More of the Same Old TFC.

I'm annoyed.

Today marked another day of negative news from Toronto FC.
Apparently Gilberto and Henry are going to be sold in January. Defoe has said he's picked up yet another injury. Bradley and Hagglund are not available for selection tomorrow as they both have suspensions to serve. Bradley from cumulative yellows and Hagglund from last week's red card.

2 games are left. Tomorrow against Montreal and next week against New England.
Montreal is a winnable game, New England will probably be resting their stars next week with a playoff spot already locked up making that game winnable.

Toronto need Defoe in the line up tomorrow, like him or not.

2014 was supposed to be the year of change. Turns out it was just the year of "more of the same". Yeah, Defoe and Bradley were big name signing's. Yeah, getting Oduro and bringing Dero back were good moves for MLS type players.

Then it started. First Tim Leiweikie announced he was leaving MLSE, then TFC replaced their coach, then the rumors that Defoe wanted out of Toronto came up and now here we are. 2 games left. both must-wins and hope that Columbus looses both.

It's like no matter what it's just more of the same old with this team and I'm really tired of it. I'm not even going to kid myself. I will be watching the game and I won't be boycotting but the simple fact is this: I've attended less games than I ever have this season and I'm sure that number will decline again next year. I'll never stop following this team. I know that. I wish I could but I've put too much time, money and, effort into it to give up.

That said, I can't wait for the off season. I need a break. My heart hurts too much.

TFC Goes Back to it's Roots.

Well.

Here we go again. Seems to be the only theme with this club.

Toronto FC fired head coach Ryan Wilson this weekend, along with basically the whole coaching staff including former TFC player Jim Brennan. TFC promoted Greg Vanney to head coach. I have read that the original hiring of Vanney was made with the plan of eventually having him take over as coach, so maybe this isn't so much a typical TFC "panic and fire a coach" as much as it is executing a plan (you'll excuse me for being cynical). Vanney has worked for other MLS clubs. He's been a director for Real Salt Lake and helped establish the first residency program for an MLS club. He's also a former assistant coach with Chivas USA. Vanney also played in MLS for 9 years. So he is familiar with MLS.

On top of that, in an up and down day, TFC decided not to sell Jermain Defoe. Apparently QPR offered $11 million to TFC for JD (as per Sportsnet's John Molinaro).
The problem is that I continue to hear the words "until January" in terms of speaking about Defoe's move back to England.

Another rumor floating out there is that both Defoe and Bradly were not impressed at how practices have been run at TFC and for this reason both players may feel like the move to MLS, or more specifically, Toronto have been a mistake.

It seems like the second Tim Leiweke announced that he will leave Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment was the second that TFC went back to being it's old self. 9 coaches in 8 years. Upset players. Crazy transfer rumors. It never ends.

I saw 2 statement from long time TFC fans this past weekend that sum it up for me:

"This fucking crap never changes and I can't see that it ever will now."   

"I'm just so tired of the B.S. surrounding the team every year".

For me, that's just it. Just as soon as everything was "fixed" it fell apart again. TFC signed 2 huge name players, brought in a world class keeper on a short term loan, made up with Dero and, really looked like a title contender. Goals were coming and everything was right. It felt like, for the first time ever, MLSE was taking the fan's hard-earned cash and spending it on the team to give something back. The warm fuzzies are gone. Honeymoon period 2.0 is over.

Here we are back to where we started. Some days it just feels hopeless.

Apathy

Yesterday a video made the rounds on social media of radio personality Sid Seixeiro from Toronto radio station the Fan 590 and his passion about the Raptors and their upcoming playoff run.
Back in 2011 he had a similar "rant" about the Canadian Men's National Soccer team.
I loved both of these passionate pleas for change. I've posted the videos below for your enjoyment.

Between the video and a conversation I had with someone yesterday about this very blog, I decided to go back through the past few years and see what I thought of the sports landscape a year a go, 2 years ago. ect.

Not much has changed. I still think the Toronto Rock deserve WAY more recognition that they get, I still think that TFC is the best team to support in Toronto, I still think that the Raptors play second fiddle to the Leafs in MLSE's mind and, I still think that the Jays just need to drop the "small market" b.s., really open up the cheque book and, start being a big game player like the Yankees or Tigers because the money is there with the ownership group.

