Time to break out the oxygen masks

Yeah, I know it's been quiet around here lately. But frankly, there hasn't been much that I've felt like writing about. I'm choosing to ignore Toronto FC's terrible run of form, and the transfer window is no more exciting than it was a month ago, which is to say, not at all.

But finally, we have some games that actually matter. The Olympic football tournament has kicked off, with the first round of women's games being played this morning (or this evening, if you're in Beijing, which I sadly am not). Yes, the opening ceremony isn't until Friday, but the football has started already for some unknown reason.

The Canadian women won their first game, beating Argentina 2-1 with goals from Candace Chapman and Kara Lang, so they're off to a good start. They're still not one of the favourites for the tournament -- Germany, Norway, the USA and Brazil are the big names, just like they were at the World Cup last year -- but I'd say they have an outside chance. At the very least, they should be looking to improve on their World Cup showing, when they narrowly failed to get out of their group.

Other than Argentina, Canada is up against Sweden and hosts China in Group E (the men's side is Groups A to D). Sweden also won their opening game 2-1 against China. In Group F, Brazil and Germany played out a scoreless draw, while North Korea beat Nigeria 1-0. And in Group G, the Abby Wambach-less USA went down 1-0 to Norway, and Japan drew 2-2 with New Zealand. The top two teams from each group will move on to the quarter-finals starting August 15, along with the two best third-place finishers; the final is on August 21.

I don't know how much of the tournament I'll actually be able to watch, seeing as most of the games seem to be scheduled at some ungodly hour in the morning. Plus most of them aren't even being shown on TV. But the CBC is streaming everything live on their website; there's a full schedule here. Also, Kickster is doing profiles of all the women's teams.

As for the men's side, things have been complicated by the Court of Arbitration for Sport's ruling that clubs are not legally obliged to release their players for the Olympics, since it's not part of the official FIFA calendar. This means that players like Lionel Messi, for example, could end up being dragged back to Europe -- although I kind of expect the clubs to back down this time, just because it's going to make them look bad if they don't. Wouldn't play too well with Barca's goody-goody image.

Anyway, the first round of men's games is tomorrow, with 16 teams competing for medals:

Group A: Ivory Coast, Argentina, Australia, Serbia
Group B: Netherlands, Nigeria, Japan, USA
Group C: China, New Zealand, Brazil, Belgium
Group D: South Korea, Cameron, Honduras, Italy

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Now that the Euro fun and games are over, I'm trying to catch up on all of the stuff I've missed in the past few weeks.

Toronto FC
Toronto continued their quest for a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League with a 1-0 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps at BMO Field on Tuesday. Vancouver's goal came on a 36th-minute penalty after Jim Brennan was called for holding Vancouver's Jim Clarke in the 18-yard box. It was a very lackluster first half from TFC, and John Carver made three changes at halftime in an attempt to recharge the attack. Toronto dominated the second half, and Jeff Cunningham appeared to score in the 80th minute, but it was ruled out for offside.

All in all, a disappointing result for Toronto -- their first home loss of the season. But they should be a bit encouraged by the fan support, as the stadium was almost full despite the fact that the game wasn't included in the season ticket package.

The rematch between TFC and the Whitecaps will be July 9th in Vancouver. Before that, they play a friendly against Pachuca at BMO Field on July 5, followed by an away game against the Chicago Fire on July 12 and another friendly against Independiente on July 15.

Toronto may have lost to the Whitecaps, but their MLS home record is still without a defeat. They beat the Colorado Rapids 3-1 back on June 14, despite missing several key players due to international duty. That was followed by a scoreless draw with Kansas City on June 21.

I was at that game, and although Toronto didn't lose, I thought it was a mediocre performance -- it kind of reminded me of a lot of their games last year. Maybe it was because they were still fielding a lot of second-string players, despite having everyone back from internationals. Maybe they're all just tired; I don't know. But their awful road form continued -- Toronto is now 1-5-0 away from BMO Field this season -- with a 2-1 defeat to the New England Revolution on June 28. They really have to sort that out if they want to be genuine playoff contenders this year.

A few other odds and ends

• Toronto have signed 16-year-old striker Abdus Ibee Ibrahim from FC Dallas, in exchange for a conditional draft pick in the 2010 MLS SuperDraft.
  
  
• Mo Johnston is in talks with Paul Dickov (just released by Manchester City) and Darren Huckerby (most recently of Norwich City). Both players apparently watched the Toronto-Vancouver game this week, and Dickov trained with the team yesterday. I don't know much about Huckerby, but I can tell you that Dickov has a very punchable face.
  
  
• Amado Guevara, Greg Sutton and Maurice Edu have made it into the list of the top 10 players in fan voting for the All-Star Game, which makes up 25% of the total vote for the all-star team (the rest comes from coaches, players and the media). The team will be revealed next Thursday, July 10.
  
  
• The All-Star Game is apparently going to be part of a three-day Soccer Jam, whatever the hell that is. According to their press release, it will involve "plenty of fun, interactive soccer and music and activities that will appeal to soccer fans of all ages." It all sounds kind of horrifying, frankly, but then again I've never been much of a keener for stuff like that. Anyway, the whole shebang will be bookended by Toronto v. Montreal on July 22 and the All-Star Game against West Ham on July 24.
  
  
• The draw for the preliminary round and group stage has been done. Assuming that Toronto beats out Vancouver and Montreal for the one Canadian spot, they'd face the Nicaraguan champions in the preliminary round. If they win that, they'll be put into Group C along with Atlante (Mexico), Olímpia or Marathon (Honduras), and Joe Public (Trinidad & Tobago) or New England Revolution (USA).
  
  
• Ottawa has joined the list of potential sites for an MLS expansion team, as Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk is reportedly exploring bringing a soccer team to the city. Vancouver is another possibility -- and a more likely one, in my opinion -- with NBA star Steve Nash interested in helping to get an MLS team in his hometown. The league has already granted franchises to Seattle for 2009 and 2010, bringing the total to 16 teams, and is likely to cap expansion at 18 teams a couple years after that, so the competition could be intense.
  
  
• In other expansion news, MLSE is looking into the possibility of expanding BMO Field from its current capacity of 20,000 to about 30,000 seats. The club has sold out every league game this year, including 16,000 season ticket holders, which suggests that the demand is there. The sticking point, though, is likely to be who'll pay for the project, with the City of Toronto insisting that it won't contribute any more than the $9.8 million it put into the initial construction.
  
  
• On a related note, take a look at BMO Field's financial results for the first quarter of 2008. They reportedly lost money in the quarter -- more than they'd hoped -- but expect to be able to make it up over the rest of the year.

Canada men's national team
Canada opened their 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign with a 3-0 away victory over St. Vincent & the Grenadines, and then followed that up with a 4-1 win in the return leg in Montreal. In the next round, Canada will be facing Jamaica, Honduras and Mexico in Stage III of the CONCACAF qualifiers, which run from August to November. Canada’s three home matches are August 20 against Jamaica in Toronto, September 6 against Honduras in Montreal and October 15 against Mexico in Edmonton. Canada needs to finish as one of the top two teams in the group to advance to the next stage.

It's not all smooth sailing for the team, though: as usual, they're not happy with the CSA, and this time it's about which stadium should be their home field. The CSA wants to spread their games around the country -- and on top of that, they have a deal with the City of Toronto and MLSE to play at least six national team-related games at BMO Field each year. (These don't necessarily have to be senior men's team games, though.) The players, on the other hand, much prefer the natural surface at Montreal's Saputo Stadium.

I wonder, too, how much of their preference for Montreal is due to the crowd support they get there. Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton is a natural grass surface, but it's a huge venue to fill (60,000+ seats); Toronto is the right size, but it's a turf field and the away teams tend to get as much support as the Canadians do -- or more. Saputo Stadium is maybe too small -- only about 13,000 seats, but in addition to a much better playing surface, I suspect there's also less chance that the fans will be cheering for the other guys. But I'm with the Globe and Mail's Ben Knight in hoping that this will change in Toronto in the future.

