  A bad tackle from Beckham would see him get a caution just before the half hour mark and a lot of TFC fans were left wondering how he managed to avoid a red card as he would be spoken to about 2 fouls later in the game without receiving a second yellow.  It really did seem like he was getting the old super star treatment and not being punished for his actions.  The tackle also resulted in Toronto having to make one of its two first half changes as Tony Tchani seemed to pick up an injury and had to be replaced by Plata.  Jacob Peterson would also have to leave the game before the half when his hamstring appeared to tighten up.  He was replaced by Gordon who was returning to the TFC lineup after missing several games with a groin injury.  In Gordon's absence TFC's attack looked weak and lacked any real punch but his return to the lineup paid off quickly.  The first half ended with LA up 1-0 but it was no where near the dominant performance that many would have expected.

In the second half Toronto continued to fight back and show that they were not going to be pushovers.  It was nice to see the team playing with some real heart and acting like they wanted to go out and try to salvage a result.  In the end their effort paid off as Gordon marked his return to the lineup with a 68th minute goal that leveled things.  It looked like TFC had done enough to earn a draw but in the 90th minute Juan Pablo Angel scored a heart breaking goal that seemed almost certain to send the Galaxy on to all 3 points.  In the past Toronto would have folded like a cheap tent under that goal and not had enough about themselves to even try to fight back.  They have a proven history of lacking any sort of performance in the clutch moments of matches and stoppage time goals have been few and far between for the club since their inception.  On this night though things seemed to be very different as TFC bounced right back from going down 2-1 and went right to work trying to pull it back in stoppage time.  Just as it seemed like time was going to run out on the Gordon again proved his value to the team as he scored his second of the game against his former team.  Gordon managed to volley home the ball in to the top corner in what would have been one of the best MLS goals I have seen in a long time if not for one that took place in the Whitecaps game. 

For me the game felt like a win for TFC despite it being their 4th draw in 5 matches and extending their winless streak to 6 games.  It also ensured that the Galaxy's unbeaten run continued for an 8th game.  Toronto did show a lot of positive signs in this game and when the club is working to rebuild that is the kind of thing that you look for.  After their 0-0 draw with Sporting Kansas I was concerned about how the team were satisfied with that and seemed to be lacking the desire to win matches.  Combine that with the fact that anyone who has followed the club knows that they are terrible in the clutch moments of matches and you can see how this result was even more unexpected.  The team showed a lot of heart and passion in LA as well as showing that they really can hold their own with the better teams in the league.  There is no reason for this team to be happy with 0-0 draws against poor KC teams but this draw is one that you can build on.  The game also proved that Alan Gordon makes TFC a whole lot better in the attack.  With him out of the lineup they looked far to one dimensional and if teams could deal with Santos Toronto had very little other options in terms of scoring threats.

The Toronto result had me all excited but it was a moment from the Vancouver game that stole all the headlines and may actually help to increase the profile of the MLS.  Vancouver played a very good opening 80 minutes and led 1-0 thanks to a penalty that was converted by Eric Hassli.  It all seemed like it was going to be undone though as the team had a terrible couple of minutes and Seattle scored a pair of goals very quickly to go up 2-1.  It looked like all of the Caps hard work would be for nothing and they would lose yet again but then Eric Hassli stepped up with one of the best goals you have ever seen.  If you have not seen his goal yet well you need to!  It is a world class goal, not just one of the best ever in the MLS.  Hassli showed that he has the skill to be a great goal scorer when he is actually able to avoid card trouble and stay on  the field long enough to show these flashes of brilliance.  Some poor defending by Seattle set up Hassli's second goal of the game as they turned the ball over to him near the corner of the 18 yard box.  He flicked the ball up and with his back almost to the goal he volleyed the ball across the net and right into the top corner of the net.  It was one of the best goals you will ever see and it was enough to ensure that Vancouver would at least be able to grab a point from the match.  Even the loud Seattle crowd could not help but appreciate what they had seen and gave Hassli a well deserved round of applause. 

So if you went to bed on Saturday night then you missed out on both Canadian MLS teams being involved in some exciting games.  Its a shame that both teams had to settle for draws but the efforts of Gordon and Hassli are ones you can be proud of as fans and both teams had games that they can build on going forward.

And now for your viewing pleasure: