I read something somewhere (sorry, no link) that suggested a location in Michigan. I think the point was at least partly not to give Orlando another "away" game at home. The ppg was just a way of assessing the math. Your way also works. Either way, July 21 is a must win.
Looks like we get to play at home (for now, anyway): https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/cf-montreal-and-toronto-fc-to-host-select-matches-in-canada
I'm amazed how fast this all happened. I didn't win the draw for tomorrow's game but I did manage to get seats that are nearly identical to my season ticket for Wednesday's game, just one row in front and still an aisle seat. I do hear some grumbling about the process for game 1 but I don't really care even though I was shut out, it's been nearly a year and a half, what's four more days? I'm so excited to be back at BMO Field it almost seems inconsequential to me whether they win or lose, a similar feeling to the first few seasons, lol
We won the draw and got to see the squad in person for the first time in 16 months. The club was generously giving away a scarf and small meal including beer with the tix and even parking was gratis - which was nice. Good to see us playing a possession game again and the old school Morrow-Jozy connection was a highlight. Soteldo was stirring the drink well all night, though until Jozy came on the finishing was subpar - Pozuelo looked a bit rusty, and Bono was his typical boneheaded self (dunno what he was thinking on the penalty foul) with subpar distribution and solid shot stopping. 1-1 draw was a pretty deserving result.
TFC puts its "undefeated at home this season" streak on the line as we invite RBNY to the shores of Lake Ontario. The two New York teams are our targets in the playoff hunt so, despite being early in the season, this is a big six-point game. The playoff gap currently stands at 8 points but our opponents both have a game in hand. We can certainly win this game. Our biggest hinderance at the moment is the list of players who are away at the Gold Cup. This includes Osorio, Laryea, Akinola, Lawrence, and Zavaleta.
Unfortunately in the case of Akinola, it sounds like he is out for the season and not just the Gold Cup after the injury he suffered in the game against the USA. https://www.wakingthered.com/2021/7...-miss-remainder-of-the-season-with-acl-injury
Drat! The Americans couldn't have him so they took him out, eh? That's not good as it leaves us with only Altidore as a proven up front threat and we never know when he's going to suffer an injury or ego problem. I wonder what this will mean for Akinola's future in Toronto? His contract expires at the end of this year. TFC isn't likely to offer him DP or TAM level money, especially with our full salary cap. With a solid season this year I'd think we'd have lost him to Europe as a free agent. Without a season this year, however, who knows?
A 1-1 draw against New York. TFC missed a chance to catch up in the playoff hunt. Truth be told, we were outplayed for large sections of that game so I'll take the draw. Next up, an away game in Chicago tomorrow. The Fire are only two points and one spot ahead of us in the standings. This is a game we need to win if we're going to make a push for the playoffs. We are currently 10 points behind NYC for the final playoff spot and NYC has a game in hand. Fun fact: Points in the entire Armas Era: 5 Points in the three games since Armas left: 5
If they continue with the pace of 1.67 points per game from the last three games, that's a decent mid-table form but unfortunately not enough for a playoff spot with the horrific start. They are just finding themselves though so it's not unthinkable to think that they can improve further upon this. Solteldo is becoming a one-trick pony. He's very creative with the ball but when defenders can assume that he's never going to pass or deliver a cross until he tries to embarrass the defender 1 v 1 first (or even 1 v 3, he seems to want to beat them all himself), he's going to find that no defender ever jumps in and that space will always be closed. If he's a threat to pass or deliver a great ball, that defender will step up towards him and then he can dance by him. He needs to show more willingness to do different things and then he will be very dangerous.
A 2-1 win. Great but, wow, Bono faced a hockey game number of shots! Next up we host Nashville on Sunday. We are now 9 points out of the last playoff spot.
So we slugged out a 1-1 draw at home. TFC are not going gangbusters and winning everything but we've quietly put together a great five game set. Next up is a tough match with a visit to Philly on Wednesday. Hopefully Pozuelo will be back for this one. We are now 8 points out of the last playoff spot.
Despite the horrible game, it's nice to see Achara back. Does this mean we can finally put Mullins on loan to some random USL team?
What, you don't think Mullins is earning his $250 000? Who else is going to suck up minutes that could otherwise go to developing young talent?
A loss to Philly, a draw with NYFC, and a loss to New England. The playoffs are not mathematically out of reach yet but, for practical purposes, this season is over. A bunch of draws with the occasional win and less occasional loss simply isn't good enough. Nor, frankly, should this roster but performing so poorly. At this point I hope we go all in on the Canadian Championship and look ahead to next year. Priso is becoming a bright light in this dark season and appears to be getting rewarded with more playing time. Up next, a visit to Atlanta on Wednesday.
Makes me wish that my kid's U7 game was on Wednesday instead of tonight because I still can't bring myself to not watch the game if I'm in the house. At least attending the game is a fun experience, watching the road games is just torture.
