Dear Mo Johnston:
I find myself a bit baffled this afternoon. Please assist, if you can.
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- Toronto FC takes on San Jose this weekend, well aware that one more loss probably wipes out the playoff chase.
- Newly signed designated player Julian DeGuzman is still trying to adjust to a new setting, new teammates and lousy turf.
- The team has been plagued by inconsistency all year, and needs to just focus on the task ahead.
Assuming we agree on that, I have a question:
How and why was Carl Robinson able to suffer a fractured face in a training-ground collision with an Ivorian trialist?
I understand the revolving-door nature of MLS rosters, and that Toronto FC is still very much a work in progress. But when are they ever allowed to simply concentrate on the matter at hand?
Why should your players be out on the field with strangers – motivated strangers – when they have struggled all year simply to be familiar with each other once the games get going? There is no shortage of young talent in Toronto. Maybe defeating San Jose on Saturday is slightly closer to the organizational imperatives than having a quick running look at a few more?
All right, maybe Robinson isn’t out for the season after all, and maybe his playing time was always going to be limited down the stretch. But he is indisputably a leader on this squad, and I’m baffled why he wasn’t worth a little more protection heading into a crucial series of matches.
At the risk of being retroactively obvious, howzabout limiting TFC training to actual TFC players – at least until we know if the guys are playing somewhere on Hallowe’en weekend?
Just a friendly, puzzled thought.
Onward!