Yeah, it was a bad week.
Toronto FC fans had their expectations roundly and rudely jangled these past few days – from multiple directions.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Word that Real Madrid will be touching down at BMO Field on August 7 was bucketed in cold water when the August 9 home game against New York was moved to June 13 to make room. This not only scrambled summer weekend plans for 16,000 season ticket holders on cruelly short notice, it also left the club with only one MLS home game in each of July, August and September.
Then, late Tuesday night, hopes that the home schedule would be bolstered with CONCACAF Champions League matches were kicked rudely to the curb by the Vancouver Whitecaps, who dumped TFC 2-0. Now, the only way the Reds can claim the Voyageurs Cup is by beating Montreal by four goals at Stade Saputo on June 18.
Oh, and the Madrid game isn’t part of the season ticket package.
Throw in the chronically dreadful finishing of TFC target men Chad Barrett and Pablo Vitti – hugely influential in the Vancouver loss – and there are a lot of stunned, stung and very unhappy Toronto FC fans out there.
And we haven’t even talked about BMO Field’s appalling artificial turf, which is making TFC star Dwayne DeRosario unhappier and unhappier with every passing match.
As the club limps home to play the Beckham-less, Donovan-less L.A. Galaxy today, the fans’ faces are redder than their shirts. They are seeking a way to express their anger.
Jack DePoe, president of TFC’s largest support group, the Red Patch Boys, is calling for fans to leave their TFC shirts and scarves at home, and cut way back on their spending at the concession stands. There will also be a post-game march to Gate 4, the entranceway to the team’s offices.
Jack is a man of huge passions, with an enormous heart. He feels things acutely, and is one of the better idea men and organizers I’ve met in recent times. But his call for the un-wearing of the red isn’t being unanimously embraced. Even he himself admits there was significant time pressure as his group struggled to respond to latest developments.
And, perhaps, that’s the bigger point.
For all the anger, the emotion the fans are feeling most is grief.
And don’t tell me that’s over-dramatic; it was just a soccer game; move on. This loud and passionate fan base – with organization and creativity the dwarfs anything this town has ever seen – was deeply wounded a year ago when they watched the Montreal Impact parade the Voyageurs Cup at BMO Field.
Only a tie was needed in Vancouver to erase that stain. Now, many travelling fans face the unpleasant prospect of a low-percentage journey to Montreal, with two hours of relentless taunting from Impact ultras. Given the shameful performance of Stade Saputo security in the past, quite a few TFC fans who have already booked flights, train tickets and hotels are rethinking whether the abuse is worth the outlay.
Grief is a singularly personal emotion. Undoubtedly, there will be fans for whom DePoe’s ideas resonate. There will certainly be less red than we’re used to seeing in the south end this afternoon.
But for others, the need will be exactly the opposite. For them. the pain of Vancouver demands red. Lots of red. More red than usual. I don’t wear team merchandise in the press box, but I do have an extremely red t-shirt which will be joining me on the trip.
Toronto FC is a team early in its third season. Supporting them has been an impossible dream-come-true for thousands and thousands of fans. So Vancouver was a lousy result. So Real Madrid tickets aren’t part of the deal. How does any of that compare to simply having a team we all love to cheer for in the first place?
On this day in history, a lot of fans are disgusted. I’ve already banged out disgusted articles about both Vancouver and Madrid. But this is soccer. This is sports.
You want to know why I could never, ever be a Manchester United fan? It’s too easy. Certainly, it’s a dazzling prospect to give perhaps the greatest manager in history almost unlimited funds and an all-world player-development system. Eleven English titles in seventeen seasons will always remain one of soccer’s greatest success sprees.
But that ain’t life. All of sport is a metaphor for the ups and downs of existence. We bond emotionally with our teams because their seasons are symbolic of our years. When a team you love does something astonishing, the contact high is out of this world. When they have a week like Toronto FC just did, there’s a crash.
This endless world-wide horde of Manchester United bandwagon jumpers wouldn’t know a crash if the Titanic went down in their morning corn flakes. All the reward with none of the risk. To me, that is not an authentic emotional journey.
Most TFC fans have long been fans of bigger, older clubs. They’ve certainly been through some emotional ringers. But the BMO Field experience is so much deeper, brighter and more vivid. Many supporters are feeling soccer pain today at a strange and distorting new level.
So there’s never going to be agreement about how to express it. Heck, this is still Toronto. There will be a lot of bland apathy in those lakeside bleachers this afternoon, as well.
What these fans are matchless at is getting their message out. And even if there’s no agreement about how to protest their pain, there can be no doubt the team, the players and ownership at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment know the fans are in pain.
Apparently, the club is going to announce another international friendly today. It will be a prominent opponent, and season ticket holders will get their seats without paying an extra nickel. That, and the fact that the Reds move into a tie for season in MLS East if they can beat L.A., a team with just one win (and nine ties!) in eleven games.
These things may mitigate somewhat, but the ugly prospect of that all-but-hopeless trip to Montreal will continue to cast a murky, menacing shadow.
This, too, is part of being a fan. This, too, is part of loving a team.
Your team won’t always treat you well – or love you in return. But what’s happening in Toronto is too real to be snuffed out by some dreadful scheduling and yet another blown Voyageurs Cup.
If you’re hurting, I hear ya! But let’s not pretend this sad and soggy week is ever going to be the end of anything.
Especially not with the L.A. freakin’ Galaxy in town.
Onward!