It's all about perspective.
OK, so yesterday’s 2-1 loss to the USL-Pro’s Charleston Battery was not encouraging. If you’re keeping score that’s two games now against D3 opposition without scoring a goal in open play. To repeat: not good.
Once again Aron Winter used an experimental line-up with a lot of trialists and academy guys getting a good look. Winter told me Monday that he has yet to start the best 11 together, but he thought that his starting group was as good as any in the league.
“Depth is our problem,” he candidly stated.
Predictably the sky has fallen amongst many in the fan base. The Reds failure to win a Carolina Challenge Cup game is viewed as reason to use the season tickets as kindling.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]If you take a short view there is likely some justification to your panic. TFC might not be all that good in 2011. However, Winter et al were not hired to win in 2011; they were hired to establish a long-term winning mentality. That’s going to take time. Whenever the question is asked of Winter, he responds the same – “We want to learn the system and fight for a playoff spot in 2011; we want to compete for a championship in 2012 and 2013."
After four years of losing it’s understandable why TFC fans want to see success RIGHT NOW! However, think of it this way:
If a genie were to pop out of a bottle and grant you the opportunity to either A) have a one night stand with the most attractive man/woman in the world, but struggle to find long-term love, or 
find a perfect long-term partner of average attractiveness that you can share a good and fulfilling life with, it would be pretty short-sighted to chose the former.
TFC could likely find some older, established MLS players that would put the club on more solid footing for 2011. But, that would be the one-night stand.
Winter’s just not that kind of man.