Actually, combining this issue with the possibility of expanding BMO Field, you know what I'd really like to see? A whole soccer complex on the CNE grounds. A main pitch with a natural grass surface and expanded stands, for Toronto FC and (the majority of) national team games. Plus a couple of turf fields -- with a bubble over them in the winter -- for use in training and by community soccer leagues. I know it'd take a fairly significant injection of cash, but how awesome would that be?


Canada women's national team
The Canadian women's team finished second overall in the eight-team Peace Queen Cup in South Korea from June 14 to June 21. Canada opened the tournament with a 5-0 win over Argentina, followed by a 3-1 victory over their Korean hosts. A 2-0 win over New Zealand meant that they finished top of their group. Unfortunately, they lost 1-0 to the USA in the final, after Angela Hucles scored off a free kick in the 90th minute.

The team is now in a residency camp in Vancouver to prepare for the Olympics in August. They'll warm up for the Olympics with a friendly against Brazil at BMO Field on July 10. (Which reminds me that I should try to round up some people from my women's team to go and watch them. Or any of my teams, really; I shouldn't be assuming that only the women would want to go.)

The womens' U20 team, meanwhile, has just won the 2008 CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship in Mexico. Canada won all three of its group games, beating Nicaragua, Jamaica and Costa Rica, and beating Mexico 2-1 in the semi-final. The Canadian team went on to defeat the USA 1-0 in the final, with a goal from Karla Schacher just before halftime. The result means that Canada, along with the USA and Mexico, has booked a spot at the Under-20 World Cup in Chile this November.


Phew. My typing fingers hurt now.

Taking a brief break from the Euros

Toronto FC were thumped 3-1 by the Houston Dynamo on Sunday, continuing their awful form on the road. Toronto seemed to be struggling without Amado Guevara and Maurice Edu -- both away with their national teams -- and spent most of the game pinned back in their own half. Still, they managed to hold off their opponents until stoppage time in the first half, when Brian Ching set up Dwayne De Rosario for the opening goal. Ching added two more goals for Houston in the second half, and they seemed to be picking holes in the Toronto defence at will. Jeff Cunningham pulled a goal back for TFC in the 71st minute, but apart from that they rarely threatened the Houston goal. They'll be glad to get back to BMO Field for their home game against the Colorado rapids this Saturday.

On a fashion note, I have a feeling I've said this before, but it bears repeating: Those grey away jerseys are awful. Especially with the red shorts. Maybe if they had black shorts it'd look better. (What, are they too cheap to spring for a full away kit?) As it is, it just looks like they forgot to change out of their warmup jerseys before the game.

Also annoying: The local Houston commentators who were calling the game. It's not American football, so please stop talking about turnovers, kthx.

Other red-and-white-related news:

• Canada drew 2-2 with Panama last week in a closed-doors friendly ahead of their World Cup qualifying matches later this month. Canada took a 1-0 lead through Jamie Peters in the first half, before giving up a goal on either side of halftime to go behind 2-1. Ante Jazic scored a late goal for Canada to tie things up.
  
  
• Canada have moved up to 60th place in the latest FIFA rankings, tied with Panama. St. Vincent and the Grenadines, their opponents in the first round of World Cup qualifying this Sunday, are down in 147th.
  
  
• The Canadian women's team is still in 9th place, between France and Japan. The Canadian women's next game is this Saturday versus Argentina, who are also one of the teams that they'll be facing in their group at the Olympics in Beijing.
  
  
• Even Pellerud has announced that he'll be stepping down as the head coach of the women's team after the Olympics in August.
  
  
• And finally, the Footie Fool posted this link to an interview with Julian de Guzman on the FAN 590.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging, i.e., ITALY WTF.

Soccer Day in Canada

Okay, I'm a day late according to the CBC, but whatever. If you really want to watch the Red Deer U14 girls, it's all on up on the CBC website anyway.

The marquee game of the day was Toronto FC versus the LA Galaxy, and Toronto came away with a 2-0 win. LA were without David Beckham -- away on with England -- and Landon Donovan was only fit enough for the bench, but Toronto were missing a few regular starters too, through a combination of injuries, suspension and international duty. But their replacements coped admirably, notably rookie defender Julius James, who scored the opening goal on his MLS debut. Jeff Cunningham, given a chance to start with Danny Dichio out, added the second goal in the 65th minute. Overall, a satisfying game, as Toronto dominated throughout and only held the Galaxy to just one shot on target, despite their depleted roster.

