By Michael Crampton
Toronto FC continues their demanding twice a week schedule Wednesday night against a rested but wounded FC Dallas in Frisco, Texas. If there’s any side in MLS that reflects the league’s pliant and ever changing competitive balance it’s the Toros. Most TFC supporters will remember Dallas as the MLS Cup Finalist side who lost to the Colorado Rapids in the 2010 championship match staged in Toronto or the team that visited Toronto twice last season and earned away victories in both MLS and CONCACAF play. The victory that secured Toronto a place in the knockout rounds over that same Dallas team in the final game of their Champions League group was, at the time, seen as a monumental achievement over a good MLS side.
What’s clear in hindsight however is that Dallas had just gone over the precipice and begun a steady decline to where they find themselves now. After losing comprehensively to both Tauro FC of Panama and then Toronto in the later stages of the CCL, the Hoops crashed out of the 2011 MLS Cup playoffs at home to the New York Red Bulls in the Wild Card round. Considered together with the defeat to TFC, Dallas lost what amounted to two consecutive single elimination matches less than two weeks apart, both at home, by a combined score of 5-0. For the most part, things have only gotten worse in 2012.
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After a respectable start that saw them win three out of their first six games, a combination of injuries and loss of form have combined to send Dallas on a club record 11 game winless skid. To put that in context, the Toros are only a loss or draw to Toronto away from equaling TFC’s own record winless streak from the agonizing summer of their 2007 expansion season. Since beating Montreal back on April 14th, Dallas has heaped further embarrassment on top of misery by losing 2-0 at home in the US Open Cup to the Charlotte Eagles of the third tier USL PRO. That loss extended their ongoing streak of being held scoreless in (de facto) single elimination matches at home to three games.
That defeat also saw the loss of highly rated centre back George John – his mooted move to Blackburn Rovers, then still of the English Premier League, fell through at the last minute last summer – who is still listed as out with concussion symptoms. In fact, the current injured list for Dallas reads like a who’s who of the 2010 MLS Cup Finalist side. At the time of writing, in addition to John, defenders Ugo Ihemelu and Jair Benitez are listed as out, while midfielders Jackson, Daniel Hernandez, and the particularly influential David Ferreira are all listed as questionable due to a variety of lower body injuries. Between them, Jackson, John, Ihemelu, and Benitez represent the entire starting backline from the 2010 final.
While injuries remain a major problem where Dallas will enjoy an advantage in Frisco is in rest and time for preparation. Toronto are about to embark on the second half of their 10 game long stretch of playing two MLS games a week. Since the Reds started that run on June 16th in Kansas City they’ve played in five matches, three of them away, while Dallas has only played twice. Dallas’ last match, a tepid 0-0 draw at home against Chivas USA, was over a week ago while Toronto will be arriving on only three days of rest since their home draw with the Red Bulls on Saturday. Tired legs and travel are major factors in the outcome of any MLS game and should more than balance the confidence TFC likely enjoys from their improved recent form.
Transfer rumors and the departure of Joao Plata have dominated much of the news in Toronto over the past week but should have little influence on the outcome of the match in Frisco. Paul Mariner seems to have increasingly settled on a group of players who he trusts with only limited rotations to keep the squad fresh through their heavy schedule. If Toronto’s young back line can continue to stabilize and keep Dallas’ chances to a minimum the team will have every opportunity against a weakened opponent to continue their current undefeated streak even if they don’t enjoy the added guidance of a major signing at centre back.