And the summer drags on

Yawn. I think the most exciting soccer-related thing I've come across recently was the head wound I picked up at my game on Monday. Seriously, y'all.

Anyway, I figured it was time for another periodic update from the Great White North...

Toronto FC's extended streak of mediocrity continues, as they drew 1-1 with the Montreal Impact yesterday in the Nutrilite Canadian Championship (god, what a stupid name). Toronto took an early lead with a goal from Rohan Ricketts, but Roberto Brown equalized for Montreal just 10 minutes later. Once Montreal had that goal, they could just sit back and defend, because a draw was enough for them to win the mini-tournament. They'll move on to face Real Esteli of Nicaragua at the end of August in an attempt to qualify for the group stage of the CONCACAF Champions League.

I suspect there was a bit of complacency from TFC and their fans going into this competition, since they were the only MLS team. But after starting out by beating Montreal, they took just one point from their two games against Vancouver, losing 1-0 at home and drawing 2-2 on the West Coast. That meant they needed a win in their final game, and they didn't get it. The Impact and the Whitecaps help their own against the supposed big boys from MLS, and I think that's not such a bad thing. A close, hard-fought competition like this -- and the rivalry, particularly between Toronto and Montreal that it should inspire -- can only help the state of professional soccer in Canada.

Meanwhile, in the domestic league, Toronto played out a scoreless draw with San Jose on Saturday. They had an early goal incorrectly called back for offside, and then Amado Guevara missed a penalty in the second half. But even so, not being able to score a single goal against the last-place team in the league is kind of embarrassing.

The week before, Toronto lost to Chicago 2-1, pushing their abysmal away record to one win and six losses. Chicago scored in stoppage time to take away Toronto's chance of picking up at least a point. The real robbery, though, came earlier in the game when Maurice Edu was taken out by the Chicago keeper and instead of being awarded a penalty, he was booked for diving. That yellow card also meant that he was suspended for the game against San Jose. Way to go, ref.

And in their two friendlies -- you know, because they really needed another couple of games to cram into the schedule -- Toronto drew 1-1 with Pachuca back on July 5, with Pachuca winning the ensuing penalty shootout 4-3. And last week, Toronto lost 1-0 to Independiente, as the Argentinean team scored off a free kick in the second half.

I think I said in my last post about TFC that they just hadn't been playing well enough. And it probably didn't help having all these extra games on top of the MLS matches -- as one of the commentators pointed out on Saturday, it means they have less time on the training field, which could explain some of their defensive sloppiness. The problem right now is that they don't have enough firepower up front -- Danny Dichio is struggling with concussion, and Jeff Cunningham is struggling, period -- which means that they can't afford to give up even a single goal.

Looking on the bright side, Toronto did look better in the last couple of games I saw, against Independiente and San Jose. No, they didn't win, but they were at least trying to pass the ball around again, rather than just hoofing it forward to Dichio -- which doesn't work all that well even when he's playing, let alone when he's in the treatment room. And they can take hope from the good form shown so far by 16-year-old Abdus "Ibby" Ibrahim, who made his debut for TFC against Pachuca and followed that up by scoring his first league goal against Chicago. They do still need a reliable finisher, though.

Just to add to the fun for Toronto, Maurice Edu and Marvell Wynne have been named to the U.S. Olympic team. They'll join up with the squad after the TFC game against Real Salt Lake on July 28. The team will miss them, but it's nice to see a couple Toronto players being recognized for their good performances this season.

Which is more than I can say for the All-Star team. When the results from the fan voting came out, TFC had six players in the top 15 vote-getters. But when the "First XI" was announced (taking into account the votes from coaches and the media)? A big fat zero. Thanks a lot, MLS. They did get a token with the addition of Jim Brennan to the roster, after seven more players were picked by all-star team coach Steve Nicol and the league commissioner. But still: bah.

Pardon this interruption

I was at BMO Field last week for the Toronto FC game against New York Red Bulls (a 1-1 draw; it was a cold, rainy evening, and I drank a lot of overpriced beer to keep warm). During the game, as usual, the fans in the south stand were throwing streamers at the New York players whenever they went to take a corner kick. One of them, in fact, ended up running around the field for a couple minutes afterwards without realizing that he still had a streamer wrapped around his waist. I thought it was funny, but then I don't claim to have a sophisticated sense of humour.

And then I came across this, in which some tool on ESPN rants about how fans shouldn't be throwing things on the field, because it makes the league look unprofessional, and it made me think. Do I agree with him? (Well, obviously not, since I'm referring to him as a tool, but let's look at his argument anyway.)

First of all, he's got an unexplained hate-on for soccer, describing it as a "junk product." And I don't think what he means is that MLS less good compared to the big European leagues; he just hates soccer, period. So he's biased, but whatever. His main argument is that you don't see anything like the streamers in the major American sports leagues (baseball, basketball, football); therefore, it makes the MLS look bad. It's a pretty insular point of view. He's obviously never seen a South American football game, where things get thrown on the pitch all the time -- and not just streamers, but everything up to and possibly even including the kitchen sink. And that sort of interaction from the fans is part of the atmosphere at the games. Reproducing that, even in a small way, makes Toronto FC games better, not worse, as anyone who knows anything about the sport will tell you. Next this douchewad is going to claim that the fans shouldn't sing, or bring flags to the stadium, because that's not how they do things in the good ol' U. S. of A.