Also, earlier in the week, Toronto kicked off their qualifying campaign for the CONCACAF Champions League with a 1-0 victory over the Impact in Montreal. Marco Velez scored the only goal, off a free kick from Laurent Robert.

One game that was missing from the CBC's soccer coverage yesterday was the friendly between Canada and Brazil in Seattle. Sportsnet apparently showed the match this morning, but they did a shitty job of publicizing it, and I missed it. Anyway, Brazil won 3-2, after Canada had fought back twice to tie the game up. Julian de Guzman, who had equalized to make it 2-2 for Canada, played a sloppy back-pass that Robinho pounced on in the 63rd minute, winning it for Brazil with his second goal of the game. Still, it's a decent result for Canada, even considering that Brazil were missing a few of their stars like Kaka and Ronaldinho.

Speaking of the Canadian men's national team, a couple of the players have (finally) come out with their thoughts on the ongoing incompetence of the CSA. No surprise that they're not happy, although you might not have expected them to say so publicly. It'll be interesting to see if this gets the CSA off their collective asses, or if it'll be just more of the same. One interesting point in that article, though, is that they seem to be suggesting that the women's team gets a bigger share of the budget than the men's team does. Anybody know if that's true? Because it doesn't sound right to me. Not that I'm saying the men's team should automatically get more; I would expect it to be split evenly. I suppose the problem with that, though, is that it would mean the men's team is underfunded relative to other countries -- whereas that would be less of an issue for the Canadian women's team, since the women's teams tend to get shafted everywhere.

Somebody asked me the other day what the process is for Canada (and the rest of CONCACAF) in World Cup qualification, and I had no idea, so I thought I'd look it up. (Thank you, Wikipedia.) No wonder I didn't know how it worked, because it's kind of complicated. Basically, there are four stages:

• The lowest-ranked countries (ranked #14 through #35) play each other in the first round, with the 11 winners moving on; the top 13 teams get a bye.
  
• In the second round, which takes place this month, the top 13 teams play the 11 winners from the first round, with the winners of these games again moving on. Canada will be playing St. Vincent and the Grenadines, on June 15 and 20.
  
• The third stage is a round-robin, with three groups of four teams. The top two teams in each group advance. Assuming that Canada makes it to this stage, along with the other top-seeded teams, it'll face Mexico, Jamaica and Honduras.
  
• In the final round, the six remaining teams all play each other, and the top three teams from that qualify for the World Cup. The fourth-place team gets a play-off against the fifth-place team from South America. Canada should have a decent chance; assuming that the USA and Mexico get the first two spots, then Canada will be scrapping it out with teams like Costa Rica and Panama for third or fourth place.

The Canadian women's team, meanwhile, is busy tuning up for the Olympics. Their last match was a 2-1 loss to Australia in a friendly last weekend. This month they travel to Korea for the Peace Queen Cup, and then July 10 will be their debut at BMO Field, against Brazil. I'm just hoping that they get a decent turnout, because the stands at the men's U20 game against Argentina a few weeks ago were embarassingly empty.

Random Friday news

• I'm off to the home opener for Toronto FC tomorrow afternoon. Toronto are coming off a somewhat surprising 3-2 victory over the LA Galaxy, thanks to a late goal from Jeff Cunningham. (Which reminds me, I really ought to track down the highlights from that game, just so that I can laugh at Landon Donovan.) They face Real Salt Lake, whose last game was a 4-0 win again last year's champions DC United. I have no idea what their chances are, really, but it's supposed to be a warm, sunny afternoon down by the lake, so I don't much care.
  
  
• The Canadian women's team is going to the Olympics for the first time ever, after finishing second in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament last weekend. Canada beat Mexico 1-0 in the semi-finals to guarantee their spot in China this summer, and followed that up with a relatively meaningless 1-1 draw against the USA in the final, eventually losing 6-5 on penalties. The two teams will have a rematch next month in a friendly at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC.
  
