Did you further know?
If you add up the MLS regular season, Voyageurs Cup and CONCACAF Champions League, Toronto FC played 36 competitive matches in 2009.
Overall, they won 13, lost 13 and drew 10. You can’t really be any more of a .500 club than that.
When Danny Dichio started, they were 5-2-1.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
History won’t remember this, but the bald-headed fan favourite from England played the full 90 minutes in five of those games – including consecutive 1-0 home victories over Chivas USA and the Kansas City Wizards, who just happened to be the two MLS division leaders at the time. He also went the distance in a certain 6-1 win over the Montreal Impact you might just vaguely remember.
The numbers for Dichio as a sub are a little harder to get a read on. He came in 16 times, and the team won 4 and drew 5. They conceded 5 more goals than they scored with Dichio on the field, having broken even before he appeared.
You’ll find this is a common ailment across the roster. Toronto FC conceded an appalling number of late goals, and Dichio’s average run-out as a sub came in the 71st minute.
When Dichio didn’t appear, Toronto FC went 4-4-4.
Soccer stats are notoriously hard to wring any solid conclusions from. So many numbers are simply unavailable, and 36 games is small sample, statistically.
But I can certainly tell you the Reds scored almost 2 goals a game when Dichio started, and just 30 in 28 games when he didn’t.
I also know, from multiple directions, that he was concerned and unhappy as the season wore on, and it became increasingly clear the eternally struggling Chad Barrett was starting, and he wasn’t.
In the unhealthy, weakly guided, oft-divided atmosphere of the Toronto FC dressing room, this set off a chain of circumstance that ended with Dichio retiring from the game to accept a coaching post in September.
Whatever tooth and killer instinct the TFC striker crew had, up to that point, clearly retired with him.
In fairness, no less an expert than CBC colour man and former Canada standout Jason DeVos has told me – to my face, with emphasis – that Dichio was physically done as a player. I certainly don’t make a point or habit of disagreeing with the man, but the evidence of my own eyes – all season – said otherwise.
Even injured, Dichio gave his all. Opposing defences had to work harder – and bend further – to cover him than any other striker TFC could deploy. Once he was gone, shutting down the Chad Barretts and Ali Gerbas of the world got significantly easier – and it wasn’t all that hard before.
For me, the team’s handling of Dichio – the franchise’s first true fan hero – was the single biggest on-field reason Toronto FC didn’t make the MLS playoffs for the third consecutive season.
I think we all have a right to know exactly which players, coaches – and team officials – stood against him.
Onward!