But what about the argument that it's interfering with the game? I can't find the link now, but I did come across someone who said that they'd never let the fans get away with throwing streamers at someone who was about to take a penalty kick, for example. Maybe not, and I don't think they should. But fans will yell at penalty-takers to put them off, and that's fine. It's just trying to mess with their head. And that's really what the streamers are about too. They're not actually expecting that someone's going to trip over a streamer and fuck up the corner kick (although, if that did happen, damn right I would laugh). All the players have to do is wait for the streamers to be thrown, clear them away, and then take the kick. And the game goes on, and it's all the better for the fans not just sitting there like lumps.

Toronto FC 1-0 Real Salt Lake

To steal from Sven Goran Eriksson: First half good, second half not so good.

On a perfect sunny afternoon, the rowdy fans at BMO Field probably wouldn't have cared that much about the final score. But a victory for Toronto -- bringing their record up to two wins and two losses this season -- just made it even better.

Toronto already look better than they did last season, because they're actually trying to play -- passing the ball around neatly, keeping possession -- rather than just hoofing it up to Danny Dichio. (Dichio, by the way, still has the turning radius of your average oil tanker.) They were creating a lot of good chances on goal, and got a break after half an hour when Laurent Robert scored from a free kick. It was just outside the box, which is a tough position to get the ball up over the wall and back down, so Robert's solution was to put it under the wall as they jumped instead. The keeper had no chance, and between that goal and his otherwise excellent play, Robert is off to a good start in Toronto.

I didn't see a whole lot from Amado Guevara, the other big name that TFC have brought in recently, but he did win the free kick from which Robert scored. (Also, it's possible that I kept forgetting which one he was. I blame the beer.) The other player I noticed was winger Rohan Ricketts, making his debut for the team: He's got lots of pace, and he's certainly not afraid to take on defenders and beat his man, but he desperately needs to work on his final ball into the box. Too often he was selfish and tried to do it all himself, or his crosses were just weak. But he's young, and that'll improve as he gets more experience. (Remember what Cristiano Ronaldo was like when he first joined Manchester United? Sort of like that, except the MLS version.)

Anyway, it's nice to see players who want the ball and will try to do something with it. I just wish there'd been more of that in the second half. Instead, Toronto dropped too deep, trying to protect their lead -- which is always dangerous when you're only up by one goal. I still don't think their back line is as strong as it could be, and they looked much better organized when they were keeping the play in Real's half, but they did manage to keep a clean sheet after all.

Next up: Another home game this Saturday, against the Kansas City Wizards. And a chance to get above .500 for the first time in their history.

Why do I always seem to be away during Champions League weeks?

Apologies for the lack of posts around here, but I've been on vacation all week. I meant to put something up before I left, but an insufficient amount of time and an oversufficient amount of alcohol conspired against it. Probably just as well, because all my Champions League predictions would have been woefully inaccurate.

The resort did have ESPN, but even I wasn't about to give up valuable beach time in favour of watching football. So I'm just catching up now.

• I did see the second half of United's game against Roma, as they took a 2-0 lead home to Old Trafford. It looked like a solid performance, not as over-cautious as they too often are when playing away in Europe. And Cristiano Ronaldo will have shut a few more people up with his goal here. The bad news is the injury to Nemanja Vidic; combined with Rio Ferdinand limping out of their game on the weekend, it leaves the back line looking rather shaky. Reminds me of last season, actually, when I think seem to recall them being forced into playing Darren Fletcher at right-back.
  
  
• Liverpool drew 1-1 with Arsenal at the Emirates, which gives them a slight advantage going into the second leg. But it's a very slight advantage. It's quite possible that Fernando Torres will score a brilliant goal and they'll put together another magnificent defensive performance and stymie Arsenal for 90 minutes, but it's equally possible that Pepe Reina will have a brain fart and then Dirk Kuyt will fall over his own feet when presented with an open net. I am expecting dreading that it's going to be another 1-1 followed by penalties.
  
  
• Chelsea took the lead against Fenerbahce through an own-goal, but then gave up two goals in the second half; it was the reverse of many of their games this season, as they played well but still lost. Ha. And Barcelona beat Schalke, as expected, albeit by only one goal -- the first Champions League goal for wunderkind Bojan Krkic.
  
  
• Meanwhile, in the league, United started the week by destroying Villa 4-0, demonstrating what they can do if you are foolish enough to go to Old Trafford and attempt to play rather than stringing 11 men across the goalmouth. They followed that up with a snowy 2-2 draw at Middlesbrough, who have been surprisingly tough against the so-called big teams this year. Uh-oh.
  
  
• Liverpool faced a couple of tricky games but have done pretty well, beating Everton 1-0 in the derby and then drawing against Arsenal with their second-string team in the league game sandwiched between their two Champions League matches. They still have only a narrow lead over Everton in the table, but it should be enough to preserve their spot in the top four. The boardroom drama continues; I continue to stick my fingers in my ears and chant "La la la I can't hear you."
  
  
• Chelsea are still steadily winning games, beating Middlesbrough and then Man City. They're now only three points behind Manchester United and I'm starting to get a bit worried. But I refuse to believe that United can be caught by a team managed by one of the Gorgs from Fraggle Rock.
  
  
• Arsenal staged an amazing comeback last weekend, beating a doomed Bolton 3-2 after going down 2-0 and then having a man sent off. I was laughing at them when I left for the airport at halftime, and then they had to go and win after all, the bastards.
  
  
• Also, Newcastle apparently don't suck anymore...when did that happen?
  
  
• In the FA Cup, Portsmouth beat West Brom and Cardiff beat Barnsley, both one-nil, to reach the finals. I am trying to care and failing miserably, especially now that designated minnows Barnsley are out.
  
