Aron Winter was late. Very late, actually. Normally the coach arrives for his post game press conference about 10 minutes after the final whistle. On Saturday, it was closer to 25 minutes.
After a tense few seconds, one brave reporter tentatively stuck his toe in the water.
“You may not want to, but...” the question began.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
No one wanted to talk about the 3-0 loss to DC United. No one should. It was as bad as, well, the last time DC United came to town. Mo Johnston left town on a rail following that game and although it’s highly unlikely that history will repeat itself this time there will be fall-out.
A flare lit in section 127 late in the match caused that section – the home of the North End Elite – to be removed from the stadium. No one is talking from the group – a good guess is that security asked for the identity of the flare lighter and the group left out of solidarity. Regardless it could be a bit of a mess waiting to happen. It will be interesting to see whether the group is back for Columbus next week.
On the other side of the pitch, U-Sector and Red Patch Boys decided that there was only one way to deal with a heartless performance – sing Depeche Mode’s You Just Can’t get Enough for 20 minutes straight.
I have it on good authority they were being ironic. Or, as one person -- who just so happens to write for this site -- so eloquently put it: “Fuck it, if the game is going to be shit we might as well have fun.”
There wasn’t much fun to be had on the cold and miserable night. Down 2-0 less than 12 minutes into the game with no fight back at all. Ugly is too pretty of a word to describe it.
Following the game Winter wasn’t hiding. He said he was ashamed of the performance and that “the only” good thing was the fans. He said that there would be tough days during the rebuild, but that there was “a way to do lose.”
There are and Toronto fans have probably seen every single way that it is possible.
They just can’t get enough...