New Look TFC = Same Result

So we have talked about all the roster moves that TFC has made in the past month or so and there were a lot of them.  To be honest I am not even sure if Winter is all done making moves even now so who knows what else could be in store.   Last week though we got the chance to see this very changed TFC side in action twice after a fairly long layoff and sadly all we got as fans was a lot more of the same.

Against FC Dallas Winter put in 6 of the new players for the starting lineup meaning that the club eclipsed the 100 players all time mark and then some.  They also had more then half of their starting 11 players being fresh faces which was almost certain to result in a bit of a settling in period.  I won't be getting in to the actual match but the fact of the matter is that you could see the need for yet more patience.  The team still had a fair few areas that are in clear need of improvement and if not for an impressive effort from Frei things would have been a lot worse then the 1-0 final score.  The other thing that struck me was that Koevermans clearly had not played in a match of late and seemed to lack sharpness in front of goal.  Training can help a lot but for both Danny and Frings they went from being in their offseason to jumping straight in to the middle of a season so it might take them a while to get up to pace.  Speaking of Frings though he was one of the best players in the game for TFC.  He provided a sharpness and edge to the midfield and his passes were instrumental in almost all of the chances that TFC did manage to create.

On the weekend things looked a whole lot worse for TFC as the team continued to defend terribly and this time Frei was not able to stand on his head and keep the scoreline close.  An awful stretch of around 10 minutes saw the team conceding goals like it was going out of style.  The 3 goals in 9 minutes was more then enough to sink Toronto on the day and made sure that new comers Koevermans and Ryan Johnson picking up their first goals for the club was not enough.  In the end the score was 4-2 for Kansas City and for TFC it was the 4th straight defeat and 6th in their past seven matches.  There is no point in trying to sugar coat it at this point as we can all see that TFC are struggling and have a long ways to go still before they are really competitive in the MLS.  The problem is that no one on the team seems to know how to defend properly.  It is not just the back 4 that are to blame for this, but they do get their share of the blame, but also includes the midfield who seem lost more often then not when they are trying to track back and cover.  There is a part of this that has to be attributed to the coaching of the team as they do not seem prepared to defend properly and are often looking unorganized.  The other half of the problem is that the personal to play defense are just not their with all the injuries.  The team added Iro which is a plus and gives them another decent defender but they need at least 4 of them and they are well short of that number right now.

The problem that I see for TFC is that they do have some good defenders who are out for the season the most notable of them is Adrian Cann.  So if they were to go out and make trades to bring in more quality defenders then they would have a bit of an overload come the start of next season when everyone is fit.  So if you are planning for the long term you might just have to kiss any sort of playoff push goodbye and just make due with what you have and then work to improve things for the next season when you know who will be fit.  I personally think they will not make a lot more changes this season in the back line but I hope that they do bring in a top class centre back.  Not someone of Iro level but instead someone who would be among the best defenders in the MLS.  The club needs to make a big move in the back line but now is not the ideal time to do that barring De Guzman moving back to Europe.

So we have our first two games for the new look TFC in the books and it is clear that they still can't defend and that the wins are not just going to start pouring in now.  The club still has a long ways to go but at least as these players all settle in I expect the team to only get better.  In fact I would still say that despite continuing the losing ways TFC are better now then they were before all the roster moves.

Women's World Cup Lookback

This post was full intended to be written quite a while ago but things got busy and it kept getting shelved.  The good news is now I can write about the WWC with a bit of distance and hopefully give a more assessment but lets face it no matter how long I wait it will still be my own skewed view. 

The first thing that I have to say is that this summers Women's World Cup is the most enjoyable FIFA event outside of a men's world cup that I have ever watched.  On top of that I will even go as far as to say that on the whole it was every bit as good as WC2010 in South Africa.  That might seem like a huge statement for me to make but this WWC really did have every single thing you could ask for in a football tournament.  It had some fairly big upsets, it had great story lines, and underdog champion, and most importantly it had a whole lot of quality playing. 


The Women's world cup was not plagued by all kinds of blowouts, the worst scorelines were 4 goals wins including the one that France got over Canada, and it did not have the issues with diving and simulation that so often destroy the credibility of the men's game at the highest levels.  So me the Women's game may be at a slower pace, the shots may be less powerful, and in many cases the keeping is not as great but this year that did not ruin it for me.  It was nothing like watching women's hockey, which is something I can only do every four years and then only Canada's games, in fact I found myself trying to catch every game possible.  For the first time in my life I was watching rebroadcasts of games that did no involve United which is saying a whole lot since I normally cannot stand watching a game at all if I already know the score.  The games were good enough to keep me interested long after Canada were eliminated and in fact the success of this World Cup is going to keep me coming back to the Women's game for years to come.