  
• I suppose the title race in the Premiership is back on again -- they seem to change their minds on this every few days -- after Chelsea beat Everton 1-0 yesterday, leaving them just two points behind Manchester United. But they've also played one game more, and the draw with Wigan on Monday kind of took their legs out from under them (I have never liked Emile Heskey as much as I did then). Also, Avram Grant appears to be having some sort of meltdown.
  
  
• I continue to be irritated and slightly befuddled by the soap opera at Liverpool, but as far as I can tell it's boiled down to Hicks + Rafa versus Gillett + Parry. And I think what they should do to settle this whole thing is some WWF-style tag team wrestling. They could sell tickets, and the TV rights, and maybe even earn enough money to buy Fernando Torres for real.
  
  
• Finally, there's an interesting discussion over on Pitch Invasion about football fandom and gender. I half wanted to get involved, but I think first I have to brush up on my notes from my anthropological theory class. Anyway, check go it out.

Canada-centric linkspam

• First up, some (moderately) good news for those of us in Canada: Setanta Sports is going to be launching a Canadian soccer channel in partnership with Rogers Cable. There aren't a lot of details yet, but they're hoping to have it up and running by the time the Premiership season starts on August 11. It'll probably be a premium channel, costing about $15 a month. Which is pretty steep, but I'm going to suck it up and pay so I can get my fix.
  
  Basically, what's happened is this: The Score bought the Canadian rights for Premiership games, and is going to be sub-licensing them to Setanta. The Score will carry the 11am Sunday games, while Setanta will have most of the other games. Rogers Sportsnet, which was previously showing three games on Saturdays, will now only have one: the second-choice 10am match. FSWC, I think, is going to be left out in the cold.
  
  
• The police inquiry into the incident with the Chilean U20 team has exonerated the officers involved. Hopefully that'll be the end of that.
  
  
• The Canadian women's team came home from the Pan Am Games with the bronze medal, beating Mexico 2-1 in the third-place game. It was kind of a so-so tournament for Canada: they dominated their first two group games but then lost to Brazil 7-0 (or, really, losing to Marta +10) in the final round-robin match and went down 2-1 to the USA in the semi-finals. (The USA, represented by an U20 team, went on to lose 5-0 to Brazil in the final.) They've got a couple weeks off now, and then it's back to training for the World Cup in September.
  
  
• Toronto FC are finally back at home, but still struggling. They lost 4-2 to Aston Villa in a friendly last week -- although at least that was a decent performance, with TFC going down 2-0 and then coming back to tie it up before losing to a couple of late goals. On Sunday, though, they lost 3-0 to the Chicago Fire, and they were terrible.
  
  The team, unfortunately, is carrying a lot of injuries, including both their first- and second-string keepers. (Jose Mourinho is almost feeling sympathetic right now.) They actually had to start an 18-year-old rookie in net this week -- but the problem was less the goalkeeping and more the rest of the team in front of him. They had nothing going forward and even less defence. I know the MLS isn't the greatest league in the world, but come on. You can't let players just walk into the box unmarked.
  
  Up next: A home game against the LA Galaxy (aka David Beckham And His Man Crumpets). Still no word on whether Becks will play, but if he does, I'm sure he'll get quite the reception the first time he goes to take a corner.
  
  
• I forgot to mention this before, but the 2008 MLS All-Star Game is going to be held in Toronto.
  
  
• Why soccer isn't hockey. Not a bad clip from the CBC, with a reporter venturing into the stands during a Toronto FC game. Actually, this reminds me that I have a theory that part of the reason why soccer has been (relatively speaking) welcomed here is that hockey, rather than a "summer" sport like baseball or football, is our number one sport. And soccer -- despite the insanity of the Stanley Cup finals being played in June -- doesn't conflict too much with the hockey season.

Stuff that doesn't involve underage footballers

• I decided to watch the final of the Copa America between Argentina and Brazil on Sunday...not that I really like either team, but I figured that at least Argentina had been playing some good football throughout the tournament, so they'd be worth watching.
  
  Wrong.
  