  
• And here at home, Toronto FC are off to another dismal start to the season, losing their first two games on the road, against Columbus and DC United. I think this could be a chronic problem for them, because they're probably going to start every season away from home while they wait for the snow to melt. Makes it hard to build any sort of momentum when you've already dropped points in your first few games. A bit of good news (I guess?) is that they've signed Laurent Robert from Derby. Yeah, only in MLS is picking up a player from the worst team in the Premiership seen as an asset.

All For One

I have to admit that -- despite having season tickets -- I am not a very good Toronto FC fan. I've just realized that the MLS season starts this Saturday and I have no idea what's been happening with the team all winter. (Toronto's home opener isn't until April 19th, which is fortunate because there's still snow on the ground here.) Anyway, this seemed like a good time for a little recap -- or a long recap, as the case may be -- of where things stand.

Let’s start with a look back at last year. On the field, it certainly wasn’t the most auspicious debut season. Toronto finished dead last in the league, with a record goalscoring drought along the way. The team had two main problems last year: injuries and their terrible away form. They had an overall record of six wins, seven draws and 17 losses, but only one of those wins came on the road. Basically, away from BMO Field, they were useless, and even when they were at home, they just weren’t consistent enough.

Injuries were a big part of that; I don’t think Mo Johnston got to field his first-choice XI for more than maybe one game all season. They’ve reportedly hired a full-time strength and conditioning coach, which should help this year, and will also be hoping not to have to deal with some of the freak injuries they had last season (like the concussion for goalkeeper Greg Sutton). But there are still questions about the effect of playing on turf at BMO – I’ve heard it suggested that a big part of Ronnie O’Brien’s chronic knee problems were because of training on the turf day in, day out – and that’s not something that’s just going to go away.

Things on the field may not have been great, but off the pitch the club – and the league – should be pretty happy. There isn’t a lot of financial information publicly available, but the Toronto Star did feature an article about allegedly leaked financial statements for MLSE, the club’s owners. It doesn’t break out the details for TFC, but the fact that they sold an average of 5,500 more tickets per game than they'd forecast suggests the team should be making a profit. And BMO Field itself reportedly realized a profit of $900,000 during its eight months of operations in 2007, to be split 50/50 between MLSE and the City of Toronto.

Most of that is from season ticket sales, which are up again for next season. In 2007, the club capped season tickets at 14,000; they’ve upped that to 16,000 for this year, and sold them all, including about 13,000 renewals – despite prices going up an average of 13% – and the waiting list is still as long as your arm. The stadium only holds about 20,000, so it looks like most of the games are going to be sell-outs.

That’s caused a bit of controversy, actually, related to the number of seats that the club allocates for away supporters. It’s a tough call: obviously the owners would prefer to have guaranteed seat sales rather than potential ones, and with only 4,000 seats available for single-game sales (probably not even that much, because I think they were also selling partial season packages), there's not a lot of wiggle room. On the other hand, it probably wouldn’t hurt them to set aside a larger block for away supporters and then release the unsold tickets for walk-up sales on game day. There’s enough demand that chances are they’d still sell out if it was publicized enough. And developing rivalries with other teams is an important part of the atmosphere at the games.

I also think the club will be looking into expanding the stadium in the not-too-distant future. The timing is going to depend on how long it takes them to earn enough to finance that, and to develop enough of a guaranteed fan base to fill the expanded space. There’s been no evidence so far of a drop-off in support, but who knows how long that will last if the team doesn’t improve.

But the fans are unquestionably the main factor that made last season a success overall. A number of supporters’ groups had been established even before the team took the field – the Red Patch Boys, U-Sector, Tribal Rhythm Nation, the Northend Elite. I’m not a part of any of those groups, but it seems to me that the club did a pretty decent job of connecting with and encouraging those fans, while also still appealing to more casual supporters. It’s not always an easy balance – is that family going to be upset, say, if there’s a rowdy group swearing at the ref right behind them? I’m interested to see how things will develop this year. But there are already more than 2,500 TFC fans planning to make the trip down to Columbus tomorrow, so that’s a good sign.

The off-season has been kind of frustrating for the fans, with not a whole lot happening. Occasionally you’d get a bit of news about players being invited for trials or whatever, but nothing ever seemed to come of it. Most of the news, in fact, seemed to be about players leaving the club. The biggest blow was probably playmaker Ronnie O’Brien moving to the San Jose Earthquakes in exchange for a 2009 draft pick, and Chris Pozniak was also picked up by the Earthquakes in the expansion draft. Goalkeeper Kenny Stamatopoulos has returned to Tromso in Norway after his loan term ended, and the team has released a whole list of players: Adam Braz, Miguel Canizalez, Srdjan Djekanovic, Jeffrey Gonsalves, David Guzman, Stephen Lumley, Christian Nunez and Marco Reda.

Meanwhile, Mo Johnston picked up a handful of players in the MLS draft: defenders Julius James and Mike Zaher, defender/midfielder Pat Phelan, goalkeeper Brian Edwards and striker Joseph Lapira. Toronto also acquired midfielder Kevin Harmse from the LA Galaxy in exchange for a draft pick and defender Marco Velez on a free transfer from the USL’s Puerto Rico Islanders. Finally, they’ve signed midfielder Tyler Rosenlund and striker Jarrod Smith as free agents. And that’s it.

The club is clearly trying to fill in some of the gaps that became obvious last season – strengthening the back line, bringing in some backup in net. The problem is that there were just so many places where they needed better players, or more depth. One area that I still think is a problem is the lack of firepower up front, especially considering how hard it sometimes was for Toronto to score goals last year. They have to consider the salary cap, of course, but as far as I know they’ve still got room to manouevre there. They should also be helped by the changes to the roster requirements, which allows Toronto a couple more international players to compensate for the relatively smaller pool of talent in Canada.