And, ultimately, this is really what enjoying watching sports is about, win or lose. However, we did lose again. Problems: We need to get through the first half of a game (at least the first half hour) without conceding a goal. It would also be nice to try scoring a goal at some point. Also, team selection. If Pozuelo and Soteldo could play, why didn't they start? Why is Mullins still on the team, let alone starting? I'd rather see Achara or Nelson. They can't possible do worse than zero goals and at least we'd be developing someone with a future. Why is Julian Dunn not getting playing time when our existing defense is terrible? Or Singh? Again, if the existing guys are doing poorly anyway let's at least get some development time out of it. Good: Okello had a good game as did Shaffelburg. Up next, a trip to Miami on Saturday in a battle of the basement dwellers.
A 3-1 loss. Once again we concede a goal in the first few minutes. And it goes down hill from there. Oh, and our only scoring was from an own goal. At this point it really seems to come down to the players not wanting it. There is enough talent in this team, on paper, to do well but they simply aren't delivering. Before we could chalk it up to Armas playing a silly system but now it feels like it's on the players for not stepping up. That's not an attitude I'm familiar with from TFC and I'm not sure how you stop it. At this point I hope they can at least get their stuff together enough to beat York in the Canadian Championship in a couple of weeks. Up next, a Friday evening match in the land of smoked meat. Perhaps a rivalry game is what we need to get the players fired up and caring.
In all this World Cup qualifying fun, I've sort of lost track of TFC. Good to see Laryea and Osorio do well with the national team. On Saturday TFC head down to Cincinnati looking to avenge the 0-2 loss we suffered earlier in the season. Hopefully our nice long rest will let us perform well and snatch a win from the second worst team in the league. Maybe our national team stars can bring some of the fire back to their club.
A loss to Cincy and now a loss to Miami. I won't even get into the goal-called-back, red-card-called-back, or encroachment-on-a-penalty problems because, frankly, they shouldn't really matter. This team is just very, very bad; they don't need excuses, they need better play. The two very big questions for me right now are: 1. Why is the team so utterly terrible when you look at the players they have available? I'm not suggesting they are Cup material, but the team simply should not be finishing out of the playoffs, let alone last in the league. 2. Given that they are doing so poorly and the season is a write off anyway, why do they continue to play aging veterans? This is clearly the time to play the kids! Sure, include guys like Pozuelo, Soteldo, Osorio, and Laryea. Maybe Bradley, too. But other than that it should be a whole bunch of Dunn, Singh, Nelson, Shaffelburg, Akinola, Okello, Perruza, and so on. Guys like Mavinga, Delgado, Endoh (as much as I like him), Zavaleta, Dwyer, Mullins, etc. shouldn't see the field unless we'd otherwise be playing with fewer than eleven players. Next up we host Nashville on Saturday.
Probably for the same reason they might bring back an aging Giovinco. They don't have the patience to build a team and think they are a Real Madrid where you can just keep buying players except that in MLS, the salary cap/DP system doesn't let you take a mulligan on bad contracts.
I guess the biggest question is whether the root of the problem lies with underperforming players or a bad management team. On the plus side, MLSE shows a willingness to back the team with resources. On the minus side, the team has not performed well despite that. Personally, I think the best move TFC could make during the off season would be to re-sign Tim Bezbatchenko. We could then move forward with adjusting the player pool knowing that we'd be making good choices on the management end.
Last game was surprising 2-1 win over Nashville. Shaffelburg had a second great game in a starting line up that was completely devoid of DPs. The team also looked like it gave a care. If this version of TFC shows up on Wednesday, rather than the apathetic one that's been on display all too frequently lately, we should have no trouble with York. I am very curious what line up we will see for that game.
So in the end an uneventful 4-0 win over York. TFC fielded a real line up for this match, which was good to see. Also good to see Shaffelburg with another excellent game and Osorio once more scoring in the Canadian Championship. I believe he is now tied with Giovinco and Ignacio Piatti as the top all time scorer in the CC. The attendance was pitiful at 3651. Without checking, I believe this is TFC's lowest ever attendance (depending on how you count the Canadian Championship game against Vancouver that was abandoned and then replayed the next day - they had good crowd for the initial game but only ~500 for the replay). Next up is an away game in Colorado. That is going to be a tough one.
With the international break over, we now return to MLS action with TFC putting their four game unbeaten streak on the line as they host Atlanta on Saturday. Pretty hard to know how things will go given the long lay off. Of course, it's been pretty hard to predict what TFC will do these days anyway.
A 2-0 loss with Atlanta scoring in both sessions of time added on. An interesting trade of red cards with Auro and an Atlanta player both simulating big horn sheep against each other. Also a good performance by Marshall-Rutty; I hope to see more. Saturday brings a visit to Miami. A win by TFC would almost certainly end Miami's vapour thin playoff hopes.