How do you prepare for play in a salary-cap soccer league when you don’t actually know what the salary cap will be?
If you’re Toronto FC, apparently you do it cautiously.
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For all the Canadian MLS side’s aching roster needs – striker, winger, central defender – things have been very quiet on the off-season player-acquisition front. Defender Ty Harden from Beckhamburg. Knee injury specialist Jacob Peterson from Rocky Mountain FC. A couple of long-shot craft picks.
Yeah, the Reds took a bunch of bright-eyed trialists down to Florida for some exhibition games. None has returned to Toronto with the team.
This leaves TFC with an undermanned roster and a serious lack of money. The cash crunch could be eased by parting with well-paid veterans Carl Robinson and Nick Garcia, but that isn’t happening either.
I expect it’s a waiting game – and that might actually be a very good way to go forward. GM Mo Johnston never starts a season with a finished team anyway. Early-season pick-ups are standard operating procedure up here. With money tight and no clear salary-cap number, it’s not a bad time to lay low.
But losing again to New York Energy Drink – only 4-0 this time – with Garcia looking pointy, stationary and bright orange – is absolutely amplifying angst and anxiety amongst the support.
New coach Preki may not share the concern. Try this on: for all of TFC’s woes in ’09, they missed the playoffs by a single point. Preki may feel, with a full season of Julian de Guzman to look forward to, he’s no worse than solidly in the eternal churning backwash for the final playoff spot.
MLS is a coach’s league – just look at the job Bruce Arena did with that formerly abominable L.A. Galaxy squad. Preki is a good, veteran MLS coach. That, alone, is going to worth a few points, even if Preki’s and Johnston’s great old friend and former teammate Garcia gets pluperfectly posterized every now and etcetera.
Can he reasonably expect promising young defenders Nana Attokora and Emmanuel Gomez to mature into reliable pros? Maybe. Will O’Brian White become TFC’s long-lost go-to striker? Possibly. Is the playoff dream doomed if none of that happens? Not necessarily. But it will be the Preki show for sure.
Personally, I think that as soon as the money situation is settled, Mo will swoop to make a significant signing. It doesn’t have to be a superstar. Nick Garcia five years ago would likely be sufficient.
Once again, all concerned in TFC-land are playing the patience game. It’s not comfortable, but it might be just exactly crazy enough to work.
Onward!