The other issue is a designated player – or the lack thereof. And I don’t think this is a big deal, actually. The team could probably afford one, but they clearly don’t need a big name just to get people through the turnstiles. What they do need is a talented player who can add the missing spark to the team. But that’s not much use if you don’t have a solid enough squad built around him. My point is that there’s no point having a DP just for the sake of having one. Better to wait until the right player – and the right fit for the team – comes along. I couldn’t begin to tell you who that might be, but when he does, they’d better grab him.

And TFC does need some good news, because their pre-season has been kind of up and down. They started back in February with a training camp in Florida, where they faced off against a few other MLS teams (DC United, Kansas City Wizards, Chicago Fire), plus Danish club Odense and the U.S. U-17s, and finished with a record of two wins, three draws and one loss. Then it was off to Texas at the beginning of March for a four-team mini-tournament with Chivas USA, DC United and the Houston Dynamo, where Toronto finished third overall, winning one game and losing two. They finished up with the Carolina Challenge Cup in South Carolina, drawing with New York Red Bulls and losing to both the San Jose Earthquakes and the Charleston Battery. It’s not a great record; you can excuse some of that due to the problems of testing out players on trial and integrating new signings, but it still would’ve been nice to see more concrete signs of improvement before the season starts.

Still, the club continues to look towards the future. There’s been a change to the managerial structure, with Mo Honston moving upstairs to become Director of Soccer, while John Carver, formerly the caretaker manager at Leeds United and assistant manager at Newcastle and Luton Town, has joined as the new head coach. They’ve started an academy program to develop young players, which will include U-18 and U-16 teams for its first season. The club should also get a boost from the opportunity to participate in the CONCACAF Champions League, with TFC competing with the USL’s Vancouver Whitecaps and Montreal Impact for a chance to represent Canada in the tournament.

Meanwhile, the rest of the league will be looking at Toronto as a barometer for how other expansion teams might fare. The San Jose Earthquakes will be returning to MLS for the 2008 season, bringing the league up to 14 teams, and there are plans to expand to 18 teams by 2012. MLS has already announced that Seattle will join in 2009 and Philadelphia in 2010. There’s been no word yet about the 17th and 18th spots, but St. Louis is reportedly a frontrunner, and George Gillett (owner of Liverpool and the Montreal Canadiens) has teamed up with the Montreal Impact to bid for a franchise. Other possibilities include Atlanta, Detroit, Portland, Vancouver, a return to Miami, and a second team in New York.

Wow, that was a lot longer than I meant it to be. Kudos if you made it this far; as a reward, you get a commemorative seat cushion thrown at your head.

MLS Cup: Houston Dynamo 2-1 New England Revolution

I tried to watch the MLS Cup. I really did. But that was not good.

And I'm not just talking about ABC's production values -- the overcrowded commentary booth, the weird camera angles, the constant cuts away from the action, the excessive candy-coloured graphics. It's like they're broadcasting for hyperactive four-year-olds.

On the other hand, maybe they were just trying to compensate for the game itelf, because quality of play on the field wasn't great either. Both teams displayed a shocking lack of ability to hold on to the ball for more than two or three passes. It was like watching England to the nth power.

Which, actually, makes it not too surprising that two of the three goals came from crosses headed in -- Taylor Twellman opening the scoring for New England in the first half, and Dwayne De Rosario scoring Houston's second -- with the other one coming when Joseph Ngwenya equalized after a scramble in the box. No pretty flowing passing moves here, nosirree! That's for wimps like Arsenal, or Brazil! You know, those team that are actually good.

Still, I'm vaguely pleased that Houston won, with De Rosario scoring the winning goal. I have to cheer for my Canadian boys. This makes it Houston's second MLS Cup win in a row, while New England have now been to the final for the past three years (they lost to Houston on penalties in 2006) and not won once, which makes them big choking chokers who choke.

Also, Taylor Twellman needs to stop trying to show off his pecs and get himself a shirt that fits properly.

BOO-YAH.

I normally don't write about my own games here, because I figure that if you're not actually on the team, it's not that interesting. But I wanted to take a moment to brag about the fact that my Friday team clinched the league title this week, with a decisive 4-0 victory over the second-place team. That puts our record at 12 wins and 2 losses, with one game to go. Unfortunately, I doubt that our opponents next week will be forming a guard of honour for us before the game.

Also, I thought it was interesting to read this article commenting on how many different nationalities (17) Sven-Goran Eriksson has put together in the Manchester City team, because we'd been discussing after our game how multicultural our own team is; I think we counted 14 different countries, from a squad of 20 players. So for Premiership teams to be similarly diverse seems...not that unusual, to me.

In news of non-winning, Toronto FC lost 2-0 to Chivas yesterday, and I think I have to stop watching their games unless I'm physically present at the stadium with beer in hand, because otherwise all the yelling and the impotent flailing is much less fun. Unlike the Sportsnet commentary team, who are relentless homers, I just can't seem to get worked up over how much effort the players are putting in if they are simultaneously failing to do simple things like passing to a teammate or putting the ball in the fucking net. (Also, I've decided that I really dislike Sasha Kljestan and his asymmetrical emo-boy bangs.)

Toronto FC 0 - 0 LA Galaxy

So, David Beckham's much-hyped MLS debut in Toronto involved:

• A night out a Ultra
  
• Shopping at Holt Renfrew
  
• An appearance at the Jays game
  
• Sitting on the bench in a suit and looking pensive.

It did not, sadly, involve:

• Playing football

Not that the Toronto fans minded, for the most part. There was still lots of entertainment to be found in making fun of Landon Donovan (something that Craig Forrest seems to thoroughly approve of, based on his bitchy commentary on the CBC).