Another positive thing about the WWC is that it satisfied my need to dislike many of the traditional soccer powers as well as my constant desire to cheer against the Americans.  The fact that Germany and Brazil did not make to the finals made me quite happy and even if the US went all the way to the final watching them lose to Japan was so satisfying.  Yes I would have loved the event even more if Canada had done better but I think I actually enjoyed it more this way, once I overcame the crushing pain of once again seeing Canada come up short, as I was able to just sit back and enjoy the games and just appreciate the skill on display.

Speaking of Japan, them winning the WWC was a storyline that you could hardly even dream up.  They are of course a very good side and would have been among the contenders to make it to the semifinals for most knowledgeable fans but picking them to win it all would have been quite a long shot.  Japan was a country in need of a good storyline after a really rough year from which they are still struggling to recover and their women's team delivered.  Just their showing in the final match against the United States shows that they were a side driven to succeed and every time the US wasted a scoring chance you just got that feeling that Japan were somehow destined to win the game.  Then each time they fought back I could not help but support them.  By the time the match made it to penalties I had gone from cheering against the USWNT to cheering for Japan and the only way I could have been happier with the winner would have been if it had been Canada.

With all that praise I do have to add that their is still a long ways to go in the Women's game.  The quality of the players is only going to continue improving, the depth of the competition should keep getting better (it has to with the tournament field expanding for 2015).  The other area where the game is going to need to see improvement is officiating.  For the most part it was good during the tournament but there are a few terrible moments that are going to stand up as glaring marks on the event.  The handball that was not called in the Australia match will be one of the moments that most people will remember but I do hope that with a little more time people who watched the event forget that some of the reffing was poor and instead only remember this event as being something special and great fun to watch.

I can hardly wait for 2015 now when with any luck I will be going to at least a couple of matches.  I can now safely say that I am a supporter of Women's soccer and that is a big statement for someone who has once been accused of being a sports sexist.

Becoming a Coach

So this blog is going to be more of a personal one but seeing as the point of this blog is to be about my journey to get more involved in supporting local soccer it does still fit.  This summer my brother started coaching, as an assistant coach, but he has yet to begin the process of training and certification to become an official coach in the provence of Ontario.  I intend to enter the coaching ranks next summer, since I need to fill the void left by no longer playing or reffing the game, but as part of that I am trying to learn how the whole thing is going to work.  I am familiar with how the setup works for becoming a ref as I had taken my class 3, this was before the change to the new system, and to be honest it was a fairly straight forward setup for becoming an official.  With that each time you took a course you became more qualified and it was only one course for each level.  In coaching though I have come across this pathway which is clearly more complex.

To me this pyramid indicates that if next summer I wanted to coach say a U15 boys team at my local club I would be required to take first the Children's course at 9 hours, then the Youth course at another 9 hours, and finally the 16 hour senior course.  That is 34 hours of courses just to get to where I want to be but the trick will clearly be trying to find a way to do as much of this as I can in a single spring.  I was hoping to find a chance to get started on taking one or two of the courses this fall but at least for now there seem to be none listed on the OSA calendar.  That means the obstacle of having to take this course in their prescribed order is going to be the toughest part of this plan.  Even assuming that I can find a course in my area for each level and can get enough spare time on the weekends to attend them the very least amount of time it will take me is three weeks but I highly doubt I can do it that fast.

The one bright spot for me in this process is that there seems to be no waiting period required between taking each course.  It is not like I have to coach at each level for say a year before I can go on to the next.  That should help me in this process and with any luck by this time next year I should be done my community coaching level and able to move on to the pre-B assessment.  So maybe this won't take that long after all but I do still wish there was a way to skip levels for someone who has played and officiated for the better part of 15 years.  I get that the OSA feels there is a need to train coaches on the special needs at each age level since they will be unique and all present different challenges but a part of me wishes that I could do one intensive weekend of say 20 hours of training and cover all 3 levels rather then having to do it over 3 different weekends.

Going further in to the OSA coaching section on their site I have now found that this fall they will apparently be announcing some changes to the structure of the coaching pathway this fall.  No clue what these changes are going to entail since the site does not give anything away besides saying that by november the site will reflect the changes.  To be honest though like many other sections of the OSA website the coaching section is not the best done site I have ever been on to say the least.  It took me quite a while to find all the info that I wanted and for something I still have had to consult with people who have already started the process just to try and understand the structure.  In fact if you are aware of how everything works for coaching in the OSA feel free to get in touch with me since I would love to get a better grasp on it so by the time that the changes are announced in November I can finalize my plans to begin the road to becoming a coach.

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.

A Lesson on Real Esteli F.C.

