About Olivier Tebily leaving…

Originally brought in in April to try to shore up Toronto’s weak central defense, Tebily looked solid and capable of handling the pounding rigors of MLS. But the turf at BMO Field took its toll and an ankle injury in June sidelined him for a long time.

Ronnie, Huckerby, Tebily - all are players that we’d be better off having than not. And those are only the players we know about.

This turf issue needs to be addressed.

Let’s take this chance to get to some questions and comments that have come across my Inbox lately. I read them all, but I’ve been busy so I haven’t had a chance to reply…

If the usl is the lowest level of the msl how do you explain the record against vancouver, toronto was only able to get one point and the montreal team that beat them was one of the lower level teams in the usl. Vancouver is actually undefeated against the msl, so your words ring hollow, maybe you should check your facts before you make your comments.

Nothing you say there about Toronto FC’s results is wrong. You’re absolutely right that our showing against USL teams was horrible. But all that means is that you’re able to read the fixture table and the results column. So, um, good for you, but here are my reason that your wrong.

1. When players can’t cut in on an MLS team, when they can’t crack the starting 11, where do they go?
(…the USL)

2. Where do the best players from the USL go to take the next step in their career development?
(…the MLS)

3. Was Marco Velez more effecting in the USL or the MLS?
(…the USL)

Ya, we sucked against the USL best and worst. That means nothing other than we sucked.

I’m shocked that Marvell Wynne didn’t make the all-star team, and more TFC players in general didn’t make the team. It’s some bullshit.

It would’ve been nice to see some more TFC players out there, but in all honesty they didn’t earn their spots. Jim Brennan was a feel good pick - there was little doubt he’d perform at that level, but that’s not to say he was the second best player at his spot in the entire MLS. Marvell is indeed fun to watch but being able to recover from getting caught out of position against MLS forwards, and doing the same against Dean Ashton, Craig Bellamy, or Carlton Cole is another story. Half the reason we love him is his ability to race back and beat a player to the ball, but I gather his defensive liability was too much for those that ultimately selected the squad.

We should write about the fact that tickets are not available from
Ticketmaster. Most of the tickets are being held by Tickets Now (which is
Ticketmaster). Tickets Now is basically an online SCALPER. Would love to go
see a few more games, but am not paying scalper prices.

Agreed. Finding tickets is nearing on impossible. I myself had to buy my season’s tickets “second hand.” Thankfully the guy I got them from was a great guy and I got them for barely more than cost but, let’s be honest, those opportunities are few and far between. I’d like to write more about this, probably in the offseason, but suffice to say there are two issues:

1. Demand is outstripping supply. Pure and simple. The beer tent is looking increasingly like a waste of valuable seating space but I understand that opportunities to develop new seating there are being looked into once the sponsorship contract runs out (2010?)
2. Exactly what you mentioned. Tickets Now is a situation that needs to be looked into.

Anyone else have experience with trying to get tickets?

Just a little sample from this article:

No.
I rather we play the 5-5-0 than to have a locker room cancer like him. WE can overcome this seasons results, but if we bring in a cancer like him we may be paying for it for longer than 1 season.

“For what he brings to the table he is simply not worth his salary, much less worth his salary + whatever Toronto is asking for him.”

I’m willing to bet that all Toronto was looking for was a 4-pack of redbull to help speed up Laurent Robert.

I think we’re looking at the birth of the “Cunningham Rule” where the league will force a team to sign and play Cunningham until he scores goal 100.

Apparently Olivier Tebily wants out? He hasn’t played much, which I assumed was due to undisclosed injury - but it would appear that he just hasn’t been cracking the squad.
I have to say, if I’m a professional who’s played in Europe, and I’m falling behind Velez on the depth chart, I’d want out too.

So what’s the real story here? And honestly, wtf! We need to be gaining, not losing players.

We sit now just past the halfway point of the season, and enthusiasm is waning. We’re talking across the board too, not just on the fan or player level.

But we’ll start with the fans because, in a way, I understand it better. Frustrated is perhaps the best way to describe the average fan at this point. The team is just not living up to expectations. We’re expecting a highly competitive team and a style of play that befits the talent we were sure we had. Guevara, Robert, and Ricketts were all brought on and we suddenly saw flare and threatening attacks. And our expectations were raised.

I’ve been noticing something new at the games over the past two months – genuine anger. Fans are fighting amongst themselves, bickering, and taking elitist views of their role in the Supporter’s Section. All that is absolute garbage and the solutions are simple. Don’t be assholes, focus on the game not making a scene, and realize that we need to be a united front. There’s no room for elitism and, to be honest, you thinking and acting like you’re more of a fan than the next guy means you’re there for the wrong reason.

It’s all bread from the frustration of watching a product that doesn’t live up to our expectations, however. If we were always winning, or if we were satisfied with just scoring a goal (like last year,) things would be different.

So how did we get carried away?

Read the rest of this entry »

…are coming. Apologies for the long wait, but check back over the next 24hrs.

Yesterday was embarrassing. Thoroughly, as a matter of fact. I’ve spent the past year “pumping the tires” of Toronto FC to anyone that would listen, and yesterday took a friend that had been out of the country the entire time to his first game. Needless to say, he was impressed with the atmosphere, even though we weren’t in the supporter’s section, but I could tell after the first half that the play had failed to impress.

And he wasn’t alone.

It was a completely ineffective display on both a quality of play level, and also a results level. I know that the USL isn’t too far off from the lowest level of play in the MLS, and last year this result would be easier to swallow. But we’re not the team of last year, and therefore we should be celebrating a 3-0 victory instead of choking down a loss.

The aforementioned silver lining?

Two weeks the the transfer window, and according to Morgan Campbell Darren Huckerby was at the game yesterday. Readers of the this blog will know that I’m a huge supporter of Darren joining TFC (under the right terms) and I’m very much excited at the implications of him actually showing up here. We’ll have to watch training sessions over the next week to see if he slips in.

…work and studying has me super busy lately and I know I’ve been slacking on updates.

If any of you have somethign that you’d like to get off your chest, TFC reated of course, please feel free to pass it along.

I’ll be doing my best, in the mean time, to pump out a couple updates a week.

What an unbelievable game by our newest and smallest winger. He truly came out of his shell aand wowed just about everyone in the park last weekend with a great 2-goal performance in under 10 miutes. And both off the left foot, which just adds to the confidence building.

He was always knocked in England for his inability to finish, and admittedly I was beginning to question his finishing.

And, while it may have to do with his adding me as a friend on Facebook last Friday, I doubt it. But I’d love to know what clicked for him in the past month that has him playing out-of-his-mind.

Any ideas?

Now, I’m not one to start unsubstantiated rumours, but here’s one that I just couldn’t pass up.

Brian Edwards, illegitimate son of Greg Sutton? Think about it.

It’s too much fun not to believe, so I’m going to work this theory out a little more.