  My theory us that they were so discombobulated by the sight of Julio Baptista acutally scoring that it totally threw them off their game. Baptista not only scored, it was a stunner, and coming so early in the match, it should have given Argentina lots of time to equalize. But although they did have a few good chances, it was Brazil who scored again. Well, technically it was Ayala, trying to atone for his earlier mistake against Baptista by clearing a dangerous ball in the box but sending it into his own goal by mistake. Ouch. It was 2-0 at halftime and 3-0 after an hour, with Argentina looking increasingly cranky and out of sorts. Brazil played like Italy -- solid defensively and then counterattacking dangerously -- whereas Argentina just played like crap.
  
  
• YNBA and I have done our second annual end-of-season awards. Yes, we know we're really behind on that. But it's never too late to award some lucky player Chav Of The Year.
  
  
• David Beckham was unveiled as an LA Galaxy player on Friday; I've got nothing new to say about it, so I won't. But I do have tickets to the Galaxy game against Toronto FC next month. I could sell mine and, you know, have a nice down payment on a house, but I think I'd rather see this one. Also, I wouldn't bet against the Toronto fans reviving some of the dirtier chants about Posh. (Speaking of whom, I watched that NBC special last night, and wow, that was not good.)
  
  
• Toronto picked up another point on the road, holding the Houston Dynamo to a scoreless draw despite having Maurice Edu sent off in the first half. Heading into the all-star break (the "Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game at Dick's Sporting Goods Park"; how lame does that sound?) they're still second from bottom in the Eastern Conference, but frankly it seems to be much tougher than the Western Conference. And thanks to the MLS's "Everybody wins! Participation counts!" approach, they just have to be among the top 8 out of 13 teams to make the playoffs at the end of the season. That'll be tough, but it is possible.
  
  
• Canada may have sucked at the U20 World Cup, but the Canadian women's team is currently kicking ass at the Pan Am games in Brazil. They thrashed Uruguay 7-0 to open the tournament and then followed it up by beating Ecuador 4-0 yesterday. Some of the team members are also guest blogging over at Canada Kicks; too bad they're not very interesting so far.

Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough

Toronto FC is holding open tryouts next month. Think you've got what it takes? Go here to sign up.

The catch is that it'll cost you $110 to sign up, but you'll get an Adidas jersey and vouchers for two Toronto FC games.

If you don't want to play for the team, you just want to watch, tickets for Toronto FC games go on sale to the public November 15. Tickets are expected to cost $15-$65. Club members get first dibs on season tickets, in return for their $50 membership fee.

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In other Canadian soccer news, the Canadian women's team played recently in the finals of the Peace Queen Cup in Korea, losing 1-0 to the U.S. It's still a great achievement for them, as they beat a couple of higher-ranked teams to make the final. Next up for the team is the Gold Cup, November 19-26. Finalists in the tournament will earn a spot at the 2007 World Cup in China, and the Canadians have a good shot, because they've got an automatic berth in the Gold Cup semi-finals, facing either Panama or Jamaica.

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Tickets are also on sale now for the FIFA U20 Tournament being held in Canada next summer. (And I'm putting the information here mostly because I keep looking it up and then forgetting about it.)

The tournament begins on June 30, 2007, with the finals on July 22 in Toronto (full schedule here).

Tickets are only available in packages right now -- with the exception of the Edmonton games, although I'm not sure why. No word on when you'll be able to buy single-match tickets for the rest of the venues. Package prices range from about $50 to $500, depending on how many games you want to see and how good the seats are (details here). There are also deals available for the "soccer community," whatever that means.

The situation with the Toronto tickets is a bit confusing, partly because the way the packages are described on the FIFA website isn't quite the same as on the Ticketmaster site, but basically how it works is that you have a choice between three packages:

• Package A (four match days) - Opener plus three double header preliminary round games
  
• Package B (five match days) - Opener plus two round of 16 games, one quarter-final and one semi-final
  
• Package C (eight match days) - Opener plus three preliminary round games, two round of 16 games, one quarter-final and one semi-final

Each of those packages also comes with the option to buy tickets to the final and the third-place match, for an extra $40-$100, depending on which seats you have.