On July 27, Toronto FC will play the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions League qualifying match at BMO Field versus Nicaraguan side Real Esteli F.C. TFC qualified for the continental competition for the second year in the row by winning the Voyageurs Cup as Canadian champions over Vancouver Whitecaps. For Reds fans, the day the draw was announced was probably the first time they had heard of Real Esteli. So tonight, with the help of Google, I will try to introduce myself and all our readers to TFC's Nicaraguan opponent.

Real Esteli F.C. are a Nicaraguan side, as stated above, located in Esteli, Nicaragua's third largest city, who play in the nation's top flight of football. The team is nicknamed El Tren del Norte, which according to Google translates as "North Train" but is better translated as "Train of the North" because they come from the northern part of the country. The club was founded in 1960 and plays at Estadio Independencia, in front of 4,800 fans.

Domestically, Real Esteli is one of the most successful clubs winning three national titles and achieving an outstanding record of finishing in the top 5 in every season since 1986. On top of their three national championships, they have won 10 Primera Division de Nicaragua in the nations odd league set up which is similar to other Central American nations like Mexico where they play two seasons a year. Real Esteli has also won the Copa de Nicaragua in 1991.

There matches with Toronto FC coming up later this month will mark the Nicaraguan side's second appearance in the CONCACAF Champions League following their initial appearance in 2008 when they only made it to the Preliminary Round. They have also made 5 appearances in Central America's club competition the Copa Interclubes UNCAF. Real Esteli's best performance was a trip to the Quarter Finals of the competition in 2005 having never made it past the First Round in two previous attempts and the two more that followed.

Toronto FC are easily the favorites against CONCACAF minnows Real Esteli despite their own lowly stature entering the competition. The Reds will have to take care of business at BMO Field and ensure a big lead before they make the difficult trip to Nicaragua. TFC will have to deal with a low standard of playing surface and a completely hostile club when they travel Esteli and Estadio Independencia. Winter will field a strong line up in the home leg to ensure a comfortable win so that he can keep key players out of the line up for the away trip and not risk injuries to players important to the remainder of Toronto's season.

As the day of the first leg approaches, we will provide more coverage ahead of the match as Canadian champions Toronto FC aim to qualify for the group stage of the CONCACAF Champions League for the second straight season. Thanks to Google and predominately Wikipedia, I hope I gave you a good introduction to Real Esteli, a little known club from the smaller Central American nation of Nicaragua.

Whitecaps add a Designated Player

So last evening the Whitecaps official twitter account tweeted that at 9:30 PST this morning, July 12th, they would be making a major player announcement.  This tweet of course started off a huge amount of speculation all over my twitter feed as every fan of Canadian soccer seemed to have their own couple of suggestions for who it might be.  The early front runner was of course Owen Hargreaves who has bee often linked to the two Canadian clubs in recent weeks as well as having been spotted training in British Columbia of late.  That speculation of course caused the expected reaction with die hard Canadian fans hoping that all the worst possible things happen to Hargo.  The rumour of Hargreaves being the player coming in were squashed only a few minutes later when rumours came out that Vancouver's new player was going to be an African who had been in Belgium recently where he was a decent player.  It was also reported that this new player might have been the captain of either his national team or his club team.  So of course many fans who wanted to be the first to report the name, including myself, spent a few hours on the internet trying to find out just who all met these criteria.  I for one never even came close to getting it right though and really only helped to add to the outlandish speculation that was going on with the likes of Eto'o and Drogba being linked just because they are captains of African nations.

So this morning all the rumours were put aside and the actual announcement was made that the Whitecaps would be adding another Designated player to their team in the form of Gambian international Mustapha Jarju.  He is a striker who spent last season playing for RAEC Mons of Belgium's second division.  So he did indeed fit all of the criteria that were being put out in rumours the night before.  He also fits the needs of Vancouver as last season he scored 25 goals for his club last season and has 58 career goals despite only being 24 years old.  So he will bring the Whitecaps a second scoring option that should provide the sort of partner that Eric Hassli has been lacking all season long.  Hassli has 6 of the teams goals this season but the introduction of Jarju will take some of the pressure to score from him as well as drawing some of the attention of the defenders away from him.  The Whitecaps will be counting on their two designated players to get the job down and give them the attack that has been lacking in so many games this season.

Jarju will be counted on for scoring and to also create goals for the other attacking players.  He has a good record of both in Belgium but that is by no means a guarantee of success in the MLS.  His record in Belgium would suggest that he is worthy of that DP tag but now Vancouver has 2 of its 3 potential slots filled and has used both on them on attackers.  It could limit their ability to strengthen other areas of the team but even with that aside there is still the question of whether a relatively unknown player from Gambia is worth that kind of investment rather then the team going after players with proven MLS quality.  I personally think that signing Jarju is a worthwhile risk and as he won't command that massive of a salary and it is also possible that as soon as next season he could no longer be a designated player which would free that spot up to be filled by another player.  His upside is very large as a 24 year old who has a proven ability to create in front of goal and if this move pays off he could be a huge factor in any improvements that the Whitecaps will make in the coming seasons.