There is one thing that has changed.
My opinion on the Toronto Maple Leafs.
In 2012, when I decided to start blogging again, I was following the Leafs pretty closely. I thought that the times were changing for the better.

Fast forward to today and I just don't care anymore. Sure, the NHL having 2 lock-outs in 10 year span didn't help either but, the team has simply been given the patchwork treatment for years and years and never properly has been rebuilt. You can't do that in today's NHL. Look at a team like Colorado today, they were a bad team for years. But drafting Landeskog, Duchene and, Mackinnon took them from a bottom dweller to a competitor. Yes it takes years and patience but that is how you properly rebuild a team in today's salary cap world.

The Leafs will always have no issue selling tickets and people will blindly be fans. This is a fact. In Canada's biggest city with a history as rich as the Leafs and talking about Canada's most popular sport this is an inevitability. The thing the Leafs organization needs to worry about is people like me, the fans who have just turned from being a follower to simply not caring.
I don't hate the club. I obviously don't love the club, I just don't care.

A wise man once said "The opposite of love is not hate, it's apathy".

TFC: The next step

What an exciting week it has been to be a TFC fan.
Dero is back, English international striker Jermain Defoe is coming and seeming out of left field, US international centre-mid Michael Bradley has signed with the club.

So that leaves a couple questions:

First off: What to to with Matias Laba?
He's currently under a DP contract but obviously the arrival of Dafoe, Bradley and, Gilberto this off season means that Laba is the "odd DP out". Ryan Nelson mentioned this week that he really wants to keep Laba so maybe TFC will need to use up some allocation money and an international slot on him? The rules of MLS are very hard to follow but I believe that, if Laba agrees, this should be possible.

Second: What formation do we play?
4-4-2 is very popular in MLS. There's no point in TFC trying to stray too far from that.
The problem TFC current has is their strength at mid comes from the middle and the attacking mids. Maybe TFC considers going 4-3-1-2 and having Dero and Osario split time as the attacking mids who can be the bridge between Michael Bradley at centre mid and the strikers? Maybe a 4-4-2 diamond that looks more like 4-1-2-1-2? That would mean that Bradley would sit back and Dero/Osario would sit up further. Is that the best use of Bradley though as we know he can score too. The formation situation is my biggest question going into 2014. TFC clearly has firing power now but they can't play everyone forward.

Third: Filling the holes:

Just so you get an idea this is what the current roster looks like position by position:

Goalkeepers (3): Joe Bendik, Chris Konopka, Quillan Roberts
Right Backs (3): Mark Bloom, Ryan Richter,
Left Backs (3): Justin Morrow, Ashtone Morgan, Jonas Elmer
Center Backs (3): Steven Caldwell, Doneil Henry, Gale Agbossoumonde
Center Mids (5): Michael Bradley, Jackson, Kyle Bekker, Jeremy Hall, Matias Laba
Left Mids (0):
Right Mids (2): Alvaro Rey, Reggie Lambe
Attacking Mids (3): Dwayne De Rosario, Jonathan Osorio, Manny Aparicio
Forwards (6): Jermain Defoe, Gilberto, Bright Dike, Andrew Wiedeman, Emery Welshman, Jordan Hamilton


So there are clearly to very big holes for Toronto at this point. Left mid and right back.
The easiest solution would be to continue to splash the cash (obviously to a lesser extent) and try to find a proven MLS player to fill the holes.
The other, is the draft (which just started at noon today) but that may not yield a player who is ready for starting 11 minutes.
Finally, TFC might have to consider trading some of that surplus at forward. I'd hate to see Dike go, he just came to the team late last season and he was a nice addition who went forward and added a little punch to an otherwise weak attacking game. That said, he's a good MLS player who might get you a good piece back in return. Clearly he won't be playing nearly as much with Dafoe and Gilberto in the team now so maybe he is a piece that they need to use.

So...that's where we are at.
On paper, this team is MUCH better than last year and I can not wait, but that being said this club is not yet complete.