The game itself was not too bad, considering Toronto's injury-stricken squad. (Things I love: Jim Brennan playing despite two cracked ribs. Things I do not love: Jim Brennan's idiotic soul patch.) Toronto totally dominated the game, keeping LA pinned back in their own half for most of the 90 minutes, and had roughly a bazillion shots on goal. The only thing they couldn't do was actually put the ball in the net. Oh well; it's not as if that's important or anything.

Anyway, I'm kind of glad that Beckham didn't play, because I ended up trading away my ticket. Plus it meant that I could watch the game on TV and be amused by the way the camera kept shaking every time people started stomping in the stands. That's some solid architecture right there.

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.

On the Road Again

Toronto FC finally picked up their first away win last night, beating Real Salt Lake 2-1. Jeff Cunningham opened the scoring for Toronto against his old club, with former TFC striker Alecko Eskandarian equalizing from the penalty spot just before halftime. New signing Collin Samuel earned the win for Toronto in the second half with another penalty. The team are still lagging around the bottom of the Eastern conference standings, but at least now we know that they can win away from BMO Field. With the FIFA U20 tournament going on in Toronto, their next home game won't be until the end of the month, and if that could have been a really long road trip.

Also, I would like to take this opportunity to bitch about the MLS website for having pop-ups ads. It's kind of ugly and badly organized anyway, but the popups are the worst. This is not the way to come off as a professional organization, guys.

Nuts and Bolts

Toronto FC 1 - 2 DC United

From one so-called cathedral of football to another.... Toronto's BMO Field cost roughly one-twentieth what Wembley did, so I suppose it's hardly a surprise that it's started falling apart already. That's right, they had to do some emergency repairs to replace bolts that were falling off. Who would have imagined that 20,000 people stomping on aluminum bleachers would make them a little bit rickety? I know, it's shocking. It does make quite a ruckus, though -- I watched the game on TV and it was good to see how much of the crowd noise came through.

Anyway, Toronto's all-too-brief winning streak is at an end, although they did at least get onto the scoreboard again. DC were in last place coming into the game, but they had the advantage of being much more rested -- and their record so far this year belies the fact that they're generally a strong team.

There was a scrappy opening to the match, with Toronto spending a lot of time pinned back in their own half. But they worked themselves into the game, and it gradually opened up more. Alecko Eskandarian's pace was giving his old teammates some trouble, and he opened his account for Toronto just before halftime, the ball pinging around the box before falling luckily to him, and he smashed it into the back of the net.

Unfortunately they couldn't hold on to their lead; the defensive problems, which I thought they'd managed to overcome, cropping up again in the second half. Toronto's back line needs to get better at playing the offside trap -- they were nearly caught out a few times -- and stop standing off the attackers quite so much. You can't let someone into the box with the ball and then try to close them down. They basically gifted the win to DC, first with an own goal (Goldthwaite flicking the ball into his own net from a free kick) and then a penalty late in the game.

Despite the loss, I'm not too discouraged. The defensive mishaps were mostly due to inexperience, so that's relatively easy to fix. Up front they've got a few decent options (Dichio looked better this week, passing to his teammates instead of behind them), and they've gotten better at playing through the midfield rather than just punting the ball long. The other thing they need to figure out is how physical they can be with their challenges -- it seemed like quite a lot of the referee's decisions went against the home team, surprisingly.

Finally, thumbs down to CBC for cutting into the live game broadcast to accommodate hockey, but thumbs up for having it available streaming on their website, and for having a commentary team that didn't make me want to maim anyone. Now if they could just get some decent camera angles for the offside replays...

Home Field Advantage

Toronto FC won again on Wednesday, beating defending champions Houston Dynamo 1-0. Ronnie O'Brien's free-kick headed home by Andy Welsh. (Does two wins in a row count as a streak yet? Probably not.) They've even managed to drag themselves off the bottom of the table -- and their next game, on Saturday, is against last-place DC United.

The game wasn't a sell-out, but they still pulled in more than 19,000 fans for a cold, rainy mid-week match, which I think is pretty impressive. It's very cool seeing a sort of soccer renaissance happen here in Toronto -- I do tend to live in sort of a soccer bubble, but I've been noticing that even the people I know who don't play are talking about the team.

Some other news from the Great White North:

After a long, drawn-out process (did we have to imitate the USMNT in this? bah), Dale Mitchell has been officially appointed as the new head coach of the Canadian senior men's team. He's currently the coach for the U20 side, and he'll remain in charge there for the duration of their World Cup this summer, though, with U17 coach Stephen Hart overseeing the senior team at the Gold Cup.

Cathal Kelly over at the Toronto Star isn't too happy about Mitchell's appointment. His argument, basically, is that they needed to choose a big (or bigger) name to attract more attention from the media and potential fans.

"Canada's men lack that poster-boy player who draws people to him. Jonathan de Guzman might yet be that player, but that's another sad tale. Without that player, we needed someone in charge of the team with a history of success holding out the promise of more to come. We needed someone with foreign experience and the air of mystery....

What Canadian soccer needs even more than top-flight managers or breakthrough players are supporters. There is a woeful snobbery that afflicts the sport in this country, made worse by the casual disdain of the once-every-four-years fan. But those who care should be actively courting those people who enjoy soccer, but don't think much of the Canadian brand."