The other big part of todays signing is that Jarju becomes the first African player to be signed to an MLS contract as a designated player.  His move to the MLS could be seen as opening the door for more African players to make the same move in the near future which could only be good for the league that needs to continue exploring new talent markets in hopes of improving the overall quality.

For the Whitecaps they now have the attacker they needed but reports suggest they are still in the hunt of a midfielder which could even see them bring in a third designated player.  That does mean that their fans will have to continue to worry about the potential of Hargreaves being signed in the coming days or weeks if he can prove he is fit and ready to play.  Fans will likely be hoping that if the club does make another big move that it is on signing a proven player with real quality rather then gambling on a player from a small African country who plays in one of Europe's weaker leagues.  Hargreaves would fit that bill but the fact is he has a major history of injury so playing him at Empire field would just be asking for disaster and that is my attempt to avoid discussing other reasons why signing him would be a terrible idea.

For the Whitecaps todays signing was another step forward but as a team that has only scored more then one goal in a match just one time in their last 21 matches there is clearly a lot of work left to be done.  Jarju is possibly one piece of the puzzle that is success in the MLS but at this point he only address one problem on a team with a multitude of them.

A Whole Other Class: TFC-NYRB

So this part week Toronto FC were taking on the New York Redbull in what was always going to be a tough test for TFC but what they did on the day was prove that they are still a long ways from reaching the levels of the top teams in the MLS.  This game almost made the match against the Union seem like a close match since at least TFC were able to find the net on that occasion.

I have to be honest and say that despite the Red Bulls poor form coming in to the match, 3 draws and a loss in their 4 game road trip, I still felt that they were primed to crush TFC who would be unable to up their game from the level it had to be to defeat the Whitecaps twice last week.  That was mostly because of the fact that TFC are on an even worse run of form with Vancouver being the only team that they seem capable of beating.  Toronto have only that one win in the MLS since May 7th and in that time they have been shut out 5 times.  We all know by now that TFC have an anemic offence but it is even worse when they don't even have Gordon or Santos in the starting lineup like they did midweek.

When the lineups were announced and there was no Gordon or Santos it felt like the best that TFC were going to be able to get was a 0-0 draw since they just don't seem to have anyone else who can step up and score.  I don't even think that Gordon and Santos are great strikers or great goal scorers but the fact is that they are clearly the best options that the club has.  Compare Toronto having Soolsma, Plata, and Martina as their attacking options with the fact that New York had Henry, Rodgers, and Agudelo leading their line.  I guess there is no surprise that Toronto FC struggled to create any sort of attacking chances and New York had them in abundance.  The 5-0 final score was by no means flattering to the Red Bulls but I don't even want to get into the match itself more then that.

What I feel is the most worthy element of this game is the fact that this game once again illustrates how for behind Toronto FC are in terms of skill and experience.  I know that they are a side that is slowly being destroyed by injuries and that their two new signings are yet to be eligible to play for the team but I can't help but notice the gap in skill between the two sides.  The Red Bulls two designated players are Thierry Henry and Rafael Marquez who both have loads of experience on the world's biggest stages and despite being a bit advanced in age they still have the kind of quality that allows them to be stars in the MLS.  The Red Bulls third spot is still empty since they traded De Ro but chances are that when they do fill that spot it is going to be with a player who is better then any of the three designated players in Toronto's roster.  Toronto, having recently signed a pair of DP's, now have De Guzman, Frings, and Koevermans on its roster.  I do like all three of those players and think that when they were at their very best they were all world class but now none of them seem good enough to be dominant players in the MLS which is what you should expect from such players.  You can only have three of these players so you really are going to have to make them count which New York is clearly doing a better job of then Toronto is.  It may not be fair to expect TFC to go out and sign their own Beckham or Henry since Toronto is not the most appealing city and the team just does not have the same kind of budget but what I want to see is this gap starting to close down.  That would be the point of this rebuild that the club is going through after all.  Maybe we can will even one day see the club make a move for a world class player who is still in their prime and can be a real difference maker for the team.

So what is the point of all of this?  The point is that I do understand that TFC are going to lose games like this from time to time.  They are a side that is messed up by all kinds of injuries right now and even when they are completely fit they still would not be as good as the top teams in the league.  But what I need to start seeing is that TFC are making the kinds of moves that are going to help them close down this skill gap.  Frings and Koevermans are a start but with them taking up two of the DP spots the club is limited in that kinds of moves it can make to get better unless they go out and make some big trades.  Since I do understand that these kinds of defeats are bound to happen for this team I will just keep on hoping to see signs of progress from the team since the playoffs are not going to happen unless they start beating anyone not named the Whitecaps!