Pre-Match / Match / Post-Match Thread - Toronto FC vs. New York Red Bulls - June 30, 2012 (R)

I can smell three points...halftime is always agonizing...

Why didn't Johnson shoot that?

NYRB now employs 2-3 defenders on flanks. Well, that's kinda right.....

Soolsma in for Lambe. TFC is gonna win.

I love that Anselmi Out banner

This flat midfield isn't working. We need to put Avila up top and move Dunfield to the wing

All ball on that decisive tackle!

Silva coming in. Please be for a striker, not Avila

Ok, if your not going to take Koev off, than put Silva on for Dunfield

Edit: finally

Good draw.

Take that.

Haha Mariner was named man of the match. He should be! The game wasn't all that entertaining but Mariner never let up at any point.

Hall's defensive game is still quite suspect but i guess it's nice how this back 4 are all very quick and comfortable on the ball.

Dunfield was one of our better players today if you ask me. In fact, he's impressed me with what Ive seen from TFC during the Mariner regime so far

Speaking of Mariner, I keep getting scared he's going to have a stroke with all that running around. He always looks absolutely gassed

Some random thoughts on the game:
* I think TFC deserved more than a draw out of this game, there were a few calls that didn't go their way, but a draw against the top team in the east is a good sign
* Loved the "Anselmi Out" sign
* Koevermans now has 8 goals this season after missing a number of games due to injury and a slow start. I think we're now seeing the Koevermans we've been expecting.
* If there's any player that brings hope to this organization for the future it's Ashtone Morgan. Three of our goals over the past few games came from one of his crosses, and today he made one of the fastest players in the league pretty much invisible.
* Can't help thinking that someone like Plata would have been a great sub at the end of this game - a hot, humid day and a condensed schedule, why not bring on someone with some energy in the final minutes.
* Hey - we're just 2 points behind Philly now. Not much to celebrate but it's something.

i agree, Dunfield has never played better than these last 5 under Mariner. i can live with his one dumb tackle per game because he's very irritating and disruptive to opposition movement. his distribution has also improved with more lateral options at his disposal.

I didn't want Dunfield off because he was bad, but because we needed Silva's fresh legs, and it seemed that Mariner wanted to keep Koevermans in to try and score another. Dunfield would have been the logical one to take off because it would allow them to play with two strikers and a #10.

He's been good under Mariner but he still doesn't provide any sort of offense, so when you're trying to get a goal at the end it would be logical to take him off, especially since we still had two other DMs on the pitch.

Still not sold on Dunfield. For every 1 time where he passes to a man in front of him, he does 5 where he passes backwards or to the side - it interrupts the counter and makes the pressing game less effective. Teams lay off of him in the offensive zone as they know he will not shoot or thread a pass to a forward. He doesn't trust his own passing ability.

On another note, JDG was a pretty good RM when he came on.

I wish we could see him out on the right wing again, it was only one match, but Dunfield actually put in a series of solid crosses into the box.

Either way, things are looking pretty good right now, and with De Klerk et al sticking around and working with the Academy, would it be crazy to expect the sort of well-rounded players that the Ajax system requires coming up in the next 4-5 years?

its like dunfield has some sort of weird mental block. Hes actually a decent passer.