I'd argue that if you want to draw in supporters, the best way to do that is by putting together some good performances on the pitch. Unless you bring in someone like Jose Mourinho (which, no matter that he seems to have lost the plot recently, is never going to happen), the casual fan isn't going to give a damn about who the manager is. How many of the people at BMO Field had heard of Mo Johnston before he was appointed as TFC coach, do you think? But that matters way less than the team playing well. So if Dale Mitchell can do the same for the Canadian team -- both with the U20s this summer and the senior team after that -- then more power to him.

And speaking of the U20 tournament, FIFA has announced that the final in Toronto on July 22 has already sold out. (Not good news for people like me who've procrastinated about getting tickets.) There are still tickets available for most of the other games, though.

Toronto Puts Out the Fire

Toronto FC 3 - 1 Chicago Fire

So, this weekend I got to see not only Toronto FC's first goal, but also their second, and their third. (And, just as a bonus, their first sending-off. Oh, and a streaker, although he didn't quite make it o to the pitch. An exciting game all around.)

The club's historic first goal came from the big centre-forward Danny Dichio -- not, as you might have expected, from a header, but a cutback across the six-yard box from Edson Buttle for Dichio to tap in. And yes, that was an important goal, but I have to question the decision to make Dichio man of the match, considering that he was also sent off before half-time, after some hand-bags in the goal-mouth that saw Chicago midfielder Diego Gutierrez red-carded as well.

Chicago had equalized by that point, after a corner where the ball had pinged around the 18-yard box, with keeper Greg Sutton caught off his line and out of position on Chris Rolfe's shot. Toronto kept pressing, though, and took the lead again early in the second half with a goal from defender Kevin Goldthwaite -- prompting chants of "We want three!" from the fans.

And they got three, with a goal scored by #1 draft pick Maurice Edu and set up by Andrea Lombardo -- who'd played all 90 minutes against Argentina the night before, but was still full of energy and fighting for every ball when he came on as a sub for the last quarter of the game. (It was funny, though, to see how much smaller he looked against the Chicago centre-backs than he had against Argentina.)

Finally, kudos to whoever had the bright idea of giving out commemorative seat cushions to everyone at the game. Flat, round, seat cushions. In other words, they basically handed out 20,000 frisbees. And this is what happened:



They kept making announcements reminding people that they'd be removed from the stadium for throwing things on the pitch, but it didn't stop anyone. If they'd enforced it, they would have had to throw out half of the fans, anyway. So the seat cushions just kept coming -- to celebrate a goal, to express disagreement with the referee, or occasionally in an attempt to bean one of the substitutes. So much for that Canadian reputation for politeness.

All we are saying, is give us a goal...

That was the chant from the Toronto FC fans at their home opener on Saturday.

Unfortunately, it didn't work, as the only goal came from Eddie Johnson for the Kansas City Wizards. Toronto are still waiting to find the net for the first time this season. Johnson, meanwhile, made the mistake of celebrating in front of one of the rowdier bunches of Toronto fans (although, to be fair, I don't think there were any Kansas City supporters in the stadium). Whereupon they threw beer on him. Canadian fans = all class.

Toronto had looked like the better team for the first hour or so, but they weren't able to capitalize on any of their chances. The midfielders in particular worked hard but the final ball to the strikers was just horrible. I don't think I saw them put in a decent cross in the entire 90 minutes -- and this is especially useless if you're playing with Danny "bad touch for a big man" Dichio up front. It left Alecko Eskandarian -- who I think has been one of their better players so far -- foraging for scraps. At the back, the defence had some gaping holes, but they were able to cover reasonably well until the last quarter of the game, when their usual problem of lack of stamina caught up with them and they let Kansas City through.

Despite the result, it was Toronto's best game so far -- when you've been giving up three or four every time, a one-goal loss doesn't look so bad. And the experience of being at the game was fantastic. It was supposedly a sell-out crowd; I did see some empty seats in the stands across from us, but then again, maybe they were all just stuck waiting in line somewhere. (There were massive lineups for everything, with the fortuitous exception of the women's washrooms.) The crowd support was great: they kept up the noise level all game, and the stands were a sea of red. The club made a smart decision by giving out TFC scarves to season ticketholders along with their tickets to the first game -- so that's three-quarters of the crowd right there. Plus the vast majority of people were wearing red jerseys. Although not all of those were Toronto jerseys -- I saw a lot of Man United, Liverpool, England, Arsenal, as well as a smattering of random teams like Celtic and Inter.

The stadium set-up looks good, too. Our seats were near the 18-yard box and pretty high up, but it still felt like we were right on top of things. It seems like you'd have a good view of the action from just about anywhere in the stadium -- plus a cool view of downtown Toronto and Lake Ontario. The only drawback was that the seats feel kind of chintzy and the stands a bit rickety -- on the other hand, those metal bleachers make plenty of noise when you've got 20,000 people stomping on them. Also, somebody has to teach the stadium announcer how to do the pre-game lineup properly. But that's just a quibble. Overall, the team's prospects look good.

If only they could learn how to score.

Major League Snore

On top of watching a ton of football over the past week, I also watched an MLS game -- the season opener between Chivas and Toronto FC.

Toronto lost 2-0, but they held their own for most of the game. They even had a few decent chances to score in the first half, but I think they suffered for their inexperience in the end -- Chivas's first goal came from beating the offside trap, and their second was late in the game when Toronto had started to fade. Not the best way to start their inaugural season, but I don't expect them to get blown out of the water like a lot of expansion teams do.

The most notable thing to me was the slow pace of the game. Like David Hirshey said over at Deadspin, maybe it suffered in comparison to the Man Utd-Portsmouth game I'd watched just before. But probably not. The speed and the skill just weren't there. (Not even the bone-jarring tackles that you'd expect in a league that's, um, shall we say lacking in finesse.)

Commentators Gerry Dobson and Craig Forrest tried their utmost to convince me that it was a fast, exciting game, but... Suffice it to be said that David Beckham shouldn't worry about being able to hack it in America. Based on the evidence of this game, he's going to run circles around most of the other players.

other commentary highlights included banging on about some supposedly tricky winger, whose main trick seemed to be running straight at the defender, stopping and then having the ball taken away; counting the number of times Forrest referred to having played with so-and-so; and Dobson repeatedly referring to the expansion team as "Canada" rather than "Toronto."

Although maybe he was just confused by the red and white uniforms. I'm not a huge fan of those grey away jerseys -- mostly because they don't seem to match the red shorts, and it makes it look like their practice kit. But I do like that they chose red as the team colour, instead of going with blue and white like most of the other Toronto teams, because those are the colours of EVIL. (And/or rampant mediocrity, in the case of Man Citeh, the Maple Leafs, etc.)

I know I sound like I'm slagging off MLS in this post. And...yeah, ok, I kind of am. But nevertheless I've bought tickets and will be going to a bunch of Toronto FC games this season. Now I just have to learn the players names, so that I can swear shout at them properly.

Oh, and a couple of news bits, to finish things off:

• Broadcast schedule for Toronto games, which will be shown on the CBC, The Score or Sportsnet.
  
• A story about the food at the stadium concession stands. Scotch eggs? Really? That aranci thing sounds good, though.

The revolution may or may not be televised

Goal-line cameras, reality TV...it seems these days that nothing really happens unless it's been caught on tape. It's all so very meta. And in that spirit, I bring you the random news of the week:

A spy plane was spotted over Manchester United's Carrington training ground, filming the team's practice sessions. Which is just bizarre. And wasn't there a story last year about their dressing room being bugged? I can't imagine it'd be all that interesting. Unless you really care about Rio Ferdinand playing lame pranks on his teammates and whatnot.

Slightly more interesting: The Beckhams may be getting their own reality TV show. Because it's not like they aren't already the textbook definition of "over-exposed." And yet I would totally watch this. I know, I'm a sad person.

Becks' future team, the LA Galaxy, is taking a page from Toronto FC's book and holding open tryouts. Yes, you too can have the chance to play alongside the once and future saviour of soccer. One of the hopefuls is Kevin Payne, a 28-year-old former teacher from England, who's got his own website about his campaign to get himself to California. He probably doesn't have a hope in hell, but at least he's entertaining.

What I'm wondering is whether the Galaxy will decide to televise their tryouts, like Chivas USA is doing. (Remember how I said Sportsnet should've done that? Yeah.)

And in somewhat more heartwarming news, the story about the Fugees (that soccer team of refugee kids, which was linked all over the place last week) is now being made into a movie. Part of the deal involves Universal Pictures paying $500,000 to build a soccer field for the kids, and part of the money will also go to fund a foundation to benefit the team. Which is nice and all, but I suspect that it's a drop in the bucket compared to what they're actually spending on the movie. Maybe the Fugees need their own reality TV show too.

Beckham Goes Hollywood

David Beckham's decision to leave Real Madrid at the end of this season in favour of Major League Soccer and the LA Galaxy is hardly a huge surprise. There have been rumours to that effect flying around for months now, particularly after the league amended their rules to allow for one or two marquee players per team, whose wages wouldn't count towards the salary cap.

Now that it's really happening, the soccer blogosphere has been buzzing with the news, and everyone is debating whether it's a good thing for MLS, or for Beckham. The answer: a resounding "maybe."

What's in it for MLS?
In a nutshell: Marketing. Beckham may be past his best-before date, but he's still the most well-known footballer in the world. And he's a hell of a lot better-looking than Ronaldinho, which matters if you're trying to sell your sport. The deal made front-page news in North America today -- although the last time I checked CNN.com's poll on the subject, 37% had chosen "Beckham who?", which is not exactly confidence inspiring -- and ticket sales at Toronto FC, for example, reportedly jumped by 100 seats after it was announced this morning.

So it's had an impact already. The question is how long that'll last. A lot of the reaction I've seen from hard-core fans has been "so what?" They figure that Beckham is washed up, and bringing in one former Galactico isn't going to do anything to raise the overall standard of play in MLS. I don't think that's really who the league is targeting with this, though -- instead, it's the casual fans they want to appeal to. Use Beckham's name to draw them in, and hope that the game is entertaining enough to keep them coming back.

That's a big gamble, especially when you consider the gargantuan amount of money they're spending: US$248 million over five years. About one-fifth of that is expected to be his actual wages (the BBC has it broken down here), with the rest coming from sponsorship deals, merchandising and a share of club profits. Still, that is a lot of money. They're going to have to sell a lot of T-shirts to make that back.


What's in it for Beckham?
Apart from the money, you mean?

For starters, he'll get to, well, start. Which he hasn't been doing at Real Madrid recently. He might even win a trophy or two, which, again, is more than Real have managed recently. But there's no question that this is a step down for Beckham in footballing terms. It's an admission that he can't hack it at the highest level anymore -- although there were Premiership teams interested in signing him, none of them were from the so-called big four -- and, in case there was any doubt, that his international career is over.

He should be able to shine in the North American game, though, even if he isn't the player he once was. (It used to be that Beckham's talent couldn't match up to his reputation; now it's probably the reverse.) I'd say the standard of play in MLS is roughly equivalent to what you'd see in the Championship in England, and even if he may have lost what little pace he had, Becks can still bend in enough free kicks to make his share of highlight reels on ESPN.

As for what impact it'll have on his marketing potential, again, that's debatable. It could be detrimental, once he's not playing at one of the world's biggest clubs. On the other hand, there could be a positive effect from greater exposure to a U.S. audience. (There's an interesting article here on the value of Brand Beckham.)

On a personal level, it means that he and Victoria can spend more time hanging out with their new BFF, Tom Cruise and Kat(i)e Holmes. Yay. Don't be surprised if they've turned into Scientologist a year from now. Posh and Becks do seem tailor-made for the Hollywood lifestyle -- although it might actually give them something more like a normal life, if that's what they want. In a place like L.A., where celebrities are a dime a dozen, who's going to bother mobbing a soccer player on the street?


And that, right there, is the danger for MLS and Beckham in this: Once the novelty wears off, who's going to care? In both cases, I think the crucial factor is going to be backing up the style with some substance. For MLS, they have to be wary of repeating the mistakes that the North American Soccer League made by investing too much in supposed stars and not enough in developing their teams from the ground up. For Beckham, who's already established a soccer academy in (coincidentally enough) California as the first step in bringing the sport to the masses, it means rebuilding his "brand" as a sort of soccer ambassador.

Odds and ends

I'm trying not to dwell on England's performance in the friendly against Holland, which was ineffective to the extreme. Good to see that McClaren still hasn't managed to sort out the problems in the midfield. Or up front. Or how to defend against set pieces. It gives you a real sense of confidence.

Meanwhile, wins for Croatia and Russia mean that England are currently third in their qualifying group for Euro 2008, which is either a major crisis or no big deal, depending on who you listen to.

::

I also watched the finals of the MLS Cup on this week (because apparently I didn't get my fill of mediocre football from Man City vs. Newcastle). The game itself wasn't that bad, really -- well, ok, it was 115 minutes of boredom, two minutes of excitement and then penalty kicks.

But it was good in comparison to the coverage on ESPN, which involved cheerleaders, an inane halftime show, and cramming a gajillion people in the commentary box so they could take turns speculating when Clint Dempsey was going to come on (answer: who cares). Also, I'd like to find out who decided to add Bruce Arena to the mix, so that I can hunt them down and beat them about the head repeatedly.

::

Closer to home, Toronto FC made their draft picks today, picking up a bunch of guys I'd never heard of despite my making the supreme sacrifice of watching one whole MLS game this year. But there's a pretty good run-down of the players over at Canadakicks.com.

::

Also in Toronto, the annual Cavalcade of Lights on Corso Italia has a special theme this year:

"This year's display will include vivid images of Italy's 2006 World Cup victory with stylized icons of soccer players, the FIFA World Cup, and other images that capture the culture and vitality of the Corso Italia community."

Because nothing says Merry Christmas like a good headbutt.

::

And the winner for Bizarre News Story of the Week: Shieffield United goalkeeper Paddy Kenny had his eyebrow bitten off in a brawl.

No word on whether Jermain Defoe was involved.

Toronto soccer stadium gets the go-ahead

Looks like Toronto's on-again, off-again soccer stadium deal is definitely on again. City councillors have approved the contribution of $9.8 million toward a 20,000-seat stadium at Exhibition Place (plus the $10 million in land to build it on).

Ottawa will be chipping in $27 million towards the $63 million stadium, with another $8 million coming from the province. Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) has committed to funding the remaining $8 million and generating $10 million in naming rights.

MLSE plans to use the stadium as a home for a Major League Soccer expansion franchise, expected to be launched in the spring of 2007. The stadium will also be used as a venue for the 2007 FIFA World Youth Championships, which were recently awarded to Toronto.

Of course there's still opposition to the plan, most notably from people who think that the City's money could be better spent on something other than supporting a private sports franchise. But the stadium will also bring people -- and their money -- to Toronto. A Deloitte and Touche study estimates that the increase in tourism from the FIFA youth championships as well as the stadium's construction would generate an economic impact of $166 million.

I saw the streets blocked off with celebrating fans on the Danforth, in Little Portugal, all over the city during Euro 2004. I saw the Skydome (excuse me, the Rogers Centre) packed with fans for the Roma-AC Milan and Liverpool-Porto games later that summer, with crowds of people in their team colours jammed into every bar and restaurant nearby before kickoff. And I see the people playing in parks all across the city, from the time when the ground thaws in the spring until it snows in the fall. My point is that Toronto has the potential to be a great soccer city.

But there are a few drawbacks. First of all, Toronto already has a soccer team -- the Toronto Lynx of the United Soccer League that get virtually no fan support. They're currently stuck playing out at Centennial Stadium, since Varsity Stadium at U of T was torn down. There have been discussions about the Lynx moving to the new stadium, once it's built, and sharing space with the MLS franchise. But there's no guarantee that people will actually go out to see the games.

Actually, there's no guarantee that people will care about an MLS team either. I know a whackload of soccer fans, but I don't know anyone who pays attention to the MLS. The Premiership or Serie A, sure -- it probably helps that those are the two leagues on TV the most, but even if you spring for Fox Sportsworld, chances are it's not to watch the D.C. United Metrostars or whatever. Although that may change with a Canadian team -- there's nothing we like better than rooting against the Americans.

Another problem is that the proposed stadium will have artificial turf rather than real grass. That means that top-level international games can't be played there, unless they can put in a temporary surface. (And I can't really blame them, either -- Astroturf burns hurt like a bitch.)

Regardless of all that, though, I think building the stadium is the right decision, and Exhibition Place is the right location. Much better than Downsview Park, which was the most recent proposal. It's close to downtown, close to the highway, and easily accessible from the GO train or TTC -- perfect for heading out to the game, having a couple of beers and cursing the ref. And don't even try to tell me that Canadian fans